Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The ocean was always calm below the surface.

With no wind to dry out the life, no air to suffocate them, those who live below the waves are happy. At least, happy to an extent. Some never see the light of day, never giving the sun a second thought. It’s like that for many species, and even those who do wish to rise above the surface they’re few and far between. Though even still, among the mammals of the ocean, those who truely need the breathable oxygen to survive-

Among them, are the Mers.

Humans think they’re a myth. Half fish people who can swim? Scales that shimmer like forgotten jewels? It’s not possible! Never trust a pirate, that’s what they say. Those people who have tall tales and sing shanties about half human beauties who use their voices to send you to the rocks- it’s just wrong, all of it! 

No matter what you hear about mermaids or sea dragons or sirens- never believe a thing! Never involve yourself with a pirate, never invest in their stories, and most importantly, never fall in love with the sea. It’ll only get you killed, and you must leave the pillaging and stealing for those who are lower than life.

That’s what a particular boy with bright purple eyes and dark hair had been told, and that’s the same instruction he’d ignored.

Well, lucky that eh?

Below the surface, it was a metropolis.

Bustling reefs housed diverse sea Life, colorful fish and turtles coexisting as they always had. Occasionally a shadow would pass by from the surface, be it bird or boat. Nothing ever dared bother the reef, for the sailors had been taught of a not so merciful ocean God who would strike their ships down dare they try and take or destroy from such beauty.

Which is why a particular group if sea life called this place home.

“Pa, catch me if you can!” 

A small creature zipped around the bright pink of a brain coral outcropping, laughing as she avoided stray seaweed that had been kicked up at some point. The creature was small, with golden skin and green eyes that were revealed as their inky black hair floated away from their face and an astonishing rainbow tail. The small creature clutched a tool in their claws, tucking themself into a cluster of bubble coral and trying to giggle quietly.

All quieted down for a moment, a particularly dark shadow passing over the reef. The small creature held her breath-

“Leo~” and yelped in surprise when they were suddenly grabbed out of their hiding spot, a small chunk of too-delicate coral snapping off of an already dead looking branch. The creature struggled for a moment, but gave up when she heard a warm laugh.

The one who’d grabbed her was nearly eight feet tall from head to fins, golden skin and green eyes being a sharp indicator that these two were somehow related. Gray crawled up this new creature’s arms, a scarred shark tail swishing occasionally to show his excitement.

“Pa!” The other creature whined “how’d you find me!?” He pouted, cheeks puffed out. “You cheated!”

“I did no such thing!” The shark-like creature smiled “You’re just really loud, Leo!”

The rainbow finned creature paused. They didn’t think they were being loud… were they really?

“It’s okay, you’ll hide quieter next time.” The shark finned creature laughed “now lets go to Tio Bad and Tio Fit, yeah? We can even get your hat, too.”

Her eyes brightened once more, green glittering like emeralds within the water “Sí- yes please!”

Nearly seven years ago a little wonder had appeared outside of Foolish’s domain, that being a rather small egg with an oversized red cap lay just outside of a thick seaweed patch. 

At first, the shark-like mer had been worried. Was someone looking for this thing? Why’d they let it out of their sight?! Yet, when he brought it up with a few friends, he learned that this… this had happened to them too. 

There were four eggs below the surface, one belonging to him. None of the founders of the eggs knew where they came from, all having nearly the same story of how they found them. Just one day… they were there.

Honestly, Foolish wouldn’t go back to the time before Leonarda even if he could do it all over again. She was his perfect child, his perfect, curious little child. She thirsted for knowledge, hunted for crabs, and helped build mega towers from stone blocks other Mers had helped collect. There were bumpy spots sure- one particularly bad run in with a whale leading to their sudden disappearance around the reef -but that was just part of life! What was life without a few near-death experiences? All that mattered was that Leo was okay. 

Foolish watched as she darted around the same area she was found in, playing a game of hide and seek with two other child Mer. He was the seeker this round, and  the other two weren’t giving up very easily.

“Did Leo steal your tools again?” Another Mer draped himself over an outcropping of rock that served as the roof of Foolish and Leonarda’s little cave home. He was relatively out of place amongst the bright coral trees with his black and red tail, pitch black skin reminiscent of squid ink. His eyes and mouth were probably his brightest part, bright white and always practically shining. 

“Yeah, then she invited Dapper and Ramon over to play Hide and Seek.” It was easy to tell which kid was the new mer’s, with the small child’s equally dark tail useful for hiding in the darkest spots of the seaweed patch. “Did you come to finally pick him up, Bad?”

Bad scoffed “As if you could get rid of me that easily.” He huffed “We’re having dinner tonight, remember? For the kids’ seventh hatching day.”

Foolish smiled, though it felt kind of strained “yeah yeah, you don’t have to remind me.”

Bad laughed “what, afraid that you’re getting too old?” He taunted

“I’m living to three hundred just to spite you, it’s already been decided.” Foolish laughed, shaking his head of golden hair. His skin glittered in the remaining daylight as he looked back to the children, smiling. “Just maybe a little bummed that Mariana’s gonna be there.”

Bad rolled his eyes “that relationship ended so many years ago, Foolish! Besides, he already got his butt chewed out by Slime- and that man has no ill will toward you.” 

“He did before,” Foolish shrugged “Remember when he found out? I swear if Juannaflippa and Leo weren’t best friends my fins would have probably been shredded.” Shredded fins meant no swimming, no swimming meant sinking, sinking meant no food, and no food meant death. It was probably Foolish’s worst nightmare, so he was glad for their children’s friendship.

Bad laughed “I remember that muffinhead yelling all the way from here- and I remember how messed up Mariana was after.”

“And despite that, they stayed together.” The two shared a laugh.

“The dream couple.” Bad replied sarcastically.

“Hey, at least Mariana knows everyone else is off limits.”

“He shoulda known the first time!”

Chapter Text

Empty seafloor spanned miles away from the reef and thick seaweed space, the ocean’s blue depths a nice backdrop for a party that was in full swing at an outcropping of rock surrounded by columns of fire coral.

And the party was, well, a party.

Four creatures raced around the coral now, trying to hunt for the prettiest fish. It was likely just another game to give Ramon the excuse to hang out next to his father- a bald man with octopus tentacles much like his son’s -but if it was, nobody complained. Fit had been far too busy these days, something about approaching ships that he didn’t recognize.

That was all fine though, for surely nobody dared go near the reef. The last ones who did sank before the hull of their ship could come near Foolish’s domain, and everyone on board save two or three drowned. 

If they saw Bad dragging away the bodies, no Mer said a thing.

“Yeah, they’re wavin’ that flag- solid purple.” Fit was recounting to a jellyfish Mer with green translucent skin. That was Charlie, or Slimecicle if you knew him well enough. “It was crazy I tell you- I could have sworn there were avian on board too!”

“Avain? Don’t they hate the sea?”

“We’re near enough to an island, i’m sure they don’t feel as threatened.” Bad waved off as an anglerfish Mer tried to slide over to Foolish, a flirtatious look in his eye.

“If Slime gives you another Black eye, I’ll give you another to match.” And while it was a harsh rejection, it was the only way to save himself from an angry Slime. Besides- it was the kids’ hatching day, and nobody wanted to ruin the moment.

Something glinted in the far-off deep. It caught Foolish’s eye, green turning away from the party and searching for what had glinted. Fish don’t glint that far away, and the ship wreck was on the other side of the seaweed thicket- so what was that?

Gently murmuring an excuse to Bad, Foolish slipped away from  the excited cheers of children and adults alike to check out the glint.

There weren’t that many in his pod anymore, so if something was a threat… Foolish needed to make sure it was promptly dealt with.

Scanning the sandy ocean floor, Foolish realized that there was a strange… lump at the bottom. A strange lump with wispy hair, blood slightly clouding the water. As the sounds of a party faded Foolish swam slightly closer-

-And was suddenly pulled up harshly by a net he hadn’t realized was under him.

Foolish yelled, but with the sounds of party so far away it wasn’t probable that they heard. Nonetheless, he yelled and struggled as the net caught on a particularly delicate part of his tail and dug harshly into the scales. As the surface came rushing up, Foolish managed to tear a sizable hole in the net to fit half of his body through- but it was too late.

He was caught.

Vegetta had heard about the strange happenings of Quesadilla island’s coral reef.

It was a beautiful spot, really. Preserved by superstitious sailors who’d sworn they’d watched a boat sink on a perfectly clear day, the color flourished and the food web was a pristine habitat for all sea life.

And it did seem like all sealife took advantage of it.

For a while now, Vegetta had heard murmurs of something strange about the reef, about how there were things bigger than fish darting between the reds and blues and yellows of the coral. About how sometimes fish would turn up on the island’s beaches half-mauled and then tossed, as if an afterthought.

The murmurs even spoke of the vanishing whales.

So, when they finally had time to chart a course, why wouldn’t Vegetta take his crew toward the reef? Whatever was there would surely be worth something, be it dead or alive. Those sailors would finally be able to put a myth to rest if it was nothing, and Vegetta’s crew got some neat enrichment. It was a win-win.

Now, what he didn’t expect was for the net they’d cast and quickly rung in to be full of what he thought to be of legends.

When he was young, his father worked at the docks as a toll collector. If you parked your ship at his dock, you paid. It was relatively cheap, so it was bound to draw in the wrong crowds. Some days Vegetta would sit with his dad when he had nothing to do, listening to men he is now sure were pirates ramble on about the sea-

-and about mermaids.

His mother, always the superstitious woman, made sure Vegetta knew that these stories were just that- and how they were to be taken as a grain of sand. She warned him against the sea life, and she warned him against mermaids.

Though he’d disobeyed the first instruction, Vegetta never strayed from his strict belief that Mermaids and Sorens and sea serpents were just plain ‘ol not real. No matter how much his crew tried to convince him, they were simply fake. He already had enough to worry about in the sea, no need to add more.

And yet here it was, something that disproved all of his beliefs of those old stories the pirates told.

Here was a mermaid.

It’s sides were heaving with exertion, pressed against the net that had it suspended high in the air. It’s golden skin shimmered in the sunlight, amplified by the seawater that dripped from it’s body-

It was beautiful.

Vegetta watched as the creature feebly struggled against the net again, grunting out in what sounded like pain. Giving a once-over of the net, he realized that a small niche in the shark-like mer’s tail had caught on the net that he now realized was too small to hold this creature, tearing into the wound and making it deeper. Now that he saw the wound, he also saw the blood that dripped from it’s tail and into the sea that was still below it.

“Ay captain, we finally prove that you were wrong!” An arm is draped across Vegetta’s shoulder “What do we do with it? Surely a beast such as this is worth it’s weight in gold. Do we wish to bring it back?”

Vegetta observed the creature still, eyes calculating. Sharks were known to swim in pods, right? Or was that whales? Nevertheless, this.. mermaid was drawn to the trap they’d laid for some reason, and he’d guess it wasn’t curiosity by the way those hypnotizingly gorgeous green eyes were staring directly at him.

“There has to be more than one here.” Vegetta said finally, voice quieting the rowdy cheers of his crew. He crossed his arms “We will have to see though. Get this one into the tank, and we wait to see if we catch anything else.”

The crew cheered again, swinging the net aboard and further seeming to make the Mer panic.

Good, that just meant Vegetta was right.

Chapter Text

The tank didn’t seem to be big enough. 

Vegetta found himself feeling a bit bad, especially with the blood that still floated from the Merman’s wound. Add that to the fact that he was sulking and turned away… okay yeah, Vegetta felt a little guilty.

Could you blame the crew though? They’d installed two tanks aboard just in case they found any fish (or if the mermaid myth was true), but truth be told they didn’t expect to actually get anything- much less the behemoth that was this merman. He had to curl up at the bottom of the tank to fit comfortably, and Vegetta had seen bubbles escape the Mer’s gills multiple times when it brushed it’s wounded tail against the glass.

So now with the rest of the crew celebrating above decks, Vegetta was here, trying to figure out the next plan of action.

Technically the Merman did nothing wrong, right? He was probably wandering, as the myths said they did. He probably didn’t have anyone else with him, otherwise he would have been freed before they caught him. He was still valuable though, the first Mer any human had ever captured and put in a tank.

But wouldn’t that mean Mermaids traveled in groups? Was this one just alone? Vegetta eyed the various scars that littered the Mer’s body, frowning. He had likely lived a long while, so it was possible he was the last left of his group.

Ugh, where was this coming from? Just six hours ago he didn’t believe in mermaids- yet now here he was with a book of their myths borrowed from Roier open on the table situated in front of the first tank!

Vegetta groaned lowly, feeling his stomach growl.

Oh, and another thing- what did these things eat!?

Foolish felt like he was swimming through honey. 

He’d been up since capture, trying to figure out just how exactly he could escape. It wasn’t like he was helpless- he’d taken down an entire pirate ship before!

Speaking of pirates, Foolish deduced that only they could be this wretched- only pirates would catch a Mer and stick it in a too-small tank. He knew he was gonna feel it when he got out of this place.

If he got out.

No no, no time to think if that. He had other Mers he bad to take care of- his child, for one (oh please Leo don’t let you be caught next please-), and his pod too! Sure, Bad wasn’t so horrible at hunting as the others, but still! It was gut wrenching every moment he stayed in this dark cabin surrounded by wood, another tank sitting empty across the room. He considered himself lucky none of his pod had fallen for the trap, better him than the others. Even if it meant they’d have to fend for themselves for a little while (he didn’t think about long term, he just couldn’t), he was sure they could handle it.

Which brought up the next problem.

Foolish was fucking hungry. His last meal was estimated at four days ago, and even then it was small scraps from his preparation of the children’s party. An anchovy head here, a sand dollar there, nothing too filling. It really bit him in the ass, especially when Foolish’s stomach cramped with hunger. It shouldn’t have been too bad- he’d gone hungry this long before!

(He ignored the fact that those other times it was because he was feeding someone else, that he would feed his entire Pod his share even if he was hungry- anything to make them feel full and satisfied. He would never feel hunger so long as they didn’t- but now they weren’t here and he had to suffer though it.)

The door opened, in walking the presumed captain of the ship.

He was handsome for a human, Foolish would give him that. Dark hair and deep purple eyes, they admitted entranced him. Foolish had found himself staring at the man as he worked multiple times, before remembering that he was also the one who’d stolen him away from his child.

This time though, he didn’t look away when the man made eye contact. He stared right back, likely glaring by the way the pirate captain tensed. That was when Foolish noticed that two trays of food were in the other’s hands. One was obviously for a human, but the other…

How’d they know his favorite was starfish and salmon? 

Foolish watched as the man slid the creatures into the tank through an opening he already knew he couldn’t get through, having tried and failed to do so the first time they tried to feed him. That was probably why they waited so long, they had to make sure he was neutralized before they actively tried to keep him alive.

“Sorry about your tail, friend.” Foolish almost missed the murmur, the hatch having closed after the last salmon was through. “We did not know you would be bigger than the myths.”

Foolish could have scoffed. First words spoken to him in days, and they’re that? If he wanted to know what he already knew then he would have gone back in time to when he was first captured!

-Foolish was immobilized in the net, panicking as he felt air whistle through his gills. He limply tried to struggle, meeting eyes with a man who seemed just as shocked as he was-

Foolish blew bubbles, sweeping the sea creatures toward him with his tail as he’d seen Leonarda do before.

Loneliness struck him again. Oh, poor Leo. He’d been caught on her hatching day, the day they first got to meet each other. How ironic was that?

“I… wanted to ask you something.” Foolish’s wallowing was cut short at the Captain’s words. “Are there more of you?”

Seeing as how Foolish could make out what the other was saying through water and glass, he’d have to assume the Captain would be the same way. 

“What will you do with that information?”

“Capture another one, if we can. If we can’t, we’ll just move on with you and present you to Quesadilla island’s government.”

“I didn’t know pirates reported to government.”

“And I didn’t know mermaids existed.” The captain’s eyes hardened ever so slightly “now please answer me, are there any more of you?”

“Your answer to me wasn’t reassuring.” Foolish said defiantly “So no. I’ll let your crew run out of rations.”

The captain sighed, shaking his head. He stood, likely ready to go abovedeck to dish out orders, but right as he did a resounding cheer roused itself from the crew. Frowning, the captain hurried out of the cabin just as a shrill scream was heard. A familiar shrill scream.

Foolish’s blood felt like it froze. No, no no.

They got Leo.

Chapter Text

They knew nearly the moment Foolish was gone.

Leonarda had watched as her father slipped away from the party, muttering something to her Tio Bad before he was gone into the blue backdrop. She tried to listen for him until she couldn’t, but the sound of party was too distracting. So, she turned back to her self-proclaimed siblings (could you blame her? They had the same hatching and founding days!) and kept playing.

Well, until they all heard his father yell.

Leo’s Tios Fit and Bad were already launching into action, propelling themselves in the direction they’d seen Leonarda’s father go. Their other Tios Slime and Mariana kept the children safe and calm- and away from potential danger.

Thing was, Leo had never heard his dad yell like that. He’d never heard a fear quite like that.

So, at the first opening, she slipped away and followed Tio Bad and Tio Fit.

When she caught up to them, she watched as they danced around thin cables that were dragging along the bottom of their ocean.

A trap.

“Leo-! You can’t just run off, kid.” Before Leonarda could get a closer look, she was scooped up by a worried Slimecicle. He was glowing slightly, holding her face gently in his hands. “What if you got hurt? What if a whale came through? What if-“

“Slime, what are they looking at?” Leo realized Mariana and the other kids were there now too, also taking a peek at what Fit and Bad were studying.

Slime looked over, Leo feeling as his body suddenly went rigid.

“Nets.” He murmured, gently releasing Leo before he quickly swam down to Fit and Bad. “Hey! Don’t touch that!”

Leonarda watched as her Tio Slime pulled Fit and Bad back, shaking his head as they both shouted for release. Passing through a shadow, it was then that Leo looked up.

A large boat greeted her vision, something hanging from it’s side. She saw droplets of red stain the water, the bundle of something soon hauled onto the boat.

“-That those things are dangerous, never go near one! Honestly, how many times do I have to keep saying-“ Slime was lecturing Bad and Fit, having many scars on his body that Leo was certain were from before she was born- from a different life he rarely ever shared.

“Slime, Foolish is up there!” Bad’s plea caught Leo’s attention. Her dad? Above water!? No, impossible! He never went to the surface, she’d never seen it! Even when she went up, he never followed- he couldn’t be up there! “A net got him, but we were too late- Slime, we have to go get him!”

The jellyfish Mer shook his head “We can’t.” He rejected “We can’t go up.”

“Why not?” Fit asked, Leo watching as some of Mariana’s fins bristled at the hostile tone.

“Three of us aren’t going to do any good. We can’t have four, someone needs to watch the kids.” Slime sighed “If it was anyone other than Foolish, we would be able to go for it, but we just can’t. We don’t have the strength for it.”

Bad and Fit regarded Slime for a moment, but they eventually nodded. This was a fight they would not win, not with Slime- who probably knew more than they did.

Leo felt her insides burn. Who were they to tell her what to do? Who were they to decide if they could get her father? Leonarda’s fist clenched-

But someone grabbed her wrist, forcing her to relax.

Juanaflippa was an anglerfish Mer just like Mariana, but her more humanoid traits lay in her other Father, Slime. She had a pair of glasses like her dads, but unlike them she’d popped the panes of glass out because she kept running into things and making her bright green eyes hurt. Her light brown hair was braided in two segments, one noticeably better than the other (Flippa liked to tell Leo that both her dads liked to braid her hair every morning). She had a small gap in her two front teeth, and freckles smattered across the bridge of her nose. 

Honestly, sometimes Leo wondered how Juanaflippa inherited those looks (He would assume that Tio Slime cheated just like Tio Mariana long ago, but Leo reminded himself that they didn’t come from their fathers, they came from eggs).

“Don’t.” Flippa whispered, eyes steely despite the adults now scheming loudly around them. “We don’t want to get hurt.”

And yeah, maybe Juanaflippa was a little bit more mature right now- but she didn’t know how Leo felt! How on her hatching day her best and only Dad was taken from under their noses- how he was probably the reason for the blood, how he was probably-

“Hey dad, there’s a body here!” Ramon’s voice wasn’t supposed to be that far away.

Leo watched as Tio Fit whirled around, spotting his kid between the steel cables that held the nets steady. Dapper wasn’t too far behind, triggering some of the nets by throwing stones at the cables with a seaweed slingshot.

Juanaflippa sighed as Badboyhalo yelled for Dapper to get away from the area “Huh, thought they’d be with me on this one.”

Leo couldn’t help herself now that the other kids were there, dragging Juanaflippa along with her as she sawm down to the netted area.

“Oh my goodness- why don’t our kids listen!?”

Juanaflippa made no move to release Leo’s writs, and secretly Leo thought this was the trio’s plan all along. To get the adults distracted, calm Leonarda down-

And find… a body.

When Leo and Juanaflippa made it to Ramon, the boy was anxiously poking at a small lump with wispy black hair. The thing was tied to what looked like a boulder, one arm free and floating with the ocean currents.

Looking even closer, Leo realized this was a human.

Or at least, what remained of one. The small human’s dull eyes were sunken in, skin a pale gray- the same gray Leo had seen the whale turn when her dad killed it for trying to hurt her.

This human was dead.

Chapter Text

The dead human puzzled them for the next four days.

Badboyhalo had insisted they take the body back to the reef to observe it, the children watching as the dark finned Mer and Fit untangled the body of the ropes loosely tied around it’s small frame. Leo heard the murmurs that it was a human child, but she couldn’t be sure.

Tio Bad and Dapper stayed at Leo’s house after they’d gotten back, the older Mer realizing that Leo would need a temporary guardian to watch over her- and that also, she wouldn’t leave her home. That meant bringing the body, and nights of staring at the small human while everyone was asleep- if she took the small red ribbon that peeked from a large blue jackets… well, nobody would know.

Over the next four days Leo got well-acquainted to hiding around corners, listening as the adults met up again to discuss the body.

“I can’t tell what killed it, just that it’s been dead a while.” Her Tio Bad was saying, tail swishing in what seemed to be frustration.

“Whatever happened, do you think it’s a warning? Something they’re going to do to Foolish?” To Fit asked, arms crossed.

“I don’t think so.” Tio Bad denied, much to Leo’s relief. “There were no visible wounds- no stitches, nothing.”

“Maybe it was sick.” Mariana said quietly “humans are weak to that, no?”

Bad nodded “maybe.” He sighed “but it still doesn’t make sense. Why would they put one of their dead down here, threat or otherwise?”

“Maybe it’s a human burial ritual, you know, like how we let the fish eat our bodies when we die?” Leo counted himself lucky he’d only seen one such funeral- held a few years ago when one of their pod had died from an eel attack.

“I heard they buried them under their island.” Mariana pointed out “Otherwise Mer would be more well-known to them.”

That’s right, bodies or not dumping in the ocean was a quick way to get your boat sunk. Well, that and venturing too close to their reef.

Leo ducked into her room, feeling a sudden itch to go back to where they’d found the now waterlogged body. She knew they were missing something- they had to be!

So, there was only one logical option. Tell an adult? No! One of her siblings? They’d talk her out of it! No no, the one option was simple, easy, and they’d never know she’d left.

She’d have to sneak out.

Which was easier than she thought, as the dead of night left her home in an inky darkness she used to fear so badly that her dad had to sleep in her room for a long time. She crept easily out the front door, hearing her Tio bad and her hermano Ramon snore from a guest room near the back of her home.

Leo was speeding out in an instant, gunning for the area that her father had been captured at- the ship not having moved an inch. The cables were still in place, they must not check them often.

But as her tail brushed a new line halfway to where the body was, Leo realized they must replace the cables, too.

Her body was snatched up, a stream of bubbles escaping her mouth when she felt her tail catch on a sharp edge of the net. There was a slight ripping feeling, and her body lit up in white-hot pain. Leo swore there was a ringing sound as she tried to tug her ripped fin away, blood pooling thickly in the water.

Lifted just below the surface, Leo realized she was trapped.

Vegetta didn’t think much of the cheering from his crew, much more focused on the Mer who’d seemingly broken one of his many powerful claws recently.

Well, that was until they started calling for him.

He’d reached above deck when the screaming started, shrill and pained and too much to bear. All cheering died out as something was set onto the deck, bodies quickly backing away from what was in the net.

When Vegetta’s eyes adjusted to the harsh sunlight, the first thing he saw was blood. So much blood.

The small creature in the net was shaking, struggling weakly and crying out in pain once it’s screams died out. It was clearly injured, and as it’s scales shimmered in the light Vegetta realized what exactly this creature was.

It was another Mer.

“Get a medic, quick!” With that realization, he began ordering his crew around, assigning jobs as he untangled the net from the small Mer’s body- realizing somewhere along the line that this Mer was a child.

In mere minutes an avian woman with brown hair and blue-gray wings was pushing her way to the Mer, gentky laying out what they found to be a heavily torn tail, a dark gray claw hanging from one end of the rip.

Well, guess Vegetta found that missing claw.

The child Mer whimpered in either pain or scaredness, murmuring something to itself over and over again. It took a few seconds to register in Vegetta’s mind, but-

“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to-“

Vegetta tried to ignore the tiny pleas as the avian woman stitched up the Mer’s tail. Once she was done, she gently wrapped the fins in seaweed so it would stick properly. Smiling at the young Mer gently, the avian reassured her.

“Don’t worry, you’ll heal alright.”

In the end Vegetta let the avian pick the Mer up and bring it down with the other one, turning to look at Roier, his second hand. Around them, the rest of the crew got back to work.

“Captain, what do we do now?” The young man looked understandably anxious, shoulders tensed “I didn’t know they… Could have kids.”

Vegetta sighed, eyes trailing over the blood that was seeping into the deck. “I don’t know.” He answered truthfully. “There is a large bounty waiting for anyone to either bag a Mermaid or pretend they don’t exist.”

Roier bit his lip “I know.” He replied “but that… Mer can’t be any older than Bobby.”

Vegetta nodded “I understand your hesitation, friend.” He said, crouching down to snag something from the deck. “We’ll keep our anchor dropped, decide as a crew what we’ll be doing.”

Roier watched as Vegetta held up a dark gray claw, pocketed it, and went back belowdeck.

Chapter Text

Foolish shouldn’t have been surprised when they put Leo in the other tank.

He filled his own tank painfully, barely able to turn in a circle. There was no way for any other Mer to join him, child or not.

Yet, when the avian who carried her gently dropped her into the tank on the other side of the room, Foolish was surprised. As he watched his daughter curl up at the bottom, his surprise turned to terror. And even still, when he noticed the bandage on his tail, his terror turned into anger.

Red hot anger, pouring through his veins and trying to constrict his breathing- Foolish saw red instead of a slight green tinge. His daughter, hurt? How did that happen? The net? The humans? Oh, they’d pay. They couldn’t get away from this, not when his daughter was curled up in a ball far away from him. His poor sweet child, tail likely torn- she wouldn’t be able to hunt as well! She wouldn’t be able to swim as fast!

Foolish growled, hands clenching into a fist. 

They’re keeping her away from him, away from the damage they’d done. They’d done this, hurt his little Leo. His hunger and fatigue took a backseat as the rage and adrenaline struck him like lightning. They would pay.

But first, he needed his daughter.

Vegetta had gotten stalled for a moment when passing Jaiden, the avian who’d taken care of the child Mer. She was updating him on the situation briefly, having seen the young creature sink to the bottom of it’s tank. It was only a moment, so there shouldn’t have been enough time to cause havoc.

Well, he was wrong about that.

When Vegetta finally entered the space that they were keeping the Mers, he heard a sickening crack of glass. Looking over, he saw the adult banging on the tank’s glass. He recognized the anger that clouded the Mer’s emerald-like eyes, the stare that fixed itself on the child who was shaking in the other tank. Cracks had started to spiral out from where the Mer was repeatedly hitting, and Vegetta was worried that the creature would hurt himself if the tank shattered. 

Bolting toward the tabk that was cracking, Vegetta waved his hands back and forth in an attempt to get the adult Mer to stop. It’s body loomed over him, and it didn’t seem to notice him. Rather, the Mer’s eyes were still fixed on the child, who Vegetta now noticed was looking at them from across the room. It was also banging it’s small fist against the class, shouting a word that sounded strangely like “Pa!” through the water.

Oh. Oh. Vegetta understood now.

Changing his plan, Vegetta moved quickly to the other tank, motioning for the child to come near him. It looked skeptical at first, rather trying to back away and press it’s body against the floor of the tank. Behind him, Vegetta swore the adult Mer roared.

“Lo siento niña, deberíamos llevarte de vuelta con tu padre.” He spoke gently. Though not knowing if she could understand his native tongue, he started to reword in English. 

Only for the child to zip into his arms and allow itself to be lifted out of the tank. The child was smaller than initially thought, only being about three feet tall from head to tail. Nonetheless, Vegetta gently but quickly rushed from one tank to the other, pulling a lever to lift up the heavy lid of the tank to slip the child into.

He never got a chance. 

The adult Mer took the child with one hand, but gripped Vegetta’s arm tightly with the other. Any previous ailment that had seem to have befallen the creature was gone, replaced with rage and spite as it hissed at him. Vegetta knew it was no use trying to pull away, but he tried to anyway. The only thing he got were the claws digging into his flesh harder, the Mer pulling him close.

“What did you do to her?” The English was spoken surprisingly well, Vegetta having not realized that the Mer could understand him. 

“I- lo siento, I did not realize she was yours.” Vegetta said quickly “We did not know she would get hurt.”

The claws gripped tighter, Vegetta realizing that each sharpened end was on or near a vein. If he dug too deep… 

The child Mer suddenly tugged at the adult’s free hand, drawing his attention to the younger. She was saying something from under water, but Vegetta couldn’t make it out as his ears started to ring.

Whatever she said though, it seemed to make the adult listen. His grip loosened, but the adult pulled him closer one more time.

“Never again.” Releasing him, the adult dove back underwater to listen to the child as she started speaking again.

Vegetta stumbled away from the tank, hand reaching for the lever to close the lid. Neither Mer looked up as it closed with a dull thud, the older one taking a closer look at the younger’s tail.

So, she was his? That didn’t make sense. She did not have the same tail as him- but maybe she inherited it from a mother? Vegetta didn’t know much about Mermaids and such, and neither did his crew, really. That much was proven today, when they found out the Mer could have children. 

“Captain, I heard- oh my Gods, Captain you’re bleeding!” Vegetta looked over when he heard Roier’s sudden shout, realizing that a warm liquid was seeping from his arm. “What happened!?”

“I’ll tell you as we walk, come.” Vegetta all but rushed out of the room. Away from the cracking glass, from the Mer he was realizing was way more dangerous than the legends, away from the father-daughter duo who were now settling at the bottom of the tank.

“Captain, was it them?” Roier whispered as Vegetta called for Jaiden. Said avian rushed over with her med kit when she saw blood, wings raising at the wound.

“He is mad about the child being hurt.” Vegetta informed “And that we separated them.”

Roier sucked in a breath, Jaiden’s hands slightly stuttering as she realized that she was kind of at fault for the wound.

“He nearly broke the glass- Roier, the blast proof glass.” Vegetta repressed a hiss as Jaiden cleaned the wound. Now that it was more visible, he realized that the would was not just a puncture- it was a gash. It would scar, he already knew. Part of him thought the Mer knew that too. “He is stronger than he lets on.”

“Probably because of the kid, right?” Roier guessed “the legends never say anything about children, maybe they have a high mortality rate?”

Vegetta shook his head “I think that she is his child.” He confessed. “When I moved her to the other tank, I called him such. When he was threatening me, he was doing it like a father would.”

Roier bit his lip “y’know, having a spiteful Merman on our ship probably isn’t the best idea.” He said “We… Fuck, what do we do?”

“I… don’t know.” Vegetta watched as Jaiden wrapped his wound, blood already starting to soak through the bandage. “This entirely new territory.”

“I say we stay here.” Jaiden volunteered, cleaning up the mess of Vegetta’s blood. “We can’t bring them back, not without severe backlash from the crew.”

Vegetta raised an eyebrow “oh?”

“We’re heartless Captain, but children are innocent.” Roier supplied “you know how some of us have kids… if she’s that Merman’s child then we shouldn’t separate them- especially since she’s injured and we know he’s capable of busting through the tank.” 

Jaiden nodded “we keep them until she is healed, then we decide what’s next.” She offered “that’s the only way to keep the peace, I think.”

Vegetta was already on board, nodding at the suggestion. “Alright. Roier, please inform the crew.” The younger man nodded, sprinting off. Jaiden finished putting her supplies away, and soon followed after.

Vegetta was left alone, a very puzzling day laying behind him. A day of an injured child, a once-tired Merman being more lively than he’d ever seen. A day of blood and cracked glass he though was indestructible.

Ah, a very puzzling day indeed.

Chapter Text

In the days that followed, Vegetta found himself observing how the adult Mer and the child behaved.

The adult kept himself as bunched up as possible, likely for the younger’s comfort. He gave the option for her to stay as far or close to him as he could manage, yet she still slept nestled at his torso, tail hidden away as she rested.

Some nights when Vegetta found himself nearly passing out in his chair- several books about mermaid legends laying open on the small wooden table near the end of both tanks -he saw the child stare at him. Through half-lidded eyes he would give her a small smile, but she would always sink back into the comfort of her father’s body.

That was until this night, where instead of shrinking back, she leaned forward.

“¿quién eres?” She asked moments later, eyes wide “¿Eres tú por qué estoy herido?”

Vegetta was taken by surprise. Why did she know Spanish when her father did not? Hesitantly, he answered.

“No.” The young girl seemed unconvinced “Prometo.”

“Promises mean nothing.” She said, the English rolling off her tongue easily. “Not from you.”

“I know.” Vegetta sighed “But I was down here when you were brought up.”

“The net ripped my tail.” She pointed out, so quiet that Vegetta almost didn’t hear her. “You are the Captain, you told them to set the traps.”

Vegetta nodded “But it wasn’t the net that harmed you.” He fished the adult Mer’s claw out of his pocket “It was this.”

The girl frowned “It is still your fault. Pa wouldn’t have lost a claw if you didn’t lay the traps.”

Vegetta nodded. That was a fair point. “Lo sient-“

“It was my birthday when you caught him.” She interrupted. Ah, so Mermaids were able to guilt trip. “We were having a party, and he went to make sure that whatever you distracted him with was safe. You caught him and made my Tio Bad and Tio Fit worry.” Her gills flared “You left a body for us to see as a threat.”

Were they talking about…?

“And then- I went to go investigate again, and you caught me in a net with my Pa’s claw!” She leaned closer to the still cracked glass. “This is your fault.”

That was… a lot to take in. Did they really think Tilín was a threat from them?

“Lo siento, niña.” Vegetta murmured after a moment “We didn’t mean to harm you. We didn’t think Mermaids existed, anyway.” He cast a look to the books on the table “There’s nothing here about you, your culture- anything. Just legends and stories from generations ago. Your dad was the first Mer we’ve ever seen and…” he trailed off.

“And?” The girl demanded, face close to the cracked glass now.

“We foolishly thought that child Mer did not exist.” Vegetta bowed his head. “Because of that, you got hurt. So again, I am sorry.”

The child seemed taken aback, Vegetta not understanding why. When he looked up she could see that she still wanted to be angry, wanted to hate him and hurt him just like her dad did. But she seemed to realize that he was being genuine- in a way she wasn’t expecting. He imagined her views of humans were skewed, just like their views of Mermaids were as well. 

Yet there, in their clouds of judgement, Vegetta knew she saw the sun.

Finally, the child nodded. To herself or to Vegetta, the pirate wasn’t sure.

“Okay then, i’ll believe you.” She declared, hand suddenly pressed to the glass “i’m Leonarda, but people usually call me Leo.”

Vegetta was shocked, but pressed his hand against the glass too.

“Vegetta. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

When Foolish woke up, Leo told him that she’d made up with the captain of the ship. They were excited that the captain seemed so genuine, and that hopefully the two of them would be released. Foolish didn’t have the same hope, but he pretended for the sake of his child.

That was, until the avian came in with her box of medical supplies.

The captain was behind her, Leo waving excitedly at the man. He gave a wave back, yet tensed when Foolish’s glare settled on him. 

Truth be told, Foolish probably would have loved being friends with the man too, had he not harmed his child and captured them both. Leo had told him what the captain had told them, but Foolish wasn’t as trusting.

When the lever was pulled, Vegetta stood over the water that houses the two Mers at the moment. His eyes swept over foolish, before settling on Leonarda. “Leo, Jaiden necesita revisar tu cola.” He said gently in a language Foolish wasn’t all that fluent in. Fuck, maybe he should have listened to Mariana more often.

His daughter didn’t seem to mind, zipping up to the top and allowing herself to be lifted out of the water. Foolish gave a low growl, glaring harshly as the avian started to unwrap Leonarda’s wound. Vegetta was the only one who seemed to notice, stiffening when he heard the Mer. 

Foolish didn’t act on his anger, however. Honestly they weren’t feeding the two nearly enough, and he often had to give his portions to Leo and go hungry so she wouldn’t. He felt weak and always tired, sleeping in for longer and longer as he felt hunger gnaw at his core as it did even before Leo was captured. He didn’t think she noticed, and his pride could not be damaged by asking the humans for more food. At least he got one meal to himself a few days ago, Leo hating the taste of starfish. It wasn’t that filling, but… well, he couldn’t really do much.

Leo was back into the tank in a few minutes, curling up by Foolish’s side. He noticed the avian say something to the captain, a worried look appearing on the human’s face. Foolish assumed it was for Leo, but when Vegetta looked over he made eye contact with Foolish.

“Sí, i’ll get it taken care of.” He nodded to the avian, the woman leaving quickly after. 

Foolish expected the man to close the top of the tank, but was surprised when the man made no moved to do so. Instead, Vegetta sat down in that little chair Foolish had seen him often use when the captain thought nobody was looking, trying to analyze the man. He was coming up with only blanks so far, but if he kept at it he was sure he could figure the human’s motives out.

For now though, Foolish was getting tired again. He made sure to murmur a short “Goodnight” to Leo before feeling sleep take his body in it’s hands, watching as Vegetta cast another worried look toward Foolish.

None of that mattered now though, for his eyes could finally rest.

Chapter Text

Leo wasn’t a fool.

Vegetta seemed to think she couldn’t understand him that well, what with the air likely acting as cotton between her ears. He knew the Captain wasn’t privy on the knowledge of the Mer, but he didn’t think it was this bad!

So, as Vegetta spoke with the medic Leo learned to be named Jaiden while she sat on the table with books, she secretly listened.

(She ignored the fact that her pa didn’t seem to be paying close attention, eyes glassy and unfocused at times. She ignored the fact that he wasn’t as lively as he should have been.)

“The rip isn’t looking good. Did you get the list of what to feed her?” Jaiden was asking Vegetta, gently taking the young Mer’s fin and flipping it over to check both sides of the stitching as she kneeled on the floor.

“Sí, she has been eating well.” She wouldn’t consider herself well-fed. As a growing Mermaid, she needed as much food as possible! Her pa made sure she had enough to tide her over- but she wasn’t full by any means.

“Maybe it’s stress then.” Jaiden looked up at Leonarda as she spoke, smiling gently as if Leo couldn’t understand her. “This is a new space- and I can’t imagine that tank she’s sharing with the other one gives her much… room.”

Leo repressed a frown. She was perfectly fine with her pa- why couldn’t they just go!? Why did they have to wait for her to heal- something that could take weeks!? What if the Pod decided to move? Or attack the boat? Or-

“Alright, looks like you’re set!” Jaiden’s smile was genuine, that Leo knew. She’d wrapped up the child’s tail in fresh seaweed, making sure it was secure before allowing Vegetta to pick her up and slip her back into the tank. “And Captain?”

“Hm?” Vegetta turned his head in her direction as he slipped Leo back into the water.

“You might want to keep the top of their tank open. That other Mer is looking a bit pale- I fear he’s not getting enough oxygen.” Jaiden glanced momentarily at Foolish before her gaze flicked back to Vegetta.

“Sí, i’ll get it taken care of.”

Leonarda looked down at his father, noticing how his once golden skin had faded to a sickly sand color. His eyes were a darker shade of green too, and his shark features were tinged with yellow. 

(Maybe it was the oxygen levels of the water- yeah, Jaiden must be right. Her Pa would be okay once there was more oxygen in the water!)

Leo settled next to Foolish as his eyes fell closed, the adult murmuring as slurred goodnight. Leo curled up to Foolish’s chest, feeling worried for their Pa.

Please, let them make it through this.

Vegetta usually didn’t stay around for feeding time, always leaving to eat his own dinner with the crew.

After Jaiden’s first checkup though, he stayed. It would just be a night, he told himself. He just needed to make sure the child was eating and that the adult wasn’t taking the food for himself.

Starfish and salmon, that was the menu for the two. One salmon and two starfish each. That was what was detailed by Jaiden, and he figured she knew enough about healing human and avian ailments go know a bit about Mermaids, too.

Vegetta watched as Leo happily took both portions, bringing them to the still-pale adult Mer he still did not know the name of. She set the salmon and starfish in front of the adult, gently shaking him awake. 

“Pa, food is here.” Her voice was small, so quiet Vegetta had to strain to hear her. 

The adult’s eyes slowly opened, settling on the reds and yellows in front of him. Grunting, the mer propped himself up on his elbows to peer closer at the fish. Vegetta found himself holding his breath, wondering what exactly was happening.

Slowly, the adult pushed both salmon to his daughter. “Eat up.” He said gently, Vegetta noticing as the Mer’s arms started to slightly shake.

Leo smiled, taking both fish and nearly swallowing them whole. She had be be reminded to take out the heads and spines by the adult, but the speed at which she’d devoured the fish was astonishing. It was like one moment they were there, and the next they’d vanished.

“Still hungry?” The adult asked hesitantly after a moment, watching as the young girl seemed to pause and tbink about it while regarding the starfish in what looked to be disgust.

“No. You c’n have it.” She replied, nose wrinkling at the slimy creatures laying on the floor.

“Are you sure?” The adult asked again “you don’t look certain.”

Leo nodded “‘M sure, pa.” 

This was the only time Vegetta had ever seen a conversation between the two occur. Usually the adult was busy looking around the room or sleeping, while Leo was always swimming in circles when she wasn’t talking with Vegetta or sleeping against her father’s chest. Granted they’d only been there four days, but it only took three for the pirate captain to see a pattern.

Sitting here now, no matter how much he wanted to know about the Mer, Vegetta felt like he was encroaching on a private moment.

The adult Mer sighed, nodding. Vegetta watched as he popped a starfish into his mouth and started chewing, looking around the room. He nearly froze when he realized that Vegetta was still there, eyes narrowing.

Leonarda had told Vegetta that she was trying to get her dad to make conversation, but there had been no luck so far. To be fair Vegetta didn’t blame him, and backed away as the glare turned harsher  and harsher as the seconds passed.

He definitely did not run up the stairs, did not rush to where he knew his crew was, totally didn’t grab a fried fish he hated the taste of, and whatever they tell you, he did not nearly trip over his feet to sit down next to Roier and another avian named Quackity.

“What’s the rush?” The duck-like avian asked, raising an eyebrow. “Can’t handle a few overgrown fish?”

Roier chuckled “You wouldn’t say that if you knew what he did, Quackity.” He said “Big one ripped his arm up pretty badly- blood everywhere.”

Quackity raised an eyebrow “oh?”

Vegetta sighed, eating the fish he’d picked up despite how boney and slim this specific species was. Usually Jaiden of Maximus would eat them, but a few of the crew were trying to branch out their tastes.

Vegetta wasn’t though, yet here he was.

It was a testament to how much he didn’t want to get in the adult Mer’s way. The mighty Vegetta, king of the sea- he was scared. That didn’t happen often, and the less of his crew knew, the better.

“It’s nothing.” He assured, but made a mental note for when he went back down that night.

Close the lid.

Chapter Text

They ache.

After Foolish was captured and the human’s body discovered, the pod by the reef had first tried to leave the children to their own devices. With low warnings to not go near the nets or boat, they thought they’d have more time to figure this out.

But then Leonarda went missing, and Bad swore he could smell blood clouding the waters from far away.

As soon as Dapper had burst back i to the guest room and yelled that Foolish’s child was not there, Badboyhalo had been at his wits end. He’d alerted the others, sent Fit to check the boat, calmed down Juannaflippa- he stretched himself far too thin. When Fit returned and reported red-tinged water by the boat, he stretched himself further

They all ended up sleeping in Foolish and Leo’s home. The children had to stay together, be accompanied by one adult, and always had to report back to the others after an hour of playtime if it was anywhere other than in the house. 

Dapper and Ramon had listened at first, but at the end of day three, Bad saw how much they looked to where the Pod knew the boat was anchored at.

Juannaflippa was worse. She tried to disobey the rules- which were put in place by Slime and not Bad -but her father always seemed to catch her. He was gentle in his scolding, but  Juannaflippa always acted as if she’d been burned. Even if Slime never uttered the words disappointed, Juannaflippa still felt like he was.

But it was Leo! Her Leo! Her sister! They couldn’t just leave her on the boat! Any talk of moving places before Foolish and Leo came back had been shut down at her hand, and she tried to make it aware that she would not rest until she saw the two missing Mers of her Pod returned.

For a child, bad would admit she was scary.

Foolish felt worse than he had in a long time.

After the Captain had closed the lid of the tank and hadn’t opened it back up in the morning, Foolish hadn’t seen him return in four days. Four more long, agonizing days. 

The starfish had done it’s job to tide him over for a night, but it wasn’t enough. His claws felt brittle, his scales felt flimsy- his tail hurt so badly. Leo’d noticed by now, but as they spoke Foolish realized she just thought he wasn’t getting enough oxygen- or that he wasn’t sleeping long enough. It was a conclusion only a child could draw up though, with Foolish finding his only waking hours being whenever they were fed or when Leo was taken out of the tank for a checkup. Even so, most of the time Leo had to wake him up for food. Foolish felt his ribs press against his skin, wondering if the pirates would release them before he starved.

Today, however, he watched as the ship’s medical expert examined Leo’s wound. There were still some frowns and worried words, but all in all the overview seemed to be positive. Leo would be alright. 

Again though, the medic said something to Vegetta as the captain slipped Leo back into the tank. Whatever she said, it made Vegetta pale. The man looked to Foolish, who’d already lost his attention on the humans so he could steady himself as Leo hugged him tightly from the side very suddenly.

“Pa.” She mumbled into his shoulder as Foolish tried to adjust and hug him back “Pa please be okay.”

“I am, Leo.” The adult whispered. 

A lie, but one she would forgive him for. He couldn’t let her worry about him- he couldn’t tell her that he was going hungry so she could heal properly. He hated how much slower she saw, remembering the last time he’d seen a tail get ripped. He didn’t want it to happen again- didn’t want the wound to last until she died. It was a small price to pay for Leo’s health. Besides, he’d gone a week without proper nourishment before, so what was twelve days with a few starfish here or there in the grand scheme of things?

Leo hugged him tighter. “Pa, please.” They sounded like they would start crying any second now. “Please, why are you so tired?”

Foolish’s eyes flicked over to the medic and the captain, feeling their stares burn holes into his face. Humans, reducing him to weakness. They’d hurt his daughter, didn’t know how to feed Merpeople, they dumped nets into the ocean on a whim with no regard for the lives they would destroy. Oh, he’d do more than bust up that glass if he could…

“It’s nothing.” But he couldn’t. Not with Leo here. Oh, bis little Leo. Though they could always tell when he was lying, they let it slide this once. 

Leo huffed, moving off of Foolish’s arm and settling at his chest where she felt the safest. Her scales felt stronger than his, and her hair felt more alive than he did. Foolish sighed as she curled up and fell asleep, and looked up when he heard the medic leave the room, assuming the Captain would follow close behind.

He didn’t though, instead pulling the room’s only chair closer to the cracked glass. They stared at each other for a moment, bright purple eyes meeting dull green.

“I… Lo siento.” Vegetta bowed his head, voice slightly muffled from being outside of water “I am sorry you and your daughter got put here.”

Foolish gave a little growl, but Vegetta didn’t back down. He may have looked away, but he kept speaking.

“We didn’t think you existed, you see. Legends, folklore from sailors who went mad at sea. Islanders who take drugs more days than a year has to offer talking about a ship sinking near the reef- bounties, places for those who could either bring you in or prove that you’re not real.” Vegetta sighed “I never believed in you, in Mermaids. Mi madre always said to not believe the legends, but now that I see you….” Vegetta trailed off “I am sorry we caught you, that we hurt Leonarda. She is a smart child, and I don’t want anymore harm to come to her.” He met Foolish’s eyes again. “Jaiden thinks that you are not getting enough oxygen.”

“I don’t care what your medic thinks.” Part of Foolish wanted to believe Vegetta, a small, trusting part of him. But he’d dealt with humans before- with the avian and the wizards and the regular old people with harpoons and weapons that stole his family from him. “Just let us go.” He would not let that happen again.

Vegetta shook his head “Leo, she wouldn’t make it. She’s not healing fast, and Jaiden thinks an infection will hit if she is put back into the ocean.”

Foolish growled again, loud enough to make Leo shift in her sleep. 

Vegetta held up his hands, seemingly worried as to what would happen if they didn’t come to an agreement.

Finally, after a solid minute of thought, Vegetta sighed.

“Alright then, we will put you back. Tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

Leo had finally figured it out.

After her nap yesterday, she’d woken up to the feeling of bone poking her. Looking for the source, her tiny hand found Foolish’s massive ribs. 

Her Pa- when was the last time she’d seen him eat something other than those slimy and sugary starfish? She tried counting on her hands, but soon ran out of fingers. He’d told her once that they hadn’t fed him for the four days he’d been captive before she was taken to, and that worried her more.

Even so, when she tried to offer him her food at dinner, he refused.

“Keep up your strength.” He’d say, Leo now noticing that he sounded weak. “You have to heal, we’ll be out soon.”

(She didn’t know how soon they had, and Foolish would not survive out there if he didn’t eat something fast.)

When he’d finally fallen back asleep though, Leo waited with her nosed pressed to the glass for the one person she figured could fix this.

Vegetta.

The captain, she’d found, stayed up late studying the books he’d nearly finished. He’d told the girl a few legends when she’d woken up one night, and stayed with her until she fell back asleep. She trusted he’d be back after dinner, he always was.

“Leonarda, hello my little friend.” He smiled gently when he saw her, walking into the room she’d grown familiar with after so many days. “How are you?”

“My pa, he’s not eating.” She popped her head from under the water, Vegetta having been opening the tank’s lid every day now. “Dada Foolich is sick.”

Vegetta frowned “I saw him eating starfish a few days ago…” he muttered to himself.

“Starfish isn’t good for you. Tio Slime says that it’s like having desert with dinner.” Leo informed “Pa gives the regular fish to me, says he can tell when I’m still hungry.”

Vegetta’s frown deepened “how long..?”

“Pa needs food, fast!” Leo interrupted “He- he’s not okay!”

Vegetta’s eyes widened. Shit, had it been that long then? He nodded, nearly  tripping over his feet as be ran from the room. Meanwhile, Leo dove back under water to wake her dad up.

“Pa.” She shook him as hard as she could “Pa please wake up.”

Foolish huffed, but didn’t stir. Leo shook him harder.

“Dad, please.” She felt like sobbing “Please, c’mon.”

After what felt like an eternity, Foolish groaned and started opening his eyes. Leo didn’t stop shaking him though, waiting until he waved her away to do so.

“Is it already tomorrow…?” Foolish grimaced “Oh fuck…”

Leo felt her heart sink when she realized that there was a pink tinge to her dad’s face, gills fluttering weakly. She’d seen sickness before, but for her dad to be suddenly struck by it?

“Pa, Vegetta’s bringing you food.” Leo murmured, hearing the Captain all but stumble back down the stairs in a hurry.

“Dinner? I thought we had that already…” Foolish groaned again, tail waving gently in the tank. Looking over to it, Leo’s heart sank.

Her dad had been keeping it out of sight recently, but she’d noticed she first arrived that there was a small wound likely caused by the net on Foolish’s tail. 

Looking at it now though, she could tell it was so much worse. Black around the edges, green crawling around the outer edges of the darkness. This was not dark like Tio Bad, nor green like Tio Slime- no, this was an infection. She’d seen Tio Fit get an injury like that once, but it was easily taken care of when he chopped off the tentacle so he could grow it back healthily. From what she knew about sharks though, they couldn’t do that.

So, Foolish was in deep trouble.

Foolish felt a broiling haze settle into his bones. 

Was he finally back home? At the reef where Bad would tease him, Mariana would flirt with him, where Dapper and Ramon would try to knock him over? Was that boat all a dream, was it still Leo’s birthday? 

“Pa! C’mon dad, eat this.” No, he still felt the deep hunger rip at his insides. If he was lucky he’d get to feel the sun on his skin again before he died, and he hoped they’d release him and Leo soon like Vegetta had promised.

Vegetta… Foolish found himself confused by that human. He was different than what Foolish had experienced, apologetic in a way Foolish thought was only possible with other Merpeople.

Foolish felt Leo try to pry his mouth open, but he simply grunted and shook his head. What was this about food? Had she not eaten enough? Was he taking her share? No, that wouldn’t do. They finally had enough to fill her up, not just to tide her over. He couldn’t take that from her, not when she needed to heal

“Pa! Just open your mouth!” He heard Leo’s yell, but it felt like cotton was stuck in his ears- everything was muffled.

Would Bad do alright if he passed? Would Slime do okay? They all had a slight history, having been around the same island prior to this one- they’d all lost something or someone in the aftermath of those now blood-soaked waters. He knew he could count on Fit though, the rock to anchor everyone and take control- he was often Foolish’s hunting buddy, so he’d know where to find the food.

Warm hands that were larger than Leonarda’s grabbed at his face, Foolish dimly realizing he’d sat up sometime ago. The hands pried his mouth open, fingers staying acutely away from his sharp teeth. Foolish felt what he though was fish be pushed into his mouth, which was forced closed moments later. He had no choice but to chew and swallow, before his mouth was opened again and they had to repeat the process. 

To his credit, Foolish did try to fight it. His teeth had scrapped against fingers more than once and he’d nearly drawn blood when he’d bit down too early on the hands that pried his mouth open. He heard words being muttered in a language he did not recognize, but his mind was too dazed to comprehend what language it was.

Finally, the hands stopped prying his mouth open. His child stopped pleading with him. The hands left him, but the warmth didn’t retreat. He just got hotter- he was boiling in his own skin. He could blearily make out his tail, the injury a stark contrast to the rest of him. A naïve part of him thought it would have gone away, healed normally despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten.

“Pa, lay down…” Leo was able to pull Foolish to his side easily enough, making sure that her dad settled comfortably. He heard her turn away, and felt his eyes flutter close. Sleep grasped him, took his overheated body and pulled him down to the realm of sleep. He didn’t know if he would wake up, but he found that in this sickness was a grim resignation to his fate.

Don’t worry Eret, I’ll see you again.

Chapter Text

If Jaiden was panicking, then this was worse than Vegetta thought.

When the medic took one look at the adult Mer’s tail, she’s nearly jumped into the water to fix it herself.

“Pale, infection… oh Gods.” Jaiden muttered as Leo and Vegetta helped bring the adult Mer’s tail out of the water so she could examine it better. It didn’t look all that comfortable, but it would have to do. 

Both Leo and Vegetta backed off once Jaiden had the adult where she could examine his tail better, thought the child Mer looked like she didn’t want to.

“Leonarda.” Vegetta whispered to the terrified child “thank you for telling me.”

Leo nodded, head rising out of the tank. “‘M sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” She sniffled “I- I didn’t think Pa was doing that for me- I never saw his wound, I…” Vegetta could tell she was crying.

“It’s okay.” Vegetta leaned against the tank “We got to him in time, and that’s all that matters.” He didn’t want to go making promises he couldn’t keep, but he didn’t know what else to say really. 

“It coulda been sooner.” Leo mumbled “You don’t know about us, and I do. I could have told you.”

“And I could have asked.” Vegetta said gently, hearing Jaiden start muttering to herself “Neither of us did what we could have done to prevent this situation because we simply didn’t know.”

Leo nodded, hiccuping. Vegetta wanted to comfort her in some other way, but he didn’t know if she’d want to interact with him much more after what had happened.

Jaiden suddenly stood straight, turning to grab something from the ship’s small medical bag. She didn’t notice that she’d inadvertently interrupted the moment, but Leo didn’t seem to care as she paddled a little closer to her dad’s unconscious body. 

(Vegetta ignored how the adult’s once beautiful golden body looked pale with death, how his missing claw was a stub of what it once was. He couldn’t face the guilt, the one that would eat him up even though he’d just assured Leo that there was nothing they could do)

“Is he going be be okay?” Leo asked Jaiden, voice tiny.

Jaiden looked over at the child, tensing as if she’d forgotten they were there.

“Ah… yeah.” She cast a look to Vegetta “we just have to get the infection away.”

Vegetta bit his lip, motioning for Jaiden to meet him outside of the room. He didn’t expect her to fall into step with him as he started moving out, but the faster they had this talk the better.

“We don’t have the infection pills.” Jaiden spoke when she knew Leo couldn’t hear her “The infection is bad anyway, the black around the wound is a sign of cell decay. Gangrene- Gods I don’t even know if that’s set in yet- we’re going to need to take that part of his tail off. I can salvage as much as possible, but we’re either gonna need antibiotics or whatever the Mer use to get rid of infection on their own.”

Vegetta winced. They couldn’t go back to shore- not with the Mer on board. Federation would find something wrong with the boat and search it- they’d take Leo and her father very quickly. The other Merpeople probably wouldn’t be receptive to the humans either, what with how they’d practically been dumping in their waters “Are there any other options?”

 “I could try cauterizing it, but I’m not sure he wants to go through that pain.” Jaiden sighed “And… I don’t want the kid to see it.”

Vegetta bit his lip in thought, knowing all three choices were bad options. The longer they waited though, the longer the adult went without care. Vegetta knew his crew would suffer the consequences if he killed a Mer- especially one like the adult. If he was powerful enough to break what they thought was indestructible glass, what could the other ones do? What would they do? 

Vegetta did know. So, taking a deep breath, he decided.

“Tell Roier to get Maximus, we’re cauterizing it.”

There was a rush of people around her dad.

Leo had her back turned to them, away from the wound, away from the noise. It was all so loud, she couldn’t focus even when Vegetta tried to say something to her.

So, she instead watched Foolish.

Her father was a strong man, she knew that much. How he’d let himself starve and develop an infection was beyond her understanding, but he was smart nonetheless. He’d kept her safe for as long as he could manage, he took her on adventures and made sure she was well-loved. She couldn’t imagine a world without his warmth, without his silliness.

He was still pale, but he didn’t have the strained expression Leo had noticed the past few days. Though she hadn’t understood at first, she did now.

Oh might Kraken, how hadn’t she figured it out sooner?

She felt a light tap on the glass, but didn’t turn. It wasn’t Vegetta, he never tapped on the glass. He always called her name, said something to indicate it was him. If it wasn’t Vegetta, she didn’t want to talk- especially if it was one of the many unfamiliar people crowding the room.

Her dad suddenly had a pained expression on his face, grunting in a stream of bubbles. Leo rushed closer to him, grabbing one of his hands for support. This was something she’d seen Tio Bad do for Tio Fit when the octopus Mer had to chop off his own leg- wait.

Leo’s head turned quickly, seeing the humans use what looked like a knife to peel off part of her father’s tail- going so far that she didn’t think Foolish would swim normal again. 

She surged out of the water quickly, crying out.

“Stop! Too far! He won’t swim!” Tears fell from her eyes and into the water as the humans seemingly ignored her- well, everyone except Vegetta. “¡Detenerlos! ¡La aleta de papá se dañará demasiado!”

Vegetta nodded subtly, barking out a few orders Leo didn’t understand in her frantic brain. She nearly sobbed in relief when the man holding what she now saw as a glowing red knife move it closer to the blackened part of Foolish’s tail. Meanwhile, Vegetta cast a worried look to Leo. Burned flesh was starting to permeate the air, but Leo didn’t notice.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the humans all gave way for Jaiden. The avian started wrapping the wound in something Leo didn’t recognize- it was nothing like her seaweed bandage. Vegetta on the other hand herded everyone else out and locked the door when they were gone.

When he approached the tank, Leo launched herself from the water and practically tackled him in a hug.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you.” They sobbed, feeling the pirate captain stumble at the sudden weight and move to hold them so their tail wouldn’t hang awkwardly. “You saved him.”

Vegetta hugged back after he got over the shock, pressing his head into Leo’s hair.

“Yeah… yeah of course we did.” He murmured “I never want to hurt you or your father again.” 

Leo hugged him tighter. This man was kind, he listened and took them seriously- despite them being only a child. He trusted Leo knew what they were talking about, and maybe, just maybe, he would start asking them more questions instead of learning from dusty old books.

Leo had a feeling that after today, Vegetta would do so within hesitation.

Chapter Text

Vegetta waited for the adult Mer to wake up. 

He didn't have it in him to leave Leo alone with the unconscious man- not when the adult was supposed to lay with his tail out of the tank for a while. Besides, Leo was good company, he always made sure she ate enough. 

It's the least you can do. A voice reminded him. Take them from their home, their family, hurt them, only watch as the shark starves himself for his child. What kind of a human are you? One your friends would be proud of? I don't think so. 

Vegetta let out a breath. Yeah, okay, no more thinking for a while. Instead, he should focus on learning more about the Merpeople from Leonarda. Like, for starters, Leo's family. Or Pod, for that matter.

"There's..." Leo took a moment to count on her hands, head above water "Nine of us! Five adults and two kids."

Vegetta nodded, making a mental note of it. "Yeah?" he prompted.

"Yeah! There's Tio Bad, Tio Fit, Tio Slime, and Tio Mariana-" Leo held up his hands, raising a finger for each name he said "Then there's Dapper, Ramon, Juannaflippa, Pa, and me!"

Vegetta smiled "Can you tell me a bit about them?" He wanted to know how fucked he was.

Leo nodded quickly "Tio Bad's got all these scars on him- they stick out 'cuz he has inky skin. He knows Pa from a long time ago, they mess with each other a lot. Dapper is Tio Bad's kid, they look almost just like Tio Bad- but they have brown eyes instead of white. Tio Fit's an Octopus, and his son Ramon is too. Tio Fit is bald, so shiny stuff reflects off of his head!" Leo giggled "Ramon has brown hair and a strangle little scarf around his mouth that has a mustache embroi-embro- embroidereded on the front. Tio Slime is a Jellyfish, and Tio Mariana is an anglerfish. They're married and have a daughter- my best friend Juannaflippa!" Vegetta found himself mimicking Leo's bright smile.

"You both must get along very well." he replied, wondering briefly if children ever felt anxiety over being ignored or not listened to (Which is why he would periodically ask questions or make comments instead of nodding and making noise).

"We do! Flippa is an anglerfish like her mum, but she has Tio Slime's green eyes! They all have glasses- which sometimes break... but Dada Foolich and Tio Fit fix them!" Leo cast a look to their father, frowning. "Is... is he gonna be okay?"

Vegetta looked to the adult as well, feeling his heart clench. Jaiden said it would be a few days before he woke up, needing to sleep off infection. Leonarda corroborated this fact, recalling the time her Tio Fit had chopped off a tentacle and then slept for nearly a week after.

(Why was she there to see it?)

Now that it had been nearly three more days, Vegetta was starting to lightly worry. Leo kept saying that her dad was strong, that he'd once fought five whole whales and all he got was a single scratch for it! She's pointed out the scar on her dad's body, a winding one on his left arm. He had a lot of scars, ones Leo could identify... and ones she could not. 

"Yeah, he'll wake up when he's ready." Vegetta had to be a rock for Leo. Even if he was unsure of what was happening, he couldn't allow Leo to think for a second that her father wouldn't be okay. 

"He's all I have left." Leo murmured, so quiet Vegetta almost missed it. "When I was younger- I remember someone else being there. They didn't last long, but I remember them sometimes. They had glasses like Tio Slime, but there were darker panes of glass in them. I... don't remember what they looked like other than that though. Sometimes I ask Dad, but he always says that the Mer wasn't my other parent. I don't know where they went, but I remember going to a lot of funerals. Maybe they were the reason for one."

Vegetta frowned. That... was kind of depressing for a child. He supposed it was reasonable for Leo to be so aware though, having lived in the ocean all of her life. She would know horrors he did not- have experiences he did not. He supposed her father was the same. 

"What about you?" Leo asked, looking to Vegetta and tilting her head. "What's your family like?"

"I uh..." Vegetta bit his lip awkwardly. "My family is small. Just my parents, myself, and my sister."

"Are they like you?"

(Are they good?)

Are they monsters?

"N-No. My mom always told me to stay away from pirates and their stories, she said Mermaids and sea creatures like that didn't exist. My father wanted me to take over the family business, but I left before he could make me take ownership. My sister is distant, off with her husband. I don't see her often." Vegetta sighed "They're rich, but... normal. Not like me."

Leo nodded. "Are you the only nice human ever?"

Vegetta chuckled. Nice? That was a way to describe him. "What do you mean?"

"Pa always says that humans are destructive and mean. When you first caught me I thought that too. When you separated us, I thought that. But when you were nice to me... When you helped Dada Foolich..." Leo blew air across the surface of the water. "Well, I guess I think you're nice now. I like you a lot. More than the nice medicine lady- and she gave me candy that one time!"

Vegetta smiled, eyes softening. He opened his mouth to say something, but was swiftly interrupted by a stream of bubbles from the adult Mer.

He was waking up.

His back fucking hurt.

Foolish groaned, feeling heat still cling to his body. It wasn't as much as before, but he suppose he didn't have to take in the warmth since his back ached and his tail felt so dry-

"Pa!" And Leo was right there. 

She hugged his arm tightly, laughing at something. He wasn't sure if she was happy or hysterical, but he grunted and turned to hug her back. He felt his tail shift, and realized that it was, in fact, bone dry. He went to move it into the water, but-

"You can't get this wet." Warm hands- strangely familiar warm hands held it in place. Foolish's eyes popped open, and his green eyes met the pirate captain's purple ones. His eyes immediately narrowed, and Vegetta backed off slightly. "Sorry, sorry." instead he grabbed something from the small table that had closed books stacked into a couple of rough towers. "Hungry?"

He was, but... "Leo..."

"I'm full, Pa!" The young girl smiled, happy her dad was alive. "Vegetta makes sure I eat good!"

Foolish directed a suspicious gaze to the pirate captain, who stuck two fish into the water.

"I'm... sorry for what happened." The man bowed his head once he'd stepped back "We didn't realize the portions were off. There is no excuse for our actions."

Foolish leaned up to grab the fish from their free-float to the bottom of the tank. "What happened?"

"An infection- remember that time Tio Fit's tentacle got all black and dead?" Foolish winced at Leo's explanation. 

"You were supposed to be with Slime and Mariana, not peaking around corners." he gently chided, before his eyes widened, gaze suddenly snapping to his tail. Did they...?

"It wasn't that much, but we did have to cut off the dead parts of your fin." Vegetta informed "We also had to cauterize the wound to try and get the infection gone, but we think you're going to swim just fine. Thanks to Leo, we didn't cut too far into the healthy part of your tail."

Leo smiled shyly. "He listens to me." She leaned over to whisper into Foolish's ear, which made the adult Mer smile.

Vegetta looked to the door "Do you want me to... Go so you two can rest.?"

The shark Mer found a sudden appreciation for the pirate captain. He was being considerate, he was feeding Foolish and Leo better- he'd made sure his crew didn't cripple them. This was a far cry from the humans he used to know- from the humans he'd had to kill in the past. Popping a fish into his mouth- bones and all -Foolish shook his head. 

"Please, stay." He could give this guy a shot. If Leo liked him and he already had a long list of good deeds that tried to right the bad ones, then he was worth getting to know. "I'm Foolish, by the way."

Vegetta smiled, glad that the adult didn't seem to hate him anymore. 

"Vegetta."

Chapter Text

Healing never came easy. 

For Merpeople, usually it meant days of rest, for with the ocean infected with waste as time continued it's crawl on, there was a higher risk of an infection. Foolish remembered Fit's mistake in that department, an incident Leo loved to remind him of constantly. He remembered the fear of those days, when Fit had first gotten the injury to when he'd come to Foolish with the limb as black as death itself. It was terrifying, the thought he'd lose another of his Pod. 

Yet when it came to his own infection, Foolish had the horrifying realization that he hadn't cared in what felt like his last moment. He didn't say goodbye to Leo, didn't tear up at the thought of never getting to mess with Bad or Dapper or Ramon ever again. He didn't lament the fact that would never get to watch Slime and Mariana's loving arguments, or Juannaflippa's reaction just being to throw rocks at her parents. He'd just... resigned himself to what he thought his fate was. 

Maybe it was because he was starving, his instinct to always let Leo eat first wining over his own need for sustenance. Starfish always made him more hungry anyway- he saw why Leo didn't like them. Maybe it was also because he'd thought this was the end. He may have survived encounters with humans before, but that was when he didn't have a child, back when he could break glass and wood and bend metal without worrying for anyone's safety. Foolish eyed the still cracked glass of his tank. He was surprised it had stayed up, and that the Humans kept them in there. 

Speaking of Humans, Vegetta was speaking with Leo. He'd been listening since he'd woken up, eating his fish and watching as the human and Foolish's son interacted. Vegetta was gentle with Leo- he was nice. He didn't expect such gentleness from a human- much less a seaman like the purple eyed man. 

"And the reef! Dad won't tell me it's legends, says I'm too young- but he promised to tell me on my birthday as a bedtime story!" Leo was waving her hands around, voice muffled to Foolish's ears as he was underwater and she was not. "Well- he was supposed to."

Vegetta winced, casting a glance to the adult Mer. Foolish laughed, waving him off. It was a story that could wait until they were home, he didn't fancy retelling his culture in front of a human- not when this specific ritual was sacred. 

"Oh- but I know all about the seaweed side!" Leo continued on, not noticing the silent conversation in front of her. "Tio Slime says that's where Juannaflippa was found, somewhere near the old shipwreck. Tio Mariana thinks that the place is haunted, planted by seacreatures that have been dead for a long long long time!" 

"Mariana told you that?" Foolish chuckled, Vegetta casting him a glance "I thought Bad would have put that in your head."

Leo ducked his head underwater to blow bubbles at his dad. "It's true! Me and Flippa found bones we didn't recognize! Weird spider bits and all!"

"That just sounds like a Kraken." Foolish grunted, shifting slightly. He saw Vegetta's hand twitch, knowing the captain wanted to make sure his tail didn't accidentally slip into the water "How big was it?"

"Like- fifteen yous!" Leo exclaimed, doing a small backflip through the water in her excitement. "Big bones! Tio Bad saw them though, and the next time we went back they were gone. I think he took them for that weird bone house he's making for Dapper."

Foolish chuckled, a soft smile on his face. He forgot about what could have been his death, what his regrets were. He forgot he was in the tank with a stupid injury, and for a moment he forgot Vegetta was a human when he too started laughing. 

For a moment, Foolish didn't understand why he didn't want to fight death, when this beautiful life was in front of him. 

Vegetta got to know Foolish better over the next few days. 

With both the adult Mer and the child Mer eating better than they had before, he watched as they healed quicker- how the infection broke and how Foolish was more lively when he was well-fed. 

Leo was the one who healed fully first, to nobody's surprise. And when she wanted to test how fast she could go in the tank, Vegetta was shocked to see Foolish nod when Leo requested to go to the empty tank to test her healed tail. 

With this display drew more attention, and soon enough Vegetta's crew started to visit the two Mers more often. Jaiden would come around to change Foolish's bandage and they'd talk about what kind of fish tasted the best, Maximus would come down more than once to finally fix that damn tank now that they knew Foolish wouldn't rip their spines out. Roier loved to interact with Leo when she got the zoomies and had to be put in the empty tank, speaking to her about his own son and how much she reminded him of the kid back at shore. 

This also happened to be the time both Mer learned about their legends on the island. 

"The older locals like my abuelo say that a ship was sunk over by the reef many years ago." Roier said to Leo the fifth day he'd stopped by, leaning against the rim of the tank and peering into the water as Leo swum back and forth. "He says that there was no reason for it."

"Huh? Oh, I know that place!" Leo replied, head rising out of the water. "Papa did that!" She smiled "It happened before I was born, so I dunno how long ago that was- but Tio Bad loved to tell stories about it!"

Across the room, Quackity and Vegetta paused in their conversation to listen in. So it was a Merperson. 

Roier tilted his head "Why would he sink it?" Vegetta would have to thank the young man later, he always asked the right questions. 

"Because I think someone died. I dunno who though, Tio Bad didn't say who. Just that she died because of them." A lover? A Daughter? Vegetta wasn't sure. Who was worth sinking a ship for? "Dada Foolich said that one day he'll tell me though, maybe in a few hatching days!"

Maybe Leo was worth sinking a ship over, Vegetta had witnessed the now docile adult Mer nearly go rabid over the young child, but according to them, this was before they were born? Vegetta sighed, turning back to his conversation with Quackity. He noted Jaiden entering the cabin, squeezing between Philza and Maximus. Both were in what looked like a heated argument, but if Vegetta took another glance he would see the slight upturn of Maximus' lips that indicated that it was all in good fun. 

Jaiden settled next to Foolish's tail, greeting the Mer warmly. Foolish smiled at her presence, both idly chatting away as Jaiden unwrapped the bandages and looked at the Mer's tail. With a bright smile, she leaned over the opened top of the tank. 

"You're good to go, I'll let the captain know and I'm sure you'll be back in the sea soon." She gently nudged the Mer's tail, watching as Foolish immediately drew it back into the water. With a splash, Jaiden laughed as she got soaked. The noise drew the attention of the other humans plus Leo, all watching as Foolish examined his wound- and the sizable gap that had been left behind. 

Vegetta hoped that the heat rising to his cheeks wasn't because of the extatic smile on Foolish's face, but he couldn't come up with another reason for it.

Chapter Text

The children were spying on the boat. 

It had been less active above decks the last few days, a commotion inside of the wooden structure the only indicator that there was still something alive in there. Ramon had tried to climb the side of the boat a few days ago, but Fit had found the trio and put an end to that very quickly. 

Dapper had never heard his Tio sound so scared like that before. 

Today, there was activity above decks, humans calling out to each other and shuffling things around. Flippa thought it would be a good idea to get the adults, and Ramon had agreed with her. They'd left Dapper there, the boy's eyes rising above the choppy waves to see as the nets finally pulled themselves from the depths and onto the ship. There were fifty different kinds of fish in each net, and Dapper knew that the humans would not be casting the unbreakable traps again as he saw multiple humans lock the pulley systems. 

Before he could see much else, he was pulled below the surface suddenly. He nearly breathed water in through his nose at the sudden change, eyes widening when he saw his father and the other adults surrounding them. 

"What have we told you about being near the ship?" Fit was scolding Ramon "You could have gotten seriously hurt- caught and killed!"

"We were trying to come up with a plan!" Juannaflippa whined "We wanna help!"

"We still have a few more days, I'm sure of it." Bad said as he held Dapper close. He didn't scold the young Merling as he should have, but Dapper always seemed to understand when he was being too reckless. 

"They pulled up all the nets, locked the pulleys." Dapper said quietly "There's no more time, They'll pull up their anchor soon, 'specially because they won't be getting fish anymore."

The adults froze. There hadn't been any major indication that both of their missing Pod members were dead just yet, but they felt like this might be a damn good reasoning for the sudden move. What if they'd only stayed to get more Mer, and now they had to leave because not only they didn't get another one but they'd also killed the two in captivity?

How would they do a funeral without a body, anyway?

Dapper didn't wanna think about it, about Leonarda being dead. He'd already tried to mourn the other child's death, knowing that the blood Tio Fit had found might have been enough to indicate a fatal wound. He didn’t wanna accept that he'd never hear or see one of his best friends ever again- that he'd never get to play hide and seek with them again. 

Suddenly, a body hit the water. It was a small splash, and a familiar giggle rang through the sea. Moments later, a larger body made a bigger splash. Dapper wrenched himself away from is father, looking to the boat. 

And there they were- Leo and Foolish were back. 

As it turned out, getting Foolish out of the room he'd been sleeping in for the better part of a month was easier than he thought. 

He remembered them putting him in, the excruciating pain, the feeling of his claw ripping itself from his finger- he thought it would happen again, that the cold hands of humans would remind him to never trust them again, even if they were setting them free.

But surprisingly, as Jaiden took Leo upstairs, there was no net to be found. Only three humans, Vegetta included. Foolish tilted his head, eyebrow slowly raising as they sorta stood around for a moment. It was as if they didn't know what to do- or how to do whatever they were planning. 

"So uh- we need to lift you." A male avian with blonde hair finally said "What's... the most comfortable, I guess?"

Foolish's lips parted in surprise. They were gonna carry him? Like a boulder? 

"Oh- uh-" Foolish's eyebrows furrowed, surprise wiped clean off of his face. "I guess two at the tail and one at the arms?" He shrugged "I've never been... Carried above water before."

A man with sunglasses snickered. "Ah, alright then!" He turned to Vegetta "Captain, you get his arms."

"Who're you to decide that?" The violet eyed man chuckled, but nodded anyway. 

From there, the humans weren't sure how to get the adult out of the tank. Foolish watched as they sort of looked around in thought, before sighing and grabbing the rim of his tank. 

Using all of his strength, the three humans were mesmerized as the adult Mer lifted his entire body out of the tank and landed on the floor with a dull thud that might have also splintered the floor a little. 

"C'mon now, I wanna get back home." Foolish's voice took them out of their stunned silences, the three rushing to lift the male with sandy yellow skin.

Vegetta found himself staring into the green eyes that were brighter than he'd ever seen them when the trio finally made it upstairs (Maximus kept complaining about his back hurting from having to squat, but the other three only laughed about it), enjoying how they sparked like treasure. 

Leo's happy squeals distracted Vegetta, and Foolish looked over to see his daughter point at the waters below. 

"They know we're coming home, Pa!" their smile was bright, eyes sparkling just as their father's did. "I just saw Dapper!"

Foolish chuckled, shifting as he was put down on the deck next to the railing that led overboard. "Why don't you go say hello?" He suggested, Leo nodding quickly before hugging Jaiden and bidding the rest of the crew a farewell before launching herself off of the boat and into the water. 

Foolish laughed as Leonarda's body made a small splash, before turning to the rest of the crew. 

"I will make sure you have safe travels back to shore." He promised "Thank you for freeing us."

Vegetta nodded to him. "Anytime, friend."

Foolish's cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, but no human saw as he turned away and lifted his body over the railing. Leaning forward, he let a laugh fall from his lips as he felt air fall through his hair before he hit the water. 

The ocean was... calm. It was home. It was wide and vast and Foolish had nearly forgotten how home felt. It felt warm, safe despite the dangers that lay further in the deep.

As he regained his senses, a body crashed into his. Foolish felt himself spin a bit as the person hugged him tightly, sobbing in relief. A few moments later, he realized that it was Bad.

Fit wasn't far behind, patting Foolish on the back. A few feet away, the children were dogpiling Leonarda. 

"Thought we lost you there!" Charlie smiled, floating close to Foolish "Now never do that again, alright?"

Foolish laughed "What, you think I did that on purpose?"

"One can never know with you." Bad released Foolish after a moment, swiping at his face but joking despite himself. 

"Wha- did you guys even miss me at all?" The Shark Mer looked at the four other adults suspiciously.

"Eh, not really." Mariana shrugged, though Foolish knew when he was lying.

"That's it, I'm telling Vegetta to take me back!" The shark Mer huffed, crossing his arms.

"Who's Vegetta?" Bad asked curiously, frowning.

"Oh- shit that's right." Foolish smiled sheepishly. "You have a lot to catch up on."

"We're all ears man, but let's get you home." Fit gently coaxed. "Unless you want to destroy the boat first?"

"Well, about that..." Foolish chuckled nervously. "I'm overseeing their trip home to make sure nothing bad happens."

It was quiet for a moment.

"Wait, WHAT!?"

Chapter Text

It was one day before Vegetta and his crew set sail back to the island. Foolish had one day to convince his Pod that he'd be alright to escort the ship.

Fit knew something was off with Foolish as soon as they'd started swimming back to their small home. He saw how Foolish had seemingly forgotten to swim- and how he'd become leaner and slightly more sickly. His golden skin had been replaced with the pale yellow sand that lay at the bottom of the sea, his eyes were dark and his face looked slightly sunken in. It didn't take long to figure out why. 

"Long story!" Leo was saying to Juannaflippa, who'd asked why they looked a but worse for wear. They were laying outside of Foolish's home, unknowingly in earshot of the adults. "So first they got Pa, and then four days later I tried to go look at the place we found the dead Human's body. The alive ones had reset the net that caught Pa though, and I was captured. The net ripped my tail." He held up his tail for Juannaflippa to see, Dapper and Ramon peeking out from atop the house where they were spying to also see the scar. "I think I freaked the humans out more than Pa at first, they had to stitch me up and I couldn't swim that fast. Then they put me in what they called a fish tank- this biiiiig glass cage with water. There were two of them, and I was separated from Pa for a minute." Leonarda chuckled "Dada Foolich got mad though, and he hit the glass like Bam! Pow!" They waved their hands in the air in an attempt to mimic their father. "That made the pirate captain get scared, so he put me with Pa before he broke his own tank!"

"You what?" Bad hissed, looking over at Foolish. The shark Mer was eating what looked like a feat of fish, an eel halfway out of his mouth when Bad addressed him. Foolish only shrugged, continuing to eat. He had a lot of food to catch up on, and if he wanted to keep his energy for tomorrow it was a good idea to start gaining back as much muscle as he could.

"After that, Pa made sure I ate well. The humans didn't know that we eat more than they do, so they were accidentally underfeeding us. Pa... almost died because of it." Leo's tone darkened, it was clear she still felt bad about the incident. "I think they also didn't feed Pa before I got there because they were scared of him. So... it was a while before he had a proper meal. He only ever ate starfish because I don't like how sugary they are."

Oh. Did starfish not make the others want to eat more? That was new. 

"Foolish!" Bad grabbed his arm "You almost died?!"

"In my defense, I slept a lot and I didn't think about telling the humans about it." The shark Mer lazily defended, knowing that he couldn't really defend anything. Instead of thinking about it though, Foolish just reached for another fish. The less the thought, the better. 

"When I finally figured it out, me and Vegetta (he's the captain of the ship, I like him) had to feed him! Then we saw his tail, I heard the medicine human say Pa had an infection. It was really scary, 'specially because I remembered the time Tio Fit had an infection." Leo recalled. Fit looked over at Foolish, bewildered

"She saw?" He asked, eyes wide. 

"Trust me, she'll never forget it." The shark Mer sighed through a mouthfull of fish. Bad tried to close his mouth, but Foolish swatted his hand away. "'M not a Merling, Bad."

"There was a lot happening after that. They tried to cut off more of Pa's tail fin than just the dead part, nobody listened when I told them not to- that he'd never swim right if they did." Leo shrunk in on herself, Juannaflippa wrapping an arm around her best friend's shoulder "But when I thought nobody heard, there Vegetta was. He told them to stop going so deep, that they were going through healthy parts. He saved Dada Foolich's tail."

Foolish wasn't fully aware of that part. He knew the Vegetta had listened to Leonarda while the humans were removing the dead spot, but the way she told it now... She must have been playing it up in front of the adults, not wanting to tell them how she really felt about the situation. 

"Anyway, then Pa was asleep a while. Vegetta stayed with me during that time, and we became best friends- kinda like me and you!" Leo's smile was back on her face then, glowing bright enough that Juannaflippa copied her. 

"But I'm your number one, right?" the girl with glasses and two braids joked.

"Of course!" Leo seemed to remember they were retelling the events of the past month. "Oh- then Pa woke up one day! And he no longer hated Vegetta! I didn't tell you this, but when Vegetta put me in Pa's tank Pa almost killed him- shredded up his arm! I swear I thought that human was gonna faint. But they're good now!" Leo's smile widened. "After that, we had to wait for both of our tails to heal. I met a lot of other cool humans. One of them has hands like fire! And another guy, he has a human child! There were a couple of them with things on their backs- the medicine woman has a pair and she said it helps her fly! She called them wings!"

Juannaflippa's eyes widened. "Wings!? Dad's mentioned that he knew someone with those a long long time ago!"

Leo nodded, continuing the last bit of his story. "Then today came, and we were set free! I got to watch three whole humans carry Pa up the stairs, it was so silly." 

Flippa laughed, Dapper and Ramon racing down to the two so they could pick Leo's brain.

"Sounds... exciting." Slime's narrowed eyes looked to Foolish. "Now why are you going back with them?"

Foolish huffed "Because I kinda owe them." he replied "The humans here have no idea we exist, they're so misinformed I'm afraid a stray Mer might try and take advantage of them or sink their ship. The captain told me about how the islanders have a folktale about the other side of their island, how ships go out there and go missing all of the time. I think it's a swarm of Mer, and from recent reports it sounds like they're starting to migrate this way."

"So let them??" Bad frowned "Foolish- they starved you! They hurt Leo!"

"I know." Foolish sighed "But Vegetta has tried to right his wrongs by returning us and making sure we're fed well and that we've healed correctly. I figure to show appreciation, I should make sure they have a safe travel back."

"You're unbelievable." Bad's head hit the stone table he'd tried to steal many times.

"I think you mean 'too good for the world'." Fit sighed "Foolish, if you want to escort them, I'm going with to make sure nothing happens. You might trust them, but we do not."

The shark Mer shrugged "Fair enough." he said "Can I keep eating now?"

Mariana barked out a sudden laugh, startling Foolish. He'd honestly forgotten the other man was there with how quiet he'd been. The other Mer soon followed Mariana's laughter, all finding the nature of this conversation silly. Who expected the goofy man with golden skin and green eyes to be serious anyway?

Back on the ship, Vegetta found himself navigating his body to where the Mer used to be. He had to remind himself not to be shocked when he found an empty room, tanks cold for the first time in a while. 

Oh yeah, they were gone. The thought was almost saddening to the violet eyed man, but he knew that the two Mer would not have wanted to stay with him. They lived a very different lifestyle than him, and he should count himself Foolish would be watching over the ship as they traveled back to Quesadilla island the next day. 

That didn't mean Vegetta didn't feel loneliness clench at his chest. He'd miss them, Leo especially. He didn't know how Foolish felt about him, the green eyes of the shark Mer always always observing him. He couldn't read the man, not like he could read Leo. 

Still though, Vegetta would like to think they're at least friends by now. 

Walking away from the room with sailor legend books stacked on a lonely table, Vegetta made his way to where the rest of his crew slept. He practically fell into his hammock, feeling his body melt into the familiar fabric. Despite the gnawing loneliness, Vegetta managed to fall asleep in his spot for the first time since Foolish had gotten his infection and fallen deathly ill.

Chapter Text

There was a fucking man on Vegetta's boat. 

Even better, he was half-octopus.

"Fit! Get your ass down here and stop threatening the humans!" Now that they were aware that Merpeople existed, the creatures seemed hellbent on always finding new ways to surprise them. 

Surprise of the day: The octopus Mer that was holding Philza upside down by his ankle. 

"For the love of a Siren's mother!" Foolish's groan was heard by Vegetta, the shark Mer swimming beside the boat "I'm telling Ramon he can come with us if you don't behave!"

"I'm just having a little fun!" But as the bald Mer's eyes swept over the crew, his brown shaded gaze locked onto Vegetta's violet eyes. The message was clear- he didn't trust them. 

"Have a little fun in the fucking water, you maniac!" But Foolish's call made the burly Mer sigh and put Phil back on his feet before diving into the water again. "Sorry guys!"

"It's all good, mate!" Philza leaned over the railing once he'd gathered his bearings, chuckling at the way the shark Mer had the octopus Mer's head pushed underwater "Your friend there's a bit fiesty, isn't he?"

Foolish chuckled "Always has been!" And with a splash, Vegetta knew Foolish had been yanked below the surface. 

With their guardians (could it be considered plural? Could it really?) having arrived, the crew felt safe to sail. These were dangerous waters now, with what they'd discovered- who they'd discovered not always keen with kindness. Vegetta knew that if the Federation found out it would spell the end for Foolish's little Pod, so as Quackity got to steering the ship, he was moving around the deck and swearing everyone to secrecy. They all readily agreed, having gotten to know one of both of the Mers during the rehabilitation phase of their stay. They'd all shamelessly grown attached to Leo, and had a spreading fondness for Foolish. 

Some more than others, but I digress. 

Foolish and Fit had never ventured this close to the island before. 

It was in eyesight, yes, but neither Mer had ever been keen on visiting. Neither had Slime or Bad, and their children were usually the same. Sometimes Mariana went, but it was only to find shells easier, and he never brought the children along. He wasn't a fool, Slime would end him! Fit almost had once when Ramon tried to secretly follow the angler fish, but Foolish had put a stop to that. 

And that may have been the reason why Slime found out Mariana was cheating on him.

The topic of that event wasn't brought up often, the children being too young to remember why Foolish left for a while, or why Mariana slept in the reef instead of his family's small rock shelf that neighbored Fit and Ramon's weird maze-like home. All they knew was that those events happened, and for now they were content. It wasn't even like that lasted too long either, a few months later and everything had been smoothed out. 

(Nevermind the fact that Leo was now terrified to go even a day without her dad, she always wanted to see him, always wanted to be by his side.)

Mariana's family was a... late addition to Foolish's Pod, back when the original three Mer were struggling with the reef and how new coral was growing as more of their old Pod died off. Then the children got found and Slime and Mariana showed up and... Maybe Foolish and Mariana had some fun that night under the moonlit waves. Foolish wasn't that close with Slime at first anyway, he had no way of knowing the two's relationship. 

After the scandal though, he made sure to thoroughly familiarize himself with it. Never make the same mistake twice, that's what Eret used to say.

Fit bumped against the ship as they swam  next to it, laughing as it rocked against him. "They're so easy to mess with, how'd you not break out day one?"

"Stairs, they have stairs." Foolish deadpanned "Not great to drag myself against, I'd rather take starvation and infection."

Fit sighed, an emotion Foolish couldn't identify passing through his eyes. "I'm sorry we didn't get to you faster, and that Leo had to go through all that."

"We're alright now, that's what matters." Foolish replied, focusing on the path ahead. "We can't change the past, but we can shape the future. That's why I'm making sure these humans are safe. If I don't extend a kindness to them, they may go looking for more trouble."

Fit nodded "I know, I just wanted to tell you." He huffed "It's been on my mind for a few weeks, is all."

Foolish smiled "You're a good friend, Fit." He watched as the seafloor started to get closer as they approached the shore. Up ahead, wooden pillars shot down and held steady in the sand. Foolish remembers humans calling this structure a dock. 

Vegetta's ship slowed to a stop next to the end of said dock, shouting coming from above the platform the wood pillars sat on. Foolish and Fit exchanged a look, before they swam below the structure and listened in on the humans. 

(Could you blame them? They didn't just spend an hour going to the island to head back when the job was done- talk about a tail ache!)

"Vegetta!" Someone with a thick accent Foolish thought sounded like Philza's called "Did you find your little fairytale?"

"Ay, no." Fit and Foolish exchanged a look. "looks like Roier's abuelo is full of it, as ya thought."

"Wha- hey!" This was a good start. If Vegetta hadn't spilled the beans yet, that meant his crew would follow his lead. "He's a smart man!"

"One who believes in too much fairytale." a Spanish sounding man teased, standing next to the first man "Now where is Phil? Chayanne has been missing his father!"

"I'm here, Missa." The sound of the disgruntled avian made Fit chuckle, Foolish shooting the Mer a look. "Just gimme a minute."

"I hear Vegetta's returned!" A new person's footsteps vibrated against the dock, followed by a more silent pair. "Tell me, my friend, are Mermaids real?"

"No." Fit and Foolish nodded to each other. Yes, yes! This was great news! Fit may not trust them all that much, but even he could appreciate the lie that was spread for their safety. "Wilbur and Missa were right, I'm afraid."

"Unfortunate, Antoine really wanted to meet one." Foolish could hear the person's smile "Anyhow, would your crew like help unloading? Cucurucho's behind me, he wishes to speak with you."

Foolish smelt Vegetta's tense pause over the musty scent of wood stained with saltwater, eyes narrowing. Whoever this 'Cucurucho' fellow was, he set Vegetta and his crew on edge. 

"Yes, yes, that would be very helpful Pierre." but the pirate captain's voice didn't portray any discomfort he may have felt. "Quackity can help with where you need to put our cargo."

Foolish heard heavy boots hit the Dock, the slide of what sounded like a wood ramp clattering onto the structure following close behind. Foolish and Fit tried to follow as the heavy pair of steps belonging to Vegetta and the light steps of who they assumed to be Cucurucho moved away from the ship. Though, when the two stepped onto land, Foolish and Fit couldn't continue with their eavesdropping. 

Looking at the shark Mer, Fit motioned for them to head back to the reef. Foolish tiredly agreed, feeling as if the journey too more out of him than anything he’d ever done in his entire life.

Chapter Text

Leo lasted twelve hours without the pirate captain. 

To be fair, they had a lot to think about, and a lot to catch up on! They had to go find more shells than Dapper, gather more weird gadgets from the shipwreck than Ramon, and be the best hider in the reef when Juannaflippa wanted to play hide and seek! There was so much to do, they didn't have time to think about what they'd gone through, or the new friend they'd made. 

But when everyone retreated into their homes for the night, his father and Fit having arrived back not long after sundown, it was then that Leo started to think. 

She was in the doorway of her room, but the space felt strange- way too cold to be hers. She missed her dad, missed being curled up next to him. So the next best thing to do was crash on Foolish's shelf, of course! She may dislike how rough the stone felt on her skin, but Foolish acted like such a good mattress that it didn't matter.

Her dad had fallen asleep nearly the second he'd returned home, so it wasn't exactly hard to sneak into the room. He was a heavy sleeper, if she'd learned anything. 

But as he lay there, Leo still felt like something was missing. Vegetta had read him stories before bed on the ship during those rough first nights of his father's sickness, the human legends of his sea- the secrets it held. He remembered Vegetta's laughter at his curiosity, gently reminding the Mer that he was meant to go to sleep. 

Leo frowned, curling up into a tighter ball. Did they miss it that much? That ship was dark and cold at times, but the people inside of it brought a smile to Leo's face. They loved Vegetta and Roier and their silly human legends. They adored Jaiden and Philza, the two avian allowing Leo to gawk at their wings without seeming uncomfortable. Maximus was always a pleasure to speak with, and Leo even liked Quackity, even though he never talked to them!

The Merling huffed, hearing Foolish mumble something in his sleep. His heart was steady, something that lulled Leo into a slight fog of sleep. She could always count of her Pa to help her sleep, he was just like that, she supposed. Despite how rowdy the Shark Mer was, he could always put her into a calm rest. Nobody had ever done that for her until Vegetta, nobody else understood exactly how. 

Maybe now Leo could have two dads instead of one? It was only logical since Vegetta was so nice to her, even if he did act like Leo's dad when he told her to swim slower because of her healing wound- or when he started making sure she didn't eat too fast and choke once they got her on a more Mer-oriented diet. 

Yeah, that was a logical conclusion to make. Leo'd have to ask Vegetta later though, whenever he saw the human again. 

"Cucurucho a bitch." Vegetta honestly couldn't agree with Philza's words more 

"What did he do now, friend?" But instead of visibly agreeing, Vegetta instead had to question his crew. He never knew who's ears were listening, or what they were trying to dig up.

"Took Tallulah and Chayanne from Wilbur so Missa had to go fuckin' get custody back." Philza huffed "Tallulah's not even mine! Yet Cucurcho's ass seems to thinks so. Swear to Gods if I can get a match lit around that fucker it's over."

Vegetta chuckled "How about we go get drunk to ease your troubles, yes?" He pat the avian on the back. 

"Ah, he's fuckin' with you too?" Phil peered at the violet eyed man suspiciously "You're not usually one to get drunk after such a long trip, Captain."

"I will tell you on the way, friend." Vegetta chuckled, watching as the black feathered avian nodded and waved Roier and Maximus over. A black haired male with a skull mask simply sighed at how many kids he was left with, Jaiden laughing as her own son jumped onto the man's back. 

"So, spill." With a flourish, Philza had begun their stride to the tavern. "What's that asshole trying to blackmail from you now?"

"I'm not sure, it just said it knew I was lying." Vegetta said thoughtfully, hearing Roier stiffen as he followed. "I do not know how it came to this conclusion, especially when Mermaids are of legend. The worst problem we had out there was a shark, remember?"

Philza laughed, a mischievous twinkle in his eye "A problem for you maybe." He teased "Your arm got fucked  'cause of it, and we had to stay out and try to kill it."

Vegetta grunted "Even then, it's body sunk to the bottom of the sea."

"What a waste of a harpoon." Maximus agreed, smiling. "Glad Jaiden could find the rope for it though, she got it back."

"Not without losing the damn shark." Philza shrugged "Eh, ya win some and ya lose some."

"Wish we'd gotten to eat some though, never had shark." Roier finally forced out, relaxing slightly. 

"You see anyone?" Vegetta murmured to the other male, who gave a slight nod. "We will speak more later then." 

Roier let out a breath of relief, Maximus distracting Vegetta with an arm around his shoulder. 

"There is surely more though!" He called into the vast night "For the bear cannot have said just that, you took much too long!" 

"It was just trying to make me say Merpe-Mermaids are real." Vegetta clenched his jaw momentarily at his slip. "I denied it, but Cucurucho does not listen to facts." Poking fun was a good distraction. "It reminds me of your Abuelo, Roier, so strange."

"He's not strange!" The young sailor whined "He's smart!"

"He believes too many stories, mate." Philza chuckled as the group made it to a taven. Slipping inside, the noise would drown out any of their conversation to eavesdroppers.

The tavern itself wasn't all that special, rounded walls and a second floor for those who wished to go to the inn upstairs. Drunken people danced around tables and on open floor, firelight flickering to give dramatic shadow to those who moved too slow. 

Vegetta's group sat in the middle of the chaos, a barmaid setting drinks down in front of them mere moments after they'd arrived. Had they been expecting the four of them? Strange.

"So it's on your ass then?" Philza dropped his act almost instantly, taking a sip of his drink. Vegetta sniffed his mug. Oh, beer.

"Yes, Cucurucho kept saying something about a sighting- something with a green tail and pink hair." Vegetta shook his head "It is not those we met, neither Leo nor Foolish ever described such a Mer in their Pod."

Maximus frowned "So it is the swarm Foolish told you about?" He questioned "Y'know, the one that's been bothering Pierre and Antoine?"

"Don't be forgetting about Baghera, now." Philza added "She keeps telling me that the fish are thinning out, she's not sure if they'll survive wiith it come winter."

Vegetta's lips drew into a thin line. "We help, yes?" He proposed "They are kind, they help us. We should help them."

"Of course, Vegetta." Maximus nodded as Phil took another drink. "We are all friends!"

The pirate captain laughed "Oh yes, I forget sometimes."

Philza laughed "Remind me to never become an obscure person in your life." He joked "You may forget our relations."

Roier also started laughing "He has always been like this, do not worry!" He reassured "We're just not used to them, is all." 

Someone sat down at their table, a blonde haired woman with golden wings smiling brightly at the pirates. 

"Ah, speak of the devil!" Philza raising his mug "Bahgera, we have so much to tell you!"

Chapter Text

Its no secret why Leo has decided to go in this particular direction today.

The Merling has a keen sense of where land is, instinct from whatever past life they’d lived before lingering. Foolish knew it would stay that way for a few years before it faded, that’s how it was when he was young after all. Nonetheless, the Merling was dragging their father to the island Vegetta had docked at. 

Though he could have stopped the child, Foolish did not. Truth be told he almost missed the humans, whom he’d grown slightly relaxed around. They had no right to be called Pod, not after what had happened, but they were still friendly with the Merpeople. At least, with Foolish and Leonarda.

Foolish had to stiffle his giggles when he thought about Philza and Fit’s interaction.

Leo spotted the wooden pillars first, burbling excitedly. It was a sound Foolish hadn’t heard from her since she was young, and it caught him by surprise.

“Vegetta’s here!” Leo pointed to the bottom of a boot, ghosting the water. 

It was still considered early, Leo having woken up his father when Foolish shifted too harshly. He hadn’t gone back to bed then, instead waking up the shark Mer and dragging him on an adventure to the island. Above the waves, stars glinted as they started to sink, sun beginning it’s faint brushing against the sky to color it with deep blues and purples. 

Though, that wasn’t the beauty Foolish had come to see.

“Vegetta!” Leo, without much warning, leaped onto the pirate Captain’s boot happily, giggling as the human startled “I missed you!”

“Leo!?” He sounded tired, but ecstatic nonetheless. “How did you get here? Where’s your dad? Or a Tio???”

“Dada Foolich is below us, he’s makin’ sure theres no dangers!” Leo watched as Vegetta peered down into the water, seeing the faint flick of a gray tail he’d become very familiar with. “I have a question! I was thinking about it last night!”

“Yes, little one?” Vegetta chuckled, gently prying the Merling off of his boot and setting her beside him. 

“Can-“ Leo stopped for a moment, Foolish’s ear barely rising from beneath the docks. He was curious, could you blame him? “Uh… I’ve never asked anyone this before.”

The human chuckled, nodding “take your time.” he encouraged. “If you do not feel like asking me after all, that’s alright.”

“It’s just…” Leo bit their lip “Last night when I went to my room for sleep I felt lonely. I went to Pa’s room for more comfort but I still couldn’t get to bed.” They explained “Then I remembered that- that you read me stories to get me to sleep a lot.” They looked down at the water, tail swinging above the gentle waves “Nobody but Pa has ever been able to get me to sleep, not even Tio Bad. I couldn’t sleep without Pa tucking me in, and now I can’t sleep without you telling me a story.” Leo played with their fingers “And- I dunno, I feel safe with you. Like I feel safe with Pa.”

Vegetta’s hear melted “Leo-“

“I just wanted to ask if you would consider me your child? And if so, can I call you Dad too?” Leo shrunk in on herself, heartbeat rising. Foolish froze, as did Vegetta. 

But the freeze was gone from the human’s bones as soon as he processed it, heart practically a puddle in his boots. “Oh, mi hija.” He sighed softly, wrapping an arm around the young child’s shoulders and bringing her in for a hug. “Of course.”

Leo smiled, sniffling. Foolish ducked his ear back underwater, wanting to give them privacy. He continued to poke around the sand beneath the docks, trying to find whatever trinkets he could. A knife here, a piece of chainmail there, even a small stone sculpture of what looked like a-

-Merperson? 

Foolish picked up the small carving. Whoever had made this was clearly a child, and it looked recently dropped by how there was no sand dusting over it. He found the small thing fascinating, for even if it was crude there was still all the features of a merperson- a tail (of course), gills, claws on their hands, this one even had webbed fingers! 

There was a splash, and Leo was zipping down to her Father. “Pa!” She called “Papa Vegetta wants to speak with you!”

Foolish raised an eyebrow. “Does he now?” He smiled “Alrighty then, you can comb for new little gizmos down here if you’d like?”

Leo nodded happily, and Foolish found himself rising above the waves. As he looked up, Vegetta stared right back at him, lips slightly parted in surprise.

“What, didn’t think I’d be able to swim that well after the accident?” He teased, playing with the small carving underwater. His claws shaved off some parts and sharpened the features of a Merperson as Vegetta gathered his thoughts, eyes wide.

“Uh- Leo asked me to be her dad.” Vegetta stated after a moment. “I said yes but- lo siento, forgive me if I overstep.”

Foolish huffed playfully. “I heard.” He replied, a grateful smile crossing his lips “It’s not everyday that someone can get her to sleep, I’m surprised that it was the first Human she ever truly met to do it.” He teased “I’m fine with her seeing you as a father figure. I guess… if we were meant to be friendly then this is our best bet.”

“Do you not think I am… dangerous?” Vegetta asked, fingers finding Foolish’s detached claw still in his pocket.

“Oh no, not anymore.” The Mer laughed “Truth be told, I stopped thinking of you as dangerous when I saw you nearly shit yourself when Leo was brought onto the ship and I got pissed. I kinda thought you were like other humans then.”

“Non-threatening?” Vegetta guessed

“Pathetic, more like.” Foolish shrugged “Maybe one day I’ll tell you the story, but right now I’m just hally with the fact that you’re kind enough that Leo feels safe.”

“It doesn’t happen often?”

“Not usually.” Foolish chuckled “She doesn’t trust creatures willy-nilly, I see that now.”

Vegetta nodded solemnly. “So now that I am also Leonarda’s father… does that make us husbands?”

Foolish laughed “Wha- no!” He cackled “I don’t know about your culture, but having a child together does not mean we’re husbands in mine!”

Vegetta nodded “I see.” He said “It doesn’t mean that in my culture either, but I didn’t want to be cruel if that was what you wanted.”

Foolish giggled “Oh, you’re funny.” He smiled, but a noise at the other side of the dock made him pause. A small gasp was heard, and Vegetta turned as what sounded like a child ran full sprint in their direction.

Foolish ducked underwater, leaving Vegetta alone with a young boy with a propeller hat.

“Are you talking to the fish again, Tio Vegetta?” The young boy gasped, leaning forward to peer into tge water. “HELLO!? FISHIES!?”

Vegetta chuckled “No Trump, i was just thinking. Something small was places by his side. Turning to look down at it, Vegetta got a bright idea. “Hey, remember that carving you dropped the other day and couldn’t fin? The one with the Mermaid?”

The young boy have a series of quick nods.

“Well, here it is.” Vegetta smiled at the child’s gasp, a small squeal escaping the boy’s lips

“Thank you Tio Vegetta!” He cheered “Papa said that it was gone forever- !  Hey, this looks more finished than I remember!”

Chapter Text

“I have a new papa, Flippa!” Leo’s parental update didn’t stay a secret for long. 

“YOU’RE DATING A HUMAN!?” Which was probably a bad thing, given how both Slime and Bad had burst into his house. “HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING???”

“Look man, i’m a goobly guy just as the next Mer, but a human???? After the last fucking island???” Slime was turning from a lime green to a more seaweed color, hands carding through his own hair “I mean- I probably wouldn’t have been okay with it but -you could have gone with my bitch wife again!”

Foolish sighed “we’re not dating!” He declared

“So married??? You tried to elope?” Bad waved his hands around “Foolish- you remember the last island- right!? Did you get mind wiped before we met again?”

Foolish rolled his eyes “you’re making such a big deal out of this.” He shook his head “Me and Vegetta don’t have any romantic interest in each other-“ yet, a small part od him whispered “-and Leo asked him to be their father, I had no want or need to be part of that decision.”

“I think it’s pretty sweet.” Fit volunteered from the doorway, Mariana peeking over his shoulder. Fit didn’t know the trio before they’d joined the Pod, back when it was still bustling with crowds of Mer.

Back when there was no reef.

“Oh? And what makes you say that?” Bad turned, crossing his arms.

“I hear Leo talking to the other kids, she’s happy to finally have someone other than us- no offense to you, Foolish.”

The shark Mer shrugged “None taken.”

“But humans are ruthless.” Slime rejected “I get that this one guys is somehow not a fucking maniac, and I’m not gonna like I’m glad that they let you go and helped heal you- but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a bad idea.”

“I’m with Slime.” Bad huffed “Foolish, you remember everything that’s happened. Before the Pod’s formation, during the Pod’s decimation. Before Eret-“

“This isn’t the same.” Foolish’s eyes narrowed “It’s not my choice, it’s Leo’s.”

Fit nodded, and Slime looked to Mariana. The anglerfish Mer saw both sides of the argument, and he had probably the best understanding of what humans could do to Mer. But he also knew of Fit’s nature, of where the octopus Mer came from. If he was agreeing with Foolish, then there had to be solid basis for him to support the shark Mer.

Mariana sighed, opening his mouth to speak when-

“Pa! Pa! Look at this!”

Vegetta should have anticipated the moment the Federation decided to raid his ship.

Serving as the technical government for Quesadilla island, the Federation had all but forced the more sea-inclined islanders to become it’s citizens in the form of threatening the children of the island. 

Vegetta had been with a few of them when they’d found small baskets with babies inside of them seven years ago, though none of them ever took to him. He much preferred it, he had less of a chance to be harmed by the Federation in that way. The island itself may be dangerous, but from what Vegetta’d heard, the Federation was worse.

Nightmares, screams echoing into the night- a body found the next day. Their first child death, and so far the only one. They couldn’t give that child a proper burial for fear of their memorial being destroyed, so they had to do the next best thing.

A sea burial. Strategically placed during their departure for “disproving Mermaids”, nobody would suspect the disappearance of Tilin’s body.

But then Foolish got caught in the net. And then for days later, Leo was discovered too. 

Things got a lot more trickier, and Vegetta now had something to hide after the morning’s talk with the two Mer.

Which the Federation would go feral over.

Vegetta told nobody as he want to sleep in a proper bed until the afternoon, at which point he was awoken by Roier breaking down his door. Maximus was behind him, equally as panicked and out of breath as Roier. Had they been running?

“Captain!” Roier shouted “Federation at the ship!”

Vegetta was up in an instant, slipping on his hokts and not bother to tie them as the trio stumbled down the steps and out the door of the tavern. This must be serious if Maximus had stopped nursing his evident hangover.

As the trio made it to the docks, they were stopped by creatures in white hazmat suits and polar bear masks. They weren’t human, Vegetta knew that much. Their arms were too gangly and their heads turned at odd angles. They freaked most of the children out.

“Sorry.” One spoke in the same robotic tone all workers shared “We cannot let you through. An investigation is underway.”

Roier and Vegetta shared a look. 

“Ah, my bad man.” Roier held his hands up to show he was harmless. “We just-“

Roier tackled one worker, Maximus getting the plan seconds later and grabbing the other in a headlock. Vegetta nodded in thanks, sprinting onto the dock.

His ship didn’t get raided often, usually it was reserved for when the Federation just wanted to exercise power. You couldn’t brute force their leaving, and only one phrase could get them to stop- only to be used by the ship’s captain.

“Cucurucho!” Vegetta called as he first set foot on his ship’s deck. Something was shuffling through the crew’s stuff below, and Vegetta’s heart clenched before he remembered Foolish’s claw was still in his pocket. “I am not enjoying the island!”

Yeah, for some reason the Federation was obsessed with keeping the islanders happy. The presumed head honcho of the whole operation always passed by Quesadilla island’s citizens and asked if they were enjoying the island whenever it could. Should one say no, the bear-masquerading creature would try to figure out why.

This time though, it was clear why.

Cucurucho was dressed the same as the other Federation workers, but it was much taller. It loomed over Vegetta, and for a moment the purple eyed man wondered if it was taller than Foolish too.

“Why?” Was all it asked, beady eyes boring into Vegetta’s soul.

“We don’t go through other people’s stuff, how many times do I have to tell you?” Vegetta tried to shove down his slight terror at being found out by parroting what he’d already said to the creature about a hundred times by now. “Stop doing it.”

“Maybe.” Vegetta curbed his nerves. The creature always said this, it was nothing new.

Those eyes seemed to know something.

“I spoke to you about this. We did not find any Mermaids on our journey.” Vegetta informed the creature again.“They’re. Not. Real.”

Cucurucho stared at Vegetta. One moment passed. Then two.

On the fifth moment, the creature nodded, as if convincing itself the same. “Disfruta la isla.” It walked passed Vegetta and onto the docks.

Minutes later, his crew was rushing back on. 

“What was that!?” Philza frowned, feathers ruffled “Don’t tell me he was fuckin’ looking for something!”

Vegetta sighed, rubbing his temples.

“We need to leave again as soon as possible.”

Chapter Text

They found him in the reef.

Leonarda didn’t expect to see someone in her hiding spot when the children eventually decided to play hide and seek in the reef. Leo had heard yelling from her house and, well, plainly put she didn’t want to go home.

(He ignored the fact that his name had floated to their ears, that Juannaflippa had herded the others away from the space when she recognized that it was her dad who was yelling.)

Dapper had volunteered to be first seeker, which was actually very suspicious because he always fought them on seeking. Leo wasn’t complaining though, at least she wasn’t going first!

She crept up on her super secret hiding spot, one that nobody had ever found but Foolish. If Dapper was seeking first that meant he’d be trying to find Leonarda first- he always tried to. One time back when she was in another super secret spot he ignored the others until he found her first- super annoying!!

Leo’s head popped into a particularly thick patch of coral, which looked as though it was partially blocked off to the reef. Nobody would think a Merling could fit through the gap that was visible, that’s what made it so awesome!

Someone was already there.

Leo’s eyes widened when a young Mer with a bright yellow and green tail looked up at them, small patched of blue scales on the other’s face framing his brown eyes.

“Oh.” Leo breathed “Hello.”

The Mer was unfamiliar- never before had Leo seen a tail’s shade of yellow nearly match the sun. Though as she observed it… 

“Are you okay?” A relatively new wound on the smaller’s fins sent Leo’s brain into overdrive- the tail had a problem with it’s fins, which sort of looked like Foolish’s.

One side was completely missing.

The Mer shook his head, blinking rapidly to try and dispel tears.

“Leo!” Someone crashed into the green eyed Merling suddenly “Found y-ou?”

“Someone’s in there. He’s hurt I think..” Leo’s head pulled itself from the opening, and they pointed at it for Dapper to look at “Make sure he’s okay? I gotta get dada Foolich.”

Dapper nodded, head cautiously peeking into the opening. Leo only heard a gasp before she swam away, jetting to her home.

“Pa!” She yelled, seeing Tio Mariana’s back blocking the doorway “Pa! Look at this!” She watched as Foolish gently pushed Tio Fit and Tio Mariana out of his way seconds later, swimming to the girl in what she couldn’t help but compare to a frenzy.

“What happened? Are you hurt? Where are the other three?” Foolish checked her over “What do you need? Is your tail acting up again? Is-“

“Pa, i’m fine, but you gotta come with me!” Leo grabbed his dad’s hand, dragging him along. “We were playing hide and seek and Dapper was gonna be first so I went to the spot only we know, right?” They made it to the reef in record time, Leo pulling his dad to where he’d left Dapper, seeing Juannaflippa and Ramon also lookibg into the opening “There’s someone new!”

“New?” Leo hadn’t realized the other adults had followed “Oh my goodness- how’d they get in there?”

Foolish waved the other Merlings away from the opening, taking a look down there himself. Leo watched as his green eyes widened, before he also found the Mer’ling’s problem.

“Bad, there’s a wound.” He turned away from the opening for just a moment to inform the dark skinned Mer before looking back down into the coral. “Hey there little buddy… what’s your name?”

Leo heard a whimper. The Merling was scared.

Foolish nodded gently “That’s okay. Don’t like other Mer staring at you, huh?” Another whimper. “Well, I’m Foolish. My daughter’s name is Leonarda, she has the same eyes as me.” The Merling whined “do you want to talk to the other kids? I could bring you out and back to my home so you could be more comfortable.”

The Merling must have nodded, because Foolish all but stuck his upper half into the opening, bringing out the shaking Merling moments later. Leo heard their Tio Fit hiss between his teeth, knowing that the man had immediately spotted the young Mer’s tail.

Foolish locked eyes with his daughter, motioning with his head to go back to the home. Leo nodded, taking off after her Tio Bad who’d left only moments before. She faintly heard the other kids follow, but didn’t register it until she was in her doorway.

Bad was already inside, sweeping the body they strangled hadn’t yet buried into a closet before blocking off the door.

“Muffins, where’d I put that potion…?” The night-like Mer mumbled, now digging through his bag. “I could have sworn I had one spare…”

“Dad, this isn’t something you can heal.” The adult jumped at Dapper’s solemn voice.

“Oh my goodness- you scared the fudge out of me!” The adult clutched his chest “Wait- what do you mean I can’t heal I can’t heal it?! Is it an infection? A fatal wound? A-“

“Guess you’ll see soon.” Juannaflippa said, Foolish shooting over the children’s heads and into the home.

Placing the Merling on the stone, Bad gave a soft gasp when he looked over the kid.

“He’s so young…” Bad covered his mouth with his hand in apparent shock. Foolish only nodded, motioning with his head to the doorway. Bad nodded, and the two left to speak outside. Lucky for the kids that the two also seemed to pick up the other adults, because the four Mer swam over to the brown skinned Merling. 

The young boy flinched when he realized that the four Merlings were near him, eyes widening.

“Sorry.” Leo swam back a bit, pulling Flippa with her. Dapper and Ramon swiftly followed, eyes also wide. “Uh… i’m Leonarda, but everyone calls me Leo.” The green eyes Mer motioned to Flippa. “This is Juannaflippa,” then to Dapper “and Dapper.” Then Ramon “And lastly Ramon.” She smiled shyly “I’m sorry if we scared you… I didn’t know there were more mer here than us.”

“…” the new Merling is silent, brown hair floating in front of his eyes momentarily. “Richarlyson.” He whispered. “And… I didn’t know about you either.”

“Are you alone?” Ramon asked, tilting his head.

“N-No.” the Merling curled in on himself “There’s- five more. They’re my Pais.”

Leo nodded, though they didn’t know what a ‘pai’ was. “Where are they?”

“I dunno.” Richarlyson looked to his tail “I got lost because of a whale… then I found here.” His stomach rumbled.

Juannaflippa and Leonarda shared a look. How long had this kid gone without food?

“Okay…” Leo said carefully as Flippa slipped outside “Do… do you want something to eat?”

Richarlyson nodded as Foolish entered the house. He smiled at the remaining children before ducking into the small kitchen, opening what Leo knew to be the fish box. It was full of, well, fish. 

Coming back i to the room, Foolish wore a large smile. “It’s lunchtime!” He declared “I hope you don’t mind salmon?”

Richarlyson peered at the animal that was set before him. “Do.. you have any starfish?” He asked, testing the waters of the adult Mer’s hospitality

Foolish chuckled. “Oh fuck yeah, I like you!” He went back into the kitchen and came out moments later, a small handful of starfish and a few salmon in his hands. “Here’s a few. I love these things with salmon.”

Richarlyson smiled, but Leo was just glad to have lunch. Man, finding a new Mer was enough to make her hungry!

Chapter Text

Maybe it wasn't a good idea, but the crew decided to bring the children with them this time. 

The Federation opposed of course, citing "danger" or whatever, but none of the parents really cared about their government’s opinion. The one  who did opted to come with them, while the others looked after the island. There had to be preparations made, items to be collected- or else a child could be in danger. They were all relatively easy to get though, so Vegetta didn't mind it.

Some things though, some things they didn't really need.

"A brewing stand?" Vegetta tried to not look like he was disappointing "Who brought a brewing stand?"

A young boy with a cartoon duck hoodie and a bone mask like Missa's raised his hand. "For cooking!" He chirped, smiling brightly. 

Vegetta only sighed, moving on. It was better to let Philza's son do as he pleased, rather than start a fight. The child was stubborn, and it wasn't often that Vegetta held the kind of patience necessary for stubborn people. 

The rest of his check went about the same though, questioning why a certain object was in one of the many barrels belowdeck, then rolling his eyes as a child or adult called out an answer. He supposed he shouldn't mind though, getting away from the Federation for a while was more important. Vegetta missed the days from not long ago, the feeling of the boat rocking below him as he wrote down every word Leonarda told him about her culture- well, everything she knew. After Foolish woke up and was more responsive (and kind, Vegetta supposed) to humans, he also gave snippets of what Merpeople did to survive. It was a book Vegetta kept a close eye on, hiding it under an unsuspecting plank in the room where the two Mer used to be kept. 

They set sail soon after Vegetta was done with searching the cargo,  pushing off the docks and watching as the island seemed to float away from them. Vegetta didn't look back, he never did when leaving. He hated seeing that place, remembering those he could not save. 

Roier didn't ask where they were going. Rather, he made his own course. One Vegetta didn't recognize until they were halfway there. By the time he'd figured out what to say though, the boat was jostled when something nudged against it roughly. 

"What?" The young man laughed when Vegetta gave him an exasperated look "I thought we could do use seeing our new friends again!"

"We don't even know who will be around." Vegetta said exasperatedly "I thought we would circle the island to go visit an unexplored part, not-"

A scream cut him off, both adults swiftly turning to see Roier's son Bobby point a wooden sword at the railing that led overboard. Wilbur's Daughter Tallulah was behind the child in overalls, staring at where the sword was pointing to. 

"Ramon, get off of there!" Vegetta recognized the shout as a small creature with brown hair peeked up at the crew, bug-like eyes wide in childlike wonder. "Ramon!"

Vegetta watched as the kid waved at Bobby and Tallulah before ducking down, vanishing from sight, Vegetta swore he heard a small splash below, giggles following.

"Vegetta- the fuck was that?!" Wilbur called, scooping his daughter into his arms. 

"A Mermaid!" Roier answered for him rather gleefully.

"No way." Trump gasped, running to the railing and peeking over it. "I can't see anything!" 

Movement on the other side of the deck caught Vegetta's eye, and he looked over to realize that a faintly familiar bald head was rising from the side. 

"Fit!" But it was stopped "I'll ground you like you grounded Ramon!"

"Fuck." The Octopus Mer groaned, Foolish hearing gasps of surprise from the ship. "You never let me have any fun!"

"That's what Ramon said to you, now go help Slime with hunting." Foolish laughed, splashing the octopus Mer when he fell into the water beside him.

"Fine." But Fit smiled at him. "You get the kids!"

Foolish sighed and shook his head, watching as the cackling bald man propelled off. He felt the kids swim around his tail, ducking his head back underwater. 

"You wanna go mess with humans now?" Foolish's eyes had a mischievous glint in them as he spoke to Ramon, the younger boy nodding "Great. Don't hurt anyone. Well, unless they come at you with a sword or something."

"Another kid had a sword pointed at me!" Ramon informed helpfully as Leonarda swam by, giving Richarlyson the Mermaid equivalent of a piggyback ride. The two were laughing, and it was hard to not be distracted by them. "Can I hit him?"

Foolish laughed "I'll tell you what. If he swings, you can go for it." He turned to the other four as Ramon stuck himself onto the ship again and started to climb up. "And you guys, who wants to play a game?"

That was a whole ass child that was just thrown over their ship. 

Vegetta was baffled while his crew was scrambling around to look overboard. Who knew Merpeople could be so... Unserious? Foolish seemed plenty serious when he was in captivity, even in his funniest moments there was still that edge of panic, as if he expected something horrible happening. This Foolish wasn't serious in the slightest, he acted just as his name was defined. 

Another child was thrown, Vegetta recognizing them to be Leonarda. She laughed and waved to him, and Vegetta couldn't help but lose his previous strain of thought as he waved back. He laughed when the next kid went by, and the next. He didn't notice when a Mer child had climbed aboard his ship, nor did he hear the laughter of the human children as the octopus Mer held them upside down just as his father had done to Philza. He didn't even notice when the parents started to relax at the sight, just glad to find their children laughing and seemingly comfortable.  

Vegetta leisurely walked to the railing the Merlings were coming from, looking over and smiling when he saw Foolish lift Leo out of the water so he could throw them again. The shark Mer had a child clinging to his shoulders, the young Merling laughing as he watched Leo get thrown. He watched as another child was immediately on him, demanding to be tossed as well.

The Mer were strange, that was for sure. How had humanity gone for so long without accumulating more knowledge on these creatures? These silly, powerful creatures that didn't seem to have a malicious bone in their bodies. 

Maybe it was because they didn't trust humans, Vegetta wouldn't blame them. Humans could be cruel, they could take away everything you knew just because you were different. They saw beauty and selfishly wanted to keep it for themselves. Vegetta would know, he'd been that way once long ago. Then he came here, and he grew soft. For the better of course, for he didn't know if he could live with turning the two Mer that swam freely in the ocean for heaps of gold.

"Papa Vegetta!" Leo called from below "Can the humanlings come play?"

Vegetta laughed, the human children on the boat looking at him with sparkling eyes. 

"If their parents say yes, I don't see why not." He called back, the small humans of the boat running to their parents and tugging on their clothes. When they got the okay, a few adults brought out a rope ladder that was usually used or when someone went overboard at sea. 

"You didn't tell me you had a kid now." Roier slid next to Vegetta, wiggling his eyebrows "How'd you get his approval?"

"He did not require it, actually." Vegetta's eyes followed Foolish's movements as he received the first human children that had excitedly made their way down. "It was strange, he is much more trusting than he should be."

Roier shrugged "I'm glad he is, you need a child that's actually yours in your life."

"I thought you liked me babysitting Bobby when you're at Las Casualonas?" Vegetta raised an eyebrow, looking to his friend. 

"I do, I do!" Roier said quickly "This isn't an invitation to stop doing that!"

Vegetta chuckled, looking back down to the water. This time, Foolish was looking back at him.

Chapter Text

They'd had Richarlyson for nearly three days when Bad returned. 

After they'd gotten the boy to calm down, the Mer with inky skin had asked him where he thought the rest of his Pod was. When Richarlyson pointed in the general direction, Badboyhalo had gathered things in a small seaweed bag, kissed Dapper on the forehead, and swam into the depths of the sea. 

For the next few days it was easy to keep the boy occupied. They found out that he'd lost his tail when he was young due to a net he'd got caught in once- nearly leading to humans capturing him. His "Pais" (Foolish wondered if that was something in a different language for father) had found him, but they couldn't save a part of his tail. They also learned that his "Pai Pac" had part of his tail missing too, but he was able to fix it by making a prosthetic one. They were working on one for Richarlyson before he got lost. 

Speaking of which, when Foolish heard about the whale problem he strangely vanished for a few hours the next day. If it just so happened that he returned with a few whales, well... nobody complained about the feasts they'd been indulging in because of it. 

It was early morning, Foolish was the only one in his house that was awake. Richarlyson had decided to room with Leonarda, and for the first time in a while Foolish had slept the night away without anyone near him. Nobody would know that it was the worst sleep of his life but him, and nobody would know that he'd been up for hours when Bad suddenly crash-landed in his doorway. 

"Foolish!" He gasped "Oh my goodness, I have amazing news!" Foolish watched as he scrambled upright, a starfish half-hanging from his mouth "Stop eating those, they're bad for sharks."

Foolish shrugged, slurping it up. "What happened now?" he asked, watching as Bad took off his bag and settled it onto the stone table. "Did you find anyone?"

"No, but I didn't need to!" Bad opened the bag, bringing out a sleek piece of metal. "I found this."

It took Foolish a moment to register what he was looking at. His first thought was that he was looking at a strange curved blade, which was worrying in itself. How had a human gotten it down here and made sure it not rust? 

Then, he looked closer. There were notches and scratches in the metal, and it had a weird mechanism on the part he'd assume to be the hilt of the sword. It looked like it was meant to be strapped to something. Something to be worn, not used as a weapon. 

A tail of sorts, then?

Foolish remembered what Richarlyson said, that one of his Pod had a missing part of his tail. Was this the replacement then? It was much too big for Richarlyson, and it wasn't the right shape either. It had too many sharp edges and not enough curves. Plus, Richarlyson remembered drawing on his own tail replacement with squid ink that he'd colored to greens, yellows, and blues. This had no such markings, though it did have signs of wear and tear. Still usable, but Foolish noted how well-used this thing was. 

"It's one of theirs." Foolish said to Bad, who tilted his head "While you were gone Richarlyson told us that someone from his Pod had a part of his tail missing like him, but that he'd fixed it with a prosthetic. I think this might be it?"

Bad's eyebrows furrowed in thought, but he nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." He agreed, looking at the mechanism again. "It's very strange looking though, wouldn't you agree? Too long and thin to be an actual part, right?"

"That's what she said." Foolish mumbled, smirking "And besides, we don't know what kind of Mer the owner of this thing is. For all we know, this could be absolutely what their old tail looked like."

Bad didn't seem to have heard the first part, thankfully. "Maybe... Should we ask Fit? He's seen a lot of different Merpeople." 

Foolish nodded "We will in the morning. After we show Richarlyson this and he confirms if it is or is not his Pod's."

Further away, something was swimming toward them. 

It was frantic, searching searching searching. Where is he? Is he dead? He can't be dead, can he?

We never got to try those clams, never got to eat sand dollars. Where is he? Mike said he'd seen someone near here, maybe they would know. 

There was a thrumming ache that was set deep into the Mer's bones, shouting at him to find-find-swim-swim-go-find-find-find- as a never ending melody. Or, maybe it was march. There was no melody to the ache, only the want to find that which is missing from his Pod.

He is not here. He is gone. No, he was okay. He wasn't gone, there wasn't enough time for the whale to get to him. Felps and Forever took care of it, now Mike and himself had to find their boy. 

The march continued in it's never ending cycle still. He spotted a part of the seafloor, disturbed and in the faint outline of a familiar shape. They had something else to find too, something that would save one of them a lot more pain. 

Go-find-go-find-eat-eat-eat- No no, shut up, he was not hungry. Not anymore. Not for something like that. 

Man, this mania was messing with him. Maybe he should get some sleep. Why sleep when he could follow the march though? Why sleep when the march had never led him astray before? Why sleep now? If he slept, the march would leave, and the case would grow cold. They'd lose their child, someone they'd sworn to protect. 

He swam further, the sun started to rise. He passed the dead coral reefs that had been long forgotten by the world, he ducked around spires of rock that had surely damaged many-a-ship. He kept going until he found a shipwreck at the outside of a dense seaweed thicket. He poked around the waterlogged wood before turning his eyes to the seaweed. 

He couldn't go over it, he would risk being seen by any boat that may come this way. He couldn't go around either, for it was too wide. So, he had to go through. 

As the waving green touched his skin, the Mer felt his bones grow heavy as darkness started to fall again. The thicket was dense, the sun could no longer be seen. The Mer felt the ache throb in it's last attempts to keep him awake and sane, though any sanity had been long washed away. The Mer would sway with the seaweed, body blending with it until he wasn't sure if he was actually the seaweed or not. The march faded, the melody replaced it. The melody was warm, welcomed him with open arms. 

The open arms made the darkness more welcoming.

Chapter Text

That night, trouble came for them. 

In hindsight, Vegetta should have known that the sea was unpredictable. There were storms, shallow sitting spires of rocks- fuck, there was probably more than just mermaids out there. If sirens were of myth just as Mermaids were, could that mean there was truth to that rumor too?

"Captain!" Vegetta was thrown out of his hammock late that night, as was the rest of his crew. The children thankfully stayed in their sleeping spots, but they didn't stay asleep as Vegetta threw himself to his feet at Philza's shout. "Somethin's under us!"

Jaiden brushed passed Vegetta, a sobbing Bobby in her arms. The boy had fallen in his sudden scramble to get up, and had skinned his knee. This wasn't like any regular time they were out at sea, no. They had kids to worry about- ones that could die if he didn't act quickly. 

The boat shook again as Vegetta staggered up the stairs and onto the deck. The skies were clear, not a cloud blocking the moon or stars. 

"You think it's a creature?" Vegetta asked as he practically ran to the wheel of his ship. It wasn't much, but maybe the creature would leave if the boat made sudden movement. 

"Feels like a Mer." Philza replied gruffly, following the pirate captain up. "Y'know how it was when Foolish did it?"

Vegetta nodded "It is like that," he agreed "But worse." He grit his teeth. "Hold onto something."

Philza obeyed, and Vegetta spun the wheel. It wasn't instant, but the ship started to sharply turn in the opposite direction whatever the creature shaking the boat was trying to tip it. The two heard shouting from below, accompanied by the sound of glass breaking. Luckily the tanks weren't full, otherwise the water might have been enough to make the damaged one shatter. 

They straightened out moments later, but the shaking continued on, this time with more vigor. What a time to die, huh? The world asleep, only the waves to hear their screams as they drowned. The-

Something hit the ship. Hard. Vegetta fell against a railing, hearing the wood protest under the sudden pressure. Philza shouted, having been thrown to the planks of the deck at the sudden jostle. Vegetta braced himself, preparing to feel another hit. 

But nothing came. 

Later that day, Richarlyson and Leonarda woke up. 

Foolish and Bad had left the device the latter Mer had found on the stone table, not knowing where they'd even put it away to. The body was still in Foolish's closet, something he'd had choice words with Bad about, and the kitchen wouldn't be the best place. They couldn't put in Foolish's room (he was freaked out by the thing, to be honest), and Leo's room was off limits for sharp metal things especially. So, they'd just left it out for Richarlyson to find. 

Which he did. 

"Pa!" Leo shouted, swimming out of the house with Richarlyson clinging to her back. The other Merling had taken a liking to traveling like that, telling Foolish that it made his tail ache when he didn't swim with the prosthetic. "Richarlyson says that weird thing on the table is from his Pai Pac!"

Foolish mentally smiled. Great, a lead!

But the Merling with a yellow and green tail was distressed. "How'd you get it?" He asked, voice high and unsteady "Nobody's supposed to have it, only Pai Pac and sometimes Pai Mike when he has to help fix something!" 

"Bad found it in the sand." Foolish motioned to the ink-skinned Mer, who nodded. 

"Nobody was near it, otherwise I would have asked if they knew you- and brought them here if they did." He answered honestly "But now that we've found it, we're a step closer to getting you back home!"

Richarlyson didn't seem to think so though, practically bear-hugging Leonarda as he sobbed incoherently. Leo- to her credit -didn't seem all too fazed. Actually, she just gently pried Richarlyson off of herself so she could turn and he could hug her from the front. 

"There's no blood on it." She murmured to the other Merling, Bad and Foolish looking to each other in bewilderment. When was Leo this mature? "He's alive and well, he has to be. No blood, no death."

Foolish winced, repressing a response. He could point out that he didn't bleed when the infection nearly killed him, and he could point out how Juannaflippa got really sick a few years back and nearly died, never shedding a drop of blood. 

But he didn't, and Bad nearly let out a sigh of relief at his friend's restraint.

Slowly, Richarlyson calmed down. He clung to Leo still, but he stopped letting out loud sobs, he stopped shaking in terror. Really, they owed this to the Mer with rainbow fins

And boy, did she know it. But that was for later, right now the four went back into Foolish's home to talk about the strange device on Foolish's table. From there, Richarlyson was able to explain how it worked. 

Foolish had been right, the small part that looked like a harness did go around the end of a tail, connecting to some part of it's surface to allow the Mer to control how it waved and moved. They got insight on what it was made of, how they stopped rusting, and a rough idea of how they'd put it together. Dapper and Ramon had joined them for that last part, the former getting curious as to where his father was. Ramon just said that his dad was going on patrol, and not to worry. 

Well, until Fit came to their door carrying an body. And then Richarlyson was sent into another panic. 

"That's my Pai! That's him!" The Merling, to his credit, could swim. Foolish thought it was a strange way, and he understood why the younger had explained that his tail would ache if he did it too often, but he hadn't expected Richarlyson to move that fast. He was on Fit's ass in a second, jumping onto the unconscious body and hugging it tight.

"Is it...?" Foolish didn't think his closet could handle another body. 

"He's alive, but he was tangled up pretty badly in the coral." Fit said, looking around awkwardly "Where do I...?"

Foolish sighed "C'mon, into my room we go."

"I'll grab my blankets!" Leo volunteered, bolting to her room down a short hallway before coming out again seconds later and taking a sharp turn left into Foolish's room with her arms full of woven seaweed blankets.

"Your bed is stiff." Bad agreed as Foolish led Fit into his bedroom. Though, could it be considered as such when Foolish's bed was just a rock shelf? Granted, Leo was laying out blankets now, so that had to qualify as something.

Richarlyson didn't release the unconscious Mer when Fit set them both down, clinging as hard as he could. Leo peered at their friend worriedly, hands fidgeting with the end of one of their seaweed blankets. Bubbles flew from their nostrils when Richarlyson started shaking again, reaching out to clasp the younger's arm. That was enough to get the Merling with a yellow and green tail to calm down, thankfully. 

They stayed with the two for hours, those still in the main room forgotten as they made sure Richarlyson and the unconscious Mer were alright. Foolish noted that this Mer had scars all over his tail and face, brown hair floating around a thickening streak of white. He noted the dark circles under the other's eyes, and the goggles that were now held down loosely by the unconscious Mer's head. They still didn't have a name for the Mer, but they wouldn't force Richarlyson to talk. 

At some point Leo had piled onto Richarlyson for support, and soon enough Dapper and Ramon were on the Mer with a green and yellow tail too. Foolish, Fit, and Bad all took turns watching them to make sure they were safe, while the other two either made food or searched through the seaweed thicket again. Slime's family was notified at some point, but they chose to stay away just in case they overwhelmed the newest Mer when he woke up. 

Finally, Foolish had to pull away all of the children for dinnertime. There was no food allowed in his bedroom, lest he wanted algae on the walls again. Which he didn't, so everyone ate at the stone table. He wasn't going to force Richarlyson to come, but the Merling had surprising gotten up and went with the other kids without any prompting or coaxing. He seemed hungry though, so maybe that was why. 

They were in the middle of a quiet dinner of the last of Foolish's recent whale hunting escapades when something shuffled in the hallway to the bedrooms. Foolish seemed to be the only one to hear, and he turned to look at what the noise could be. Maybe it was a clueless fish, maybe-

Ah, nope, that was the now conscious adult Mer they'd brought in earlier, and he was staring directly at Richarlyson.

Chapter Text

When he woke up, he was somewhere new.

Somewhere around here, he heard a noise. Murmurs. Fear jolted through him- was he back? Back at that place? The ache came back. Fear-me-fear-me-fear-me-find-escape-run-run-run-

But then a laugh stopped it. The ache vanished as he feverishly got up, taking in his surroundings. Stone walls greeted his vision, but is he looked up it was like a canopy of kelp had been woven loosely into a roof-like shape. Something akin to rope tied the kelp to the walls, and it waved in the ocean currents in a dome-like shape. The room itself was nearly empty, only a chest on the furthest side from him and a rocky shelf protruding from the wall to lay on. Seaweed blankets softened the rough stone, but not by much. He spotted an exit, and swam to it.

Peering out, he saw that the ceiling stretched on, the loose canopy ending shortly at a well-lit area halfway through the hall. He turned his head to the other side, and saw another room. He opted to not go in, instead turning to where he noticed increasing noise. 

Carefully swimming, he came into a large, open space that was home to a living room/dining room, and a side room likely for the kitchen. The living room half of the space had stone chairs and sofas covered in either kelp or seaweed, while the dining room part held a giant stone table that could easily fit a Pod of twenty. Glowing algae extended down as a sort of makeshift chandelier, and he noticed that the rest of the house was decorated with varying colors of the same algae. Whoever’s house this is, they had some sort of taste.

Looking closer at the table, he was surprised by the Mer that were sat around it. There were five adult Mer, two with glasses, one that was bald, one with skin akin to the legends he knew of the void, and one with skin as gold as treasure. They were all burly in some way, and he knew he didn’t want to cross them if he could help it. Though, would being here now count?

There were children too though, he saw that now. Five of them. Two feminine, and three more masculine-leaning. They had their backs turned, so he couldn’t see their faces, but…

His heart stopped when he saw the familiar bright yellow and green tail.

His son. A melody sang beneath his skin. His son. He’d found his son. His son was alive. The melody was all he heard as the Mer with golden skin and bright green eyes caught sight of him. The melody remained as his son started to slowly turn. And the melody started to make his ears ring as his son caught sight of him. 

“Pai!” The Merling cried out, jetting to him. It was a short distance, but he could still recognize the lack of prosthetic. That was his son, alright.

“Richas.” He sighed in relief, hugging the Merling tightly “You’re well.”

The Merling sobbed, nodding into his father. “I am! I’m alive! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry I left!”

His son. Despite how fierce he was, how strong he could be, he was still a child. Sometimes he forgot, but he was always reminded sooner or later. 

The melody faded from his ears to sing softly below his skin. It no longer disturbed him, not when he had his child in his arms. 

Movement caught his eye, and he looked up, remembering that they weren’t alone. He was met with nine pairs of eyes boring into his very being, questioning and cautious.

“Richas.” He whispered to his child “who are these guys?”

His son sniffled. “They saved me.” He replied “They found me in the reef.”

A reef? They had a reef? They must have been here a long time. Was there more? There had to be, if there was a reef. Reefs required upkeep, the dead would not allow one to fall into disarray. 

“I’m uh- I’m Foolish.” He refocused when the Mer with golden skin spoke “I’ve been hosting Richarlyson for the past few days.”

“…” well, he seemed nice enough. “Thank you.” What now, should he introduce himself? “I uh-“

“I’m Cellbit.”

Foolish saw Bad smile, the Mer with inky skin leaning forward to start speaking excitedly. Then Richarlyson and Cellbit joined the table, and then it was business as usual. 

They learned that Richarlyson came from a Pod of six, five adult mer and one child. Richarlyson was found under the same circumstance as the other children, as an egg with no other explanation, and since they’d all found him at the same time they shared 20-20-20-20-20. It wasn’t long after he hatched he lost part of his fin. 

Foolish could tell Cellbit felt guilty for that.

The new Mer suddenly jolted upright though, eyes wide. “Shit- Mike wasn’t far behind me!”

Mike? That was a slightly familiar name. Richarlyson said it a lot when recalling the things his Pod had taught him. 

Said Merling looked confused “Pai Mike? Just him?”

“Since Pac lost his prosthetic he can’t help look without hurting himsel-“ Foolish watched as Cellbit caught sight of said prosthetic fin. “Guess I know where that is now. Richas, we gotta go find Mike.”

Richarlyson tilted his head “Why? Can’t we finish dinner? These guys have food everyday- we even get three meals!”

There was a flash of something in Cellbit’s eyes. Guilt, pain, Foolish didn’t know. What he did know though, is that those two probably shouldn’t go out alone at night.

“We’ll swim with you.” So, he made sure that they’d be okay. “Me and Fit, if that’s alright?”

The octopus Mer raised his hand “That’s me, by the way.”

Cellbit’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting the voice. “Oh- uh- that’s not necessary?” He tried “We can make it-“

“Fit found your ass passed the fuck out in the seaweed.” Slime deadpanned “I feel like a gentle current could knock your skin off of your bones.”

Cellbit bit his lip, but Richarlyson nodded “Please come with us!” He looked to his ‘Pai’ “Pai Cellbit didn’t bring proper gear!”

“Richas!” Cellbit hissed lightly, tgough the merling only giggled. 

Foolish smiled, rising from his spot. “Alright.” He chuckled, Fit also getting up “we leave in five minutes. Help yourself to the kitchen, grab the fin, whatever you need to do.” He saw Cellbit’s hesitance on the kitchen “Honestly, the more you take the less we have to throw out.”

If that was a lie, nobody would tell them.

Chapter Text

They were out of the house soon enough.

Fit and Foolish swam slightly behind the two, both of them having borrowed kelp-woven bags to store fish and the prosthetic fin in. Truth be told the duo too nearly all of Foolish's food- but he could always hunt for more, he'd rather help the skinny duo. Richarlyson had been putting on some much-needed meat to his bones in the short few days they'd had him, and Foolish wasn't about to let that stop now.

As they swam through the seaweed thicket, Cellbit recalled the fact that he'd been awake for nearly two days before they'd found him. He said that he didn't want to rest until he'd done a full lap around the large island, but after being awake for a day he was at a severe disadvantage to calming places like the thicket.

Foolish didn't mention that most Mer found the thicket unsettling.

They passed the shipwreck soon enough though, and Cellbit changed the topic by asking how it had sank.

"I uh-" Foolish giggled nervously "I did that?"

The other Mer's wyes widened "You did that?" He eyed Foolish "You can sink ships?"

"If I'm mad enough." Foolish shrugged, Fit nodding.

"You should have seen him- they tried to take some rogue coral, but all of a sudden boom! Foolish takes out the bottom side of the hull and then the ship starts to sink. They tried to retreat, but they were too late!" He retold dramatically, waving his hand and trident around for flair.

"I don't do that anymore though." Foolish piped up "I think i'm doing much better now."

"You don't kill humans now?" Cellbit asked curiously, eyeing Richarlyson as the Merling swam down to pick up a piece of sea glass.

"Nah, Foolish here up and started romancing one!"Fit laughed, watching as Foolish's face dusted a soft pink color.

"Did not!" He denied "Leo asked him to be her dad, that’s all!"

"Leo... they're...?" Cellbit looked confused.

"My kid. The one with a rainbow tail.” He could no longer claim the gold skin, for he noticed Leo’s skin tone become paler and more like Vegetta’s- even though she had been out in the sun more than her Mer father.

Cellbit nodded “I see.” He raised an eyebrow “Why did you want a human to be their second father?”

Foolish shrugged. “He’s nice, hasn’t hurt her in a long time- even then it was an accident, and she asked him to be another dad. Who am I to say no?” He explained shortly as the group emerged from the thicket.

“Wouldn’t any sane Mer say no?” Cellbit asked as they adjusted course to unknowingly pass under where Vegetta’s ship currently was. “Humans can’t know we exist, that’s what the elders always said to me.”

“Yeah, well, in case you haven’t noticed our Pod doesn’t really… have elders.” Fit grimaced “Let alone many of us in the first place.”

“Richas says there is a reef, so you must have more than I’ve seen so far.” Cellbit argued “there cannot be just nine of you.”

“Oh buddy, you’re in for a rough surprise.” Foolish chuckled “Besides, you’re a Pod of six, what’s so different about us?”

“You have the dead to take care of. We just move around.” Cellbit answered matter-of-factly “We can go wherever because we are not bound to a place, you can’t because of the reef.”

Foolish scoffed “We don’t move because of the kids.” He replied “It’s not healthy for a Merling to grow up with no set home space. They won’t feel safe.”

Cellbit paused then, eyes trailing to Richarlyson. The Merling was busy still picking up shards of sea glass, and Foolish was for once glad that the young Mer wasn’t near.

“… really?” But from the way Cellbit responded he suddenly realized that this wouldn’t be a fight. “Is that why he wanted to stay for longer?”

Fit pat Cellbit on the back “Don’t take it personal.” He reassured “The kid’s seen the sea, so if he wants to stay with a Pod that’s settled that should say everything you need to hear.”

Cellbit frowned, but nodded. “You’re right.” He sighed “I guess it was about time that we found a place to settle down anyway.”

Fit and Foolish shared a look. If Richarlyson was good, the rest of his Pod should be too, right?

“How abou-“ Fit started, only to be cut off moments later by Richarlyson.

“Pai! Pai! I found Pai Mike!” Without knowing it, the group had ended up under Vegetta’s ship in no time. Usually they would have just moved passed, but at Richarlyson’s shout Foolish instinctively looked up.

Small chips of wood rained down as Foolish watched as a Mahi Mahi Mer clawed at the ship. The Mer had bright pink hair, roaring as the ship tried to turn and escape it. It pushed against the ship, claws ripping deeper into the wood. The ship would surely sink if the Mer kept going at it, and if it was any other ship Foolish probably would have cared.

But this was Vegetta’s ship, one with children on it.

Without much thought, Foolish sprung into action. He faintly heard Fit call out to him? But that didn’t matter as he knocked into the other Mer, who hit the side of Vegetta’s ship harshly. Without any time to blink, Foolish grabbed the Mer with pink hair and launched him away, growling sharply. 

The Mahi Mahi Mer snapped his jaws at the shark, face scrunching in a snarl. A moment passed as the two Mer sized each other up, and another passed before the pink haired Mer spoke.

“Who the fuck are you?” He asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“Foolish. You’re Mike?” Probably not a good thing to say, as now the Mahi Mahi Mer’s wyes narrowed.

“How’d you know?” He asked, suspicious.

“Richarlyson.” Speaking of which-

“Pai!” The Mer with a yellow and green tail crashed i to the pink haired Mer, smiling happily “I’m alive!”

Surprise rippled on the pink haired Mer’s face. Moments later, Cellbit and Fit joined the two adults and one child.

“Do you want me to go up and explain what happened?” Fit murmured to Foolish, who nodded “Alright, on it.” Fit passed his trident to Foolish before he latched onto the ship, climbing out of the water with practiced ease.

“-and this is Foolish…” The shark Mer tuned back into the reunion, where Cellbit had taken to explaining the ‘adventure’ so far. “That ship has his child’s other dad on it I think so we shouldn’t fuck with it.”

“I-da-wha- human!? Father???” The pink haired Mer looked baffled “What????”

“Long story, it’s late at night-“ Foolish sighed “Look i’m gonna be real, I’m tired as shit, do you guys just wanna come back to my place and then leave tomorrow? Its dangerous as fuck at night, especially around here.” He waved his hands around lazily “like, killer whales and shit. You’d be safer with us for the night.” 

Richarlyson immediately nodded. “Please!” He chirped before looking at Mike the Mahi Mahi Med “They have the best breakfast- octopus and crawfish!”

Mike chuckled at his child’s words. “Alright, fine.” He nodded, but not before eyeing Foolish up and down. He didn’t trust the shark Mer, which was honestly understandable.

“Great!” But he pretended he didn’t see, clapping his hands together after he’d stuch the trident’s handle under his armpit “We’ll just wait for Fit, and the  we can get going!”

Chapter Text

Aaaaaand there was the Mer Foolish called Fit.

“Sorry, sorry!” He lifted himself onto the deck lazily, yawning. “We found some new Mer, they don’t enjoy humans, but it’s fine.”

Vegetta frowned, walking down the stairs of the upper deck and to the main deck “what happened?” He asked, still confused despite the short explanation. 

The bald headed Mer chuckled as more people started to emerge from beneath the deck. “Well, we found this kid in the reef a few days ago, you know, the one with a part of his tail missing?” When Vegetta nodded, Fit continued “Yeah, then we found one of his Pod members in the seaweed this morning- just completely unconscious and shit. He woke up a few hours ago. Me and Foolish are going to escort them back shen all of a sudden Richarlyson- that’s the child by the way -points up and yells something about his ‘pai Mike’. Lo and behold, we’re under your ship and this random fuckin’ Mahi Mahi with pink hair is tryna dust your asses. Foolish knocked him off though, and we’re fine now.”

”Foolish is safe?” Wow, he really had his priorities straight, didn’t he?

Fit laughed “i think you should worry about yourselves first.” He chided “Your boat sustained quite the damage. I’d recommend going back to the island. You should be safe without me or Foolish too, I think this Mike fellow was the one who was attacking ships.”

Vegetta frowned. His ship, damaged? That wasn’t good. Depending on how bad it was the repairs were going to cost quite a bit- and he’d have to stay on land for who knows how long? He had kids to worry about on here though, ones who were now timidly going up to Fit to check him out.

“E-excuse me sir…” Bobby’s small voice caught both Vegetta and Fit’s attention, the former halting his thoughts for a moment. “Do you happen to know Ramon?”

Fit smiled “Ah, that’s my boy!” He proclaimed proudly “One of the best Mer there is, smartest too!”

Bobby nodded, eyes lighting up. Vegetta sighed. He couldn’t endanger the children for the sake of his hatred toward the island. The parents wouldn’t allow it, and it wasn’t that fair anyway.

“We go now, then.” Vegetta crossed his arms, Fit looking at him again. “Thank you for halting the attack.”

Fit chuckled again “I’ll let Foolish know you send him thanks.” He waved, turning around and climbing back into the water.

There was a long journey now, one that Roier had immediately running back into his hammock and sleeping. Guess it was Vegetta and Quackity’s job to do this, huh?

“Foolish!” Fit almost giggled as the group started swimming back to Foolish’s home, Richarlyson on Mike’s back half asleep “-guess who sends his thanks for saving him?”

Foolish rolled his eyes “oh gee, i dunno.” He said sarcastically “Bad?”

Fit laughed “What, don’t find this amusing?” He teased “First thing he asks me after I explained- ‘Foolish is okay?’ -honestly, i’ve never met a human so worried for a Mer.”

Foolish could practically feel the other two adult Mer tense behind him. Okay, they were listening in then. Play it cool, play it cool. Hopefully they couldn’t see his golden skin slightly dust pink.

“I mean, I am pretty awesome.” Foolish chuckled, flexing in a way he’d seen Roier do when he was joking with Leo. “Look at me! Macho man!”

Fit laughed “Theres the Mer I know!” He cheered, Foolish hearing light murmurs behind their backs “So unserious, the balance is restored!”

Foolish bumped his shoulder with Fit’s, the octopus laughing still. “Oh, I am the most serious.” He denied “I have to be, who else is gonna?”

“Ah, leave that shit to Bad.” Fit smiled “He’s willing to do it, let us just be weirdos.”

Foolish giggled as they made it into the seaweed thicket again.

“Ah, Leo’s gonna be so pissed at me.” Foolish changed the subject as they neared his home “She can’t sleep without me, poor kid.”

“She’s been with Richarlyson just fine though?” Fit raised an eyebrow. 

“I think she just needs another Mer. Preferably me, but she loved Richarlyson, so she’s been sleeping alright.” Foolish suppressed a sigh “Probably from…”

Fit nodded “Yeah, that’ll do it.” He agreed. “From what you said, the tanks were small?”

Foolish gave a light chuckle “Small for me, but I am a beast.” He replied “She didn’t care though. They’d put her in another tank when she needed to get some energy out, but she was always sleeping by me.”

Fit nodded “Ah, I see then.” 

Before the new Mers could learn anything more, they found themselves on the other side of the thicket of seaweed and not too far from the house Cellbit had woken up in nearly an hour ago. There was still light inside, laughter spilling from the home.

“I’m surprised the kids are awake.” Fit yawned, hearing a particularly high-pitched laugh. “Oh, I see why now.”

Foolish rubbed his eyes, groaning. “This late? Do they want to die tomorrow?”

“Uh, what is happening?” Cellbit chimed in, confused.

“You ever heard of Rainbow Jelly?” Fit asked, raising an eyebrow when both of them shook their heads “uh- shit. How do I explain this then?”

“Drugs.” Foolish gave a long sighed, starting towards his house.

“Yes!” Fit snapped his fingers “So basically it gets you really really high and sometimes your skin turns rainbow an-“

“Like Leonarda, Foolish’s kid?” Cellbit questioned, eyebrows furrowed.

“Wha- no!” Foolish’s head whipped around “Leo was just born like that! Besides- you can only really identify jelly by looking at someone’s eyes. Their pupils will be blown out wide, and they’ll be all rainbow and shit.”

Cellbit nodded, clearly listening closely. The five had made it to the house though, and not much more could be said. Foolish was the first one in, spotting a container (closed, thank the sirens) on the table. It was carved from stone just as the table was, it’s heavy lid smeared slightly with the rainbow colored gel. Bad and Mariana were sat in the living room, while Slime was busy wrangling the kids to bed. None of them wanted to though, shouting about how they either wanted more desert or to go follow Fit and Foolish to help escort Cellbit and Richarlyson. Said Mer looked at each other, both deadpan as Mike and Cellbit watched with guarded curiosity.

“Our Pod is a shitshow.” Foolish breathed, looking back into the house. “How’d you survive a month without me?”

“They weren’t all that bad.” Fit chuckled “I was there most of the time though, so who knows.”

“Dada Foolich!” Leo slammed into her father suddenly, the force, shaking Foolish a bit. After a moment, Foolish heard Fit react the same way when Ramon slammed into him . “You’re back! And so is Richas! Who’s that? Are they joining the Pod? Oh! Do I get a new friend!? That’s awesome! Hey, can you tell Tio Bad and Tio Mariana that they suck at being babysitters?”

Foolish blinked, before laughing at all of his daughter’s questions. Picking up the increasingly sleepy child, foolish clapped his hands together loudly.

“Everyone but the children, out!” He gave a look to Fit, the man laughing when he realized thst Fookish just Meant Bad, Slime, and Mariana.

The two drugged out Mer pulled themselves up before snagging the container on the table and stumbling out of the doorway like zombies. Slime was next, saying a quiet thanks to the shark mer.

The kids meanwhile, had caught sight of Mike. They raced toward the Mahi Mahi Mer, but before they reached him Foolish’s tail blocked their way. 

“Questions can come in the morning, it’s bedtime.” He smiled gently, motioning the children to Leo’s room. At that point an equally tired Richarlyson also pulled himself from Mike’s back, latching onto Foolish as the shark Mer got all the children settled. “Richarlyson, don’t you wanna be with your Pod?”

The mer with blue scales under his eyes shook his head “Wanna be here.” He mumbled “I like sleeping here.”

The children piled on top of each other, all soon snoring away. Fit brought in a few blankets from Foolish’s room, throwing them over the children to they could stay warm.

Then, they went back over to the two new adult Mer.

“You can have my room.” Foolish immediately said “be warned, it’s literally just rock. We left most of the blankets there, but it’s still rock.”

Cellbit nodded in thanks for the both of them. Without a word, they both made their way to Foolish’s room. Mike stalled for a moment, looking over into Leo’s room where the kids were. Foolish could tell he was uneasy about leaving his child aver he’d just found the kid again, but Cellbit pulled him into Foolish’s room seconds later.

Finally, the house went quiet. Fit and Foolish both let out twin sighs. The latter practically face-planting into the soft sand. Fit took a couch, and then they too were also asleep.

This was already a long night, they didn’t even wanna think about tomorrow.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Foolish woke up to Leonarda jumping on top of him.

"Breakfast time!" She declared, smiling wildly as the other kids gathered around either Foolish or Fit separately. If Foolish looked over to the octopus Mer, he was sure that he'd see Ramon shaking his father. "We demand Crawfish!"

Foolish grunted, slowly rising. A hungry bunch of Mer were the most rowdy- and he did not want his table broken again. Leo cheered, and Foolish faintly felt another Merling crash into his arm and cling to him. Opening his eyes more, Foolish looked down to see Richarlyson.

"Are the other two awake already?" Foolish yawned, feeling the last wisps of sleep shake itself from his body. 

The Merling shook his head "They don't sleep enough." He murmured "They'll wake up when they wanna."

Foolish chuckled, rising fully. He felt like there was some sand between his scales and sticking to his hair, hell, there was some clinging to his eyelashes! He really needed to sweep this place of it's sand if he was gonna start sleeping on the ground.

(Nevermind that the entire floor was sand)

Groggily swimming into the kitchen, Foolish felt Leonarda grab into his tail and cling. Richarlyson shifted to cling onto Foolish's back, and the other Merlings went to bother Fit now, the octopus Mer having not budged a single inch.

"You said you wanted Crawfish?" Foolish rummaged through a large steel container he'd salvaged from the shipwreck. "What else?"

“Octopus, please.” Richarlyson whispered shyly, making Foolish chuckle.

“Oh, it’s alright. We have more than enough.” He assured, scooping out handfuls of the creatures and putting them into an old kelp-woven basket. There were a few tears in the material, but nothing ever fell out of it so Foolish didn’t have to fix it. “Kids, stop bothering Fit, food’s ready!”

The other three bolted toward the table, crashing into it and plopping down onto the sandy floor impatiently. Honestly, Foolish was surprised they didn’t injure themselves!

Setting the basket onto the table, Foolish pried both Leonarda and Richarlyson off of himself and set them down next to the other Merlings. From there, he overturned the basket onto the table and watched as the kids lurched toward their breakfasts. He felt a small streak of pride when Leonarda gathered enough for both her and Richarlyson to eat, giving the younger Mer first pick at what he wanted. That’s his daughter!

Fit practically fell next to Foolish on the other side of the table. Without a word spoken, Foolish passed the squid ink. He was slightly amused as Fit plugged his nose and downed the small glass container of it in one go, coughing slightly afterwards.

“That tastes like shit.” He gagged, throwing the glass back so he didn’t shatter it when he hit the table. “Oh my fucking God.”

Foolish started laughing then. “That’s crazy.” He giggled “You drink it and then you complain about if after- thats fucking crazy!”

Fit bumped his shoulder with Foolish’s giving the man a faux dirty look. “You’re lucky I don’t shove it down your throat.” He threatened playfully.

“Oh yeah, as if.” Foolish’s grogginess faded fully now as he smiled back at Fit “You wouldn’t waste it.”

Fit chuckled, shaking his head. He scooped up a few Crawfish, throwing one at Foolish’s face “Are the other two up?”

Foolish looked to the hallway before he spoke “No, but Richarlyson said that they needed more sleep. Might as well, from what they were saying they move around a lot.” He sighed “Who knows how long it’s been since they had an actual bed.”

“Can you even count a rock shelf as a bed?”

“Fuck you.”

Dawn was breaking when they returned.

Unlike last time, there were no hands to help them offload. Nobody knew they’d be returning so soon, so it was expected that there’d be nobody. 

What wasn’t expected was the complete and utter silence. Like the island was dead.

Even in the early morning there was activity. Though the children usually did not wake until an hour before midday, the adults of the island were always working. The current project was Luzu and Missa’s… tower of sorts. Vegetta wasn’t really caught up on the whole idea of it- or it’s purpose, but it was being built near the docks. People should have been there.

But there was nothing. No noise, barely the creak of wood. Something was terribly wrong.

Roier was the first off the boat, frowning. Usually one of his abuelo’s friends was up this early and tending the toll booth- not like many people came through anymore, but… it was something to keep the old people busy.

Philza was next, leaving Chayanne with Wilbur as he took to the sky in the direction of a large ancient wall that his house sat atop of. There was no smoke rising from the chimney this morning, even though Missa cooked up a storm for breakfast every day regardless of if the children were around.

Vegetta watched as everyone piked off of the boat, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand pin-straight. This wasn’t right. This was too quiet. Fog had rolled in- there was never fog on the island.

Someone screamed. Vegetta’s head turned, eyes widening as he watched Bobby scramble back onto the boat and hide behind his Tio with purple eyes.

“There’s a body.” The shaking boy whispered “I’m scared, it looks like Abuelo!”

Vegetta’s blood ran cold. What? A body? They’d barely been gone two days- how was someone dead?

“Bobby!” Rouer’s shout echoed. The fog got thicker “BOBBY!”

“He’s with me!” Vegetta called back patting Bobby’s head “Go back to Roier, I have to grab something.”

No sooner had the young boy with overalls left did Vegetta throw himself below deck and into the room he kept the small record of Foolish and Leo. The table was still over the floorboard, and Vegetta felt like he was running out of time. Shoving the wooden furniture out of his way, the purple eyed man pried the board out of the floor and reached inside. His fingers brushed familiar leather, and Vegetta breathed a sight of relief. He grasped the booklet and pushed it into his pocket, before reaching to grab something else. Soft footsteps sounded above deck- ones not belonging to any of his crew or the children. 

A small scale found it’s way into Vegetta’s hand, the man snatching it and throwing himself to his feet so he could stomp up the stairs to the main deck. The scale shimmered rainbow for only a moment before it was shoved i to his pocket next to the booklet, and Vegetta tried his best to smooth out his clothes before he went onto the main deck. Pushing the door open, he was faced with a familiar but unwelcome government agent.

“Buenas Dias. What are you doing?”

Chapter Text

Cellbit and Mike woke up around midday.

They heard screaming children, saying something incoherent. It put Cellbit on edge until he heard laughter follow the screams, joyous and without worry. Ah, to be young again.

Mike sat up, grumbling about a sore back. It was always weird to see him without his other half, they were always so attached to the hip. Oh well, Forever or Felps were likely taking care of him, they’d know soon.

“Pai! Pai!” Richarlyson likely heard Mike, and raced to them. Cellbit noted the lack of prosthetic still, and couldn’t help but wonder how he’d survived without being in too much pain. “You’re awake!”

Another Merling darted in, Cellbit recognizing the child as Leonarda. She gave the three a look, before backing out upon realizing Richarlyson had moved to cling to Mike.

“I missed you too, Richas.” Mike chuckled, a small smile on his face as his eyes drifted to Cellbit “This bed isn’t very good, is it?”

“Thought it was just me.” The melody started to come back. Representing a sigh, Cellbit tried to give a smile “at least it’s a place to sleep?”

It must have come out as a grimace instead, because Mike moved to fully get up. He was likely intending for Cellbit to also rise and follow so they could find someone to make the melody go away, but Cellbit just sat there.

Truth be told, though it was a rock shelf this was the best sleep he had in ages. He was so used to keeping an eye open- waiting for that which roamed the depths of the sea. It wasn’t so bad before they found Richarlyson, but afterwards they had to look out, lest they wanted their son to die. He was used to the cold of night, waiting around the edge of his Pod’s circle to try and sense danger.

Here, he had his first god rest in years. It was warm, he didn’t have to worry about his son- he slept through the whole night and some parts of the day, too! It was like a vacation.

One he’d have to go home from.

Did he really though? Maybe they wouldn’t mind if his Pod moved in. They could use the hands to tend to their reef- the one Cellbit hadn’t even seen yet. Come to think of it, he’d never seen this place in daylight, it was always either dusk or darkness in the two days he was now here- he didn’t know it’s beauty.

He was surely about to though, for Mike grabbed his arm and hauled him out of bed.

The main room was bustling with activity. Someone had moved the rock out of the way of a closet- one they clearly did not want anyone to have access to. They weren’t sure what was in the closet before, but they saw  a loose bleached kelp blanket balled up in the corner- likely used recently from how there wasn’t any sand particles on it.

Children tumbled over the chairs and couch, playing an elaborate game of tag that required one’s eyes being closed. At the moment a small octopus merling was ‘it’, whatever that meant.

Around the stone table were the mer from last night, two out of the three looking like they were dead. They were both exceptionally pale and their eyes drooped unnaturally- as if the light was too much for them.

“I told you it was a shit idea.” The jellyfish Mer was swimming in and out of the kitchen area, carrying fish as he went. There was a small pile next to the door, and the Mer was determined to get it all in the storage box.

“When has that ever stopped them?” Fit leaned in, dumping more fish onto the pile. He looked across the room and spotted Mike and Cellbit, smiling “Oh, you’re awake! Foolish- they’re awake now!”

“Great!” Foolish’s voice reached their ears from further away “Ask them if they want something for breakfast- have Slime get it!”

“Always the fucking nanny.” The Jellyfish Mer huffed playfully before looking over at the two adult Mer who were still trying to take in the scene. Looking them up and down, he nodded to himself “Actually, I don’t think I mind.”

Mike was surprised by the other Mer’s facial features, which were much like his own. Glasses, green eyes- fuck their jawlines were the same too, weren’t they? Only difference was their Mer type, but he’d known Mer with siblings that ran off of much bigger differences. His parents did say he had a brother once…

“-ike?” Cellbit snapped his fingers in front if Mike’s face. “Hello? Ocean to Mike? What do you want to eat?”

“Ah! Sorry.” Mike said sheepishly “I am not hungry.”

Cellbit raised an eyebrow, but shrugged anyway. “I’ll just have squid ink.”

Fit popped his head into the house again, a wide smile on his face. “Hey Foolish!” He called “You hear that!? I’m not the only one who drinks squid ink in this house.”

“That’s crazy!” Foolish called back “But I don’t remember asking!”

Fit immediately ducked out, and the two adult Mer watching everything happen heard Foolish scream-laugh as the sound of something slapping something else was heard. 

“Ow, you bitch, stop throwing rocks at me!”

After breakfast and before Cellbit and the other guy woke up, the adults held a funeral.

It was a shallow grave, dug in the sand next to a younger part of the reef. The human body floated beside them, covered in a bleached blanket of kelp. It’d always been the body blanket, since the first death Foolish bad seen until now.

He still didn’t know who exactly this child was- how they died or what their name even was. But he knew someone on Vegetta’s crew was responsible for this child- he knew that whatever killed it was mode to blame than the human who dumped them into the sea. It was only fair they gave the body a proper rest- children were innocent of all the evil this world offered, after all.

The ceremony was quick, the body was buried, and then it was time to prepare the home for when Foolish and Fit were gone. They couldn’t know exactly how long they’d be gone for, and no kffense to Slime but the others weren’t really… great at hunting for the Pod. 

So that leas them to now, with Foolish and fit making sure Slime had packed the meat box full of fish. There was still a lot on the side, but there wasn’t any harm in sharing with Richarlyson’s Pod. 

After all, Foolish was gonna miss the little Merling- he had to spoil the kid somehow. They’d be leaving soon, traveling as guards to make sure all three made it back safe. Besides, they’d been wanting to go around that way for years. 

Now was the best time then, with Richarlyson clinging to his back and a pack full if food they’d give to Cellbit and Mike at the snd of the adventure.

They needed the food too, all skin and bones from being underfed.

Chapter Text

Was he in trouble?

The bear… thing stood looming over him, fog clinging to his boat. Fuck, when had it been this foggy? He could hear his crew stumbling down the docks in a panic, but…

But they’d forgotten him.

“I’m… I’m looking over the damages on my ship.” Vegetta said slowly, knowing that Roier would realize he was missing from the group and try to return to him- at least, he hoped. They’d never really done this before, there’d never been a fog that clung to the tropical land.

“Why?” The bear tilted it’s head too far to the right- Vegetta thought any regular human’s neck would snap.

Then again, this thing wasn’t human.

“Rocks maybe… or a sea creature we made angry.” Vegetta refrained from biting his lip. Roier told him that was how he could always get caught lying.

“No.” The creature reached for Vegetta, but was stopped when the sound of boots hitting the docks again sounded.

“Vegetta!” Maximus. “Vegetta, come see this!”

Cucurucho stepped back. “Disfruta la isla.” It droned, moving passed Vegetta and into the lower decks- likely to inspect whatever ‘damage’ the captain was speaking about.

Vegetta let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, feeling his very soul shake. The rest after could come later through, he had to meet Maximus on the dock.

“What’s happened?” Instead of chastising the man for leaving one of their own behind, Vegetta let it slide. After all, they were all frazzled and Vegetta’s short disappearance would have been easily overlooked.

“It’s bad.” As Vegetta walked passed the man in sunglasses, Maximus turned and kept the caltain’s stride. “Abuelroier…” Max shook his head. “Gone.”

That caught Vegetta by surprise. Though the man’s hair was grey and balding, he was still very spry of his age- Vegetta once saw him weild a chainsaw and waving it at the water- and no matter how crazy that sounds Vegetta was actually impressed! So to hear about this…

“Murder.” Maximus’ voice interrupted Vegetta’s thoughts before they could go any further. “He was murdered.”

“By who?” Now that was a real mystery- a murderer on the island? Impossible!

“We don’t know. Nobody is coming out of their houses. I can’t find Dan. The French… I don’t know where they are. La France is a ghost town from What Jaiden is saying.” Maximus sighed, hand picking at his bun. “Vegetta, what if they were murdered too? What if we are all that’s left?”

“We can’t be thinking about that now. First we have to get everyone accounted for.” But questions still lingered. Who did this? Why now? What about the days since they’d set sail for anywhere called to the murderer? Did they plan to get everyone, or just thise gone? Surely they wanted the children too- for as time went on Vegetta heard whispers of Tilin’s fake grave being destroyed- an ever frantic Wuackity turning up at the scarily empty tavern not long after. 

Whatever the fuck happened, it made Vegetta worry. Worry for the human kids, and the Merlings too. He worried for little Leo, his hand falling into is pocket to retrieve the scale and-

Oh.

Oh no.

He’d dropped the scale.

Richarlyson had decided to cling to Foolish this time around.

Mike and Cellbit were surprised- the Merling never usually clung to any other adult other than the ones from his Pod- and to attach to this random Mer he’d barely known a week? Well, it was certainly strange.

“Foolish, c’n I have a starfish?” They’d made it further than the night before, Cellbit and mike in front, Foolish and rRcharlyson in the middle, and Fit hot on their tail and looking out at the deep dark sea- expecting something to jump at them so he could use the trident he’d nicked off of an ocean monument not long after he’d left the large trench known as 2b2t.

“Yeah, here.” 2b2t was a name in itself, the lore and legend surrounding that hellscape told by the modern Mer mom to scare her child into staying with their Pod instead of trying to find or start their own. 

“Thank you!” Richarlyson didn’t know any of that though, Foolish would assume. He was just happy go lucky- just glad to be there, traveling with them. Foolish didn’t know how aware the Merling really was of things in the deep blue sea, and he’d prefer to keep it that way. At least until he was older.

“Have some fish, so your stomach doesn’t hurt later.” Foolish passed a few sardines to the kid. Starfish were effectively sugar for most Mer, but for shark Mer it was sort of like a hunger accelerator or sorts. It was likely a mechanism from the very first shark Mer to roam the sea- they needed something to make them more hungry and the slimy starfish always seems to work. Maybe it was a texture thing, but overtime an instinct developed for it.

Richarlyson let out a happy noise, taking the small fish gratefully. Behind them, Foolish heard Fit chuckle.

“You’re such a dad.” He teased.

Foolish flashed his sharp teeth. “Sharks gotta look out for each other.” He replied.

“Yeah!” Richarlyson shouted, letting out a tiny snarl. Fit pretended to be scared

“Woah there buddy, you’re scaring him.” Foolish chuckled, leaning back a little bit. “He’s sensitive, y’know?”

“Wha- sensitive!? Foolish, you’re sensitive!” Fit shouted, waving his trident at the golden skinned Mer “I’m going to skewer you next time!”

“That’s what you said last time!” Foolish smirked, though Fit couldn’t see. Ahead, Cellbit and Mike were not-so-discreetly listening to the conversation.

“Foolish I’m gonna-“ Fit started toward Foolish when-

“No! Don’t go after uncle Foosh!” Richarlyson shouted, stunning the adults. “I’ma get you first!” He lunged at Fit, the octopus Mer dropping his tridents to an unoccupied tentacle so he could catch the young Merling. “RAHH!”

Fit chuckled “So ferocious.” He teased, subtly waving the group to keep moving- which they did. “You wanna go back with Foolish or do you wanna stay with me?”

As Fit and Richarlyson started a new conversation, Foolish caught up with Mike and Cellbit.

“Sorry.” He said quickly “I didn’t think that he’d become so attached so quick- i mean usually merlings stick with their Pods, but he was just so scared and so we were taking care of him and-“

“Ay, it’s alright!” Cellbit nearly shouted to stop Foolish’s rant “It’s alright that he called you that- he feels safe with you. Now that we know he’d good with you we could probably plan visits when this is all said and done.”

“Oh, so you’re sticking with the nomadic life?” Foolish wasn’t going to judge them, but he thought he’d stressed the consequences already. “He needs a stable environment- not to move homes whenever you feel like it.”

Mike bit his lip. Though he agreed, there was something else.

“We don’t have anywhere.” Mike said, biting the inside of his cheek “No home, no little place like yours. We have to keep moving. If we don’t, we might not survive.”

Foolish had heard about Pods like that- though now a days they weren’t really in abundance. Those who were nomadic before found Pods to call their own…

Wait a damn minute.

Chapter Text

They were nearly halfway there when the shark Mer proposed the idea.

Cellbit and Mike weren’t sure what ti think. Foolish was certainly someone who’d shown them great hospitality- who’d sent them along with enough food to last them a while-

If they ration it

-And he was someone who Richarlyson loved to pieces. But it was just too good to be true. The shark Mer’s Pod was strange. They’d never seen the reef, they’d never seen the other Mers’ houses- hell, they’d barely known the man for two days! And he was already offering them this? An opportunity yo move in? There had to be a catch!

“Pai! Pai! Can we? Can we live with them!?” But of course, then Richarlyson caught wind of it, and…

“I’ll let you decide alone.” Foolish had the decency to look embarrassed, smiling awkwardly as he backed away to where Fit was sat. They’d stopped for the night, unable to go further without risking Richarlyson’s safety. 

That which lurked in the night was never safe.

Foolish and Fit kept a lookout, the shark mer lazily gnawing on a sand dollar to keep himself entertained as the minutes ticked by. Richarlyson had gone to sleep, yet Cellbit and Mike could not. 

Cellbit’s eyes scanned the depths, peering over the edge of the sandstone shelf they’d settled on that night. He’d slept here a while back- though he soon had to leave out of fear of the darkness below. 

He hated being afraid.

“We should talk with the others about… all of this.” Mike murmured, frowning. He quickly added “I miss Pac.”

“I miss him too.” Maybe not as much as Mike, but the sentiment was still there “The good news is that we can fix his tail up again.”

Mike nodded, hand reaching into his own borrowed bag to feel the edge of the prosthetic. Looking down to Richarlyson, a soft smile spread across his face. “Then we can get Richas his too.”

Cellbit nodded, still looking over the sandstone shelf. Was that a noise? Did he hear a distant roar? What was that?

Mike sighed “maybe they are right.” He said quietly “Maybe Richarlyson would be better with not moving so much.”

Cellbit bit his lip, but nodded. No place was safe for them, none would take in five rough looking Mer and a child- especially with two needing special assistance with prosthetics. They were just more mouths to feed- more bait for giant squids or killer whales. 

A shadow passed over them, but Cellbit did not look up. Maybe they should take this opportunity and go for it- after all how often was it that there was a Pod willing to hear them out? 

Just wait until they see you- and your Pod. The thoughts struck him harshly, and the melody returned. Fuck, now was not the time. He couldn’t listen to the leave-leave-leave-them-leave-never come back-leave-they’re disappointed-leave-leave-

Mike grabbed his arm suddenly, and the melody was replaced with a strange buzzing sensation- one that served as essentially a ‘bad vibes’ alarm. 

The Mer with dark eyebags frowned, backing away from the edge whatever it was, it had to come from the depths, right? 

Right? 

(Not him, it couldn’t be him again. He’d already destroyed so much- he was going slowly insane- he couldn’t handle this. The constant noise, the thing that made his breath sing to lure those unfortunate enough to hear it into the deep blue sea. Their taste was something indescribable, so-)

A giant squid was suddenly on them. 

Tentacles shot up from underneath the sandstone shelf, reaching for them- for the rocks- anything it could take. Fit was almost grabbed, but the octopus Mer swung his trident in an arc to scare away the creature and slice up a few tentacles. It only worked for his side of things though, for at the same time Foolish was fighting tooth and nail to hurt the beast. 

Cellbit backed away further, scooping up Richarlyson on his way. Distantly he heard Mike yell, looking over to see the Mahi Mahi Mer get snagged by a tentacle. A brief shot of adrenaline flowed though Cellbit- before it was stopped by Fit’s trident.

The octopus Mer had thrown the weapon with scarily good accuracy, effectively chopping off the beast’s hold on Cellbit’s pink haired friend. From there, he watched as foolish took the chance to lunge at the body of the beast, shouting fiercely as he clawed at the giant’s eye. It too gave a roar, though this was one of pain as it fell back and into the depths- Foolish faling too.

Fit looked torn between making sure Mike was fine and trying to see where Foolish ended up, but in the end he went to Mike and made sure the Mahi Mahi mer was not injured.

“I am fine.” mike assured again “what about Foolish?”

Fit turned toward the ledge, breath leaving hos lips as he began trying to come up with a plan. That was all halted though when the shark Mer pulled himself over the ledge and waved. He looked a little scratched up, but with squid blood layering around his lips Mike and Cellbit actually thought he looked more like the perpetrator rather than the victim.

“I got him!” Foolish waved a hand, which was covered in ink- how’d that even happened??? “Kicked his ass, you guys can go back to sleep!”

He didn’t need to know they hadn’t been sleeping in the first place, so the Mahi Mahi Mer and Cellbit simply settled in a small patch of soft sand and drifted off into a pair of fitful slumbers. 

The next day the four adults were up and moving before Richarlyson has even a chance to ask about food, Cellbit and Mike taming the opportunity to take turns feeding their son. 

“Not too long now.” As the day went on, Mike was clearly getting jittery at the thought of reuniting with their Pod.his was shaking from head to tail, hands waving around as he spoke. Damn, had it really been that long since they’d all been in the same room?

Finally, the five came over a sandbar. The two adults of Foolish’s Pod had started to whine when they were told that they would arrive soon (Foolish though that Richarlyson was a bitchass liar.

But when they caught sight of Cellbit and Mike’s remaining Pod and where they were currently sitting at… well, let’s just say that they were impressed. Mike and Cellbit caught sight of the Merpewopls- both smiling wildly when Richarlyson shot from their arms and toward the other men who were strangers to Foolish and Fit.  At Richarlyson’s shout, the other three Mer looked over from one of the various projects they were working on their eyes lit up, and Cellbit’s chest felt warmth start to crawl through his ice cold ribs.

Ah, it was great to be home.

Chapter Text

Foolish and Fit felt rather... out of place.

They'd started the day out nicely, waking up refreshed after a rather staggering night of The Horrors- Foolish though he'd heard Mike yell something about 'Forever' as he dove over the edge to follow the squid. Whatever that meant, Mike definitely looked relieved when Foolish waved to them with ink-covered hands.

Fit didn't even follow him when he'd gone over the edge, but Foolish didn't mind. The Octopus Mer probably remembered the last time they'd clashed in battle- though neither ever did it out of malice. Their fighting styles simply clashed, and often ended up in Foolish getting stuck by a trident of one of Fit's tentacles being taken off of his body. 

Yeah, Foolish didn't wanna think about how many scars on his body were from accidents regarding Fit.

Anyway, after they'd all woken up after that hell of a night Cellbit and Mike couldn't get them moving any sooner, almost pulling Foolish along in hopes that Fit would also follow. 

And follow he did.

They'd made it over a sandbar when Richarlyson suddenly took off toward a small area carved out in a bed of seaweed. It was well-lived on, some parts of it clearly picked. It was likely for baskets or blankets, but judging by how neither Mike nor Cellbit had bags to carry things until Foolish gave them some, the shark Mer wasn't hopeful.

There were two Mer seemingly working on the small trampled down spot, one having a part of his tail missing. Searching his memory, Foolish could finally put a name to the face. Pac.

The second was stranger- not something Foolish had ever seen before. He was eel-like, but more... Foolish squinted. He couldn't get a good look at them, like his eyes unfocused whenever he tried to look too close.

A third was a squid Mer- likely named something close to whatever Mike had yelled about last night when Foolish had killed one. He was working near the seaweed, but his tentacles brushed against sand instead of the wet plants.

Foolish watched as Mike took off after Richarlyson, leaving Cellbit behind to look at the two Mer who were not part of his Pod.

"I..." he didn't seem to know where to start. "Thank you. For getting us here. And helping my son. I don't know what I would have done if we didn't find Richas alive and well."

Fit smiled gently, while Foolish was still looking around the area. "The pleasure was ours. Richarlyson is such s pleasure to have around, he gets along with the other kids so well."

Cellbit gave a nervous chuckle, before looking back down at his Pod. They were all crowded around Richarlyson now, either coddling him or scolding him for straying to far from the Pod- but it was mostly coddling.  

"We'll... talk about what you offered, Foolish." Cellbit said after a moment of silence. "But I think Richarlyson wouldn't let us not join you."

The shark mer looked back to the other, giving a gentle smile. "If you don't want to go, that's alright." He  stated "we wont even offer to take Richarlyson. Just, if you don't wish to go, then do not."

Cellbit nodded "We'll talk about it." He was likely referring to his Pod. "For now, how about we introduce you to everyone?"

Vegetta felt off.

Something was wrong- very wrong. First off, everyone but the French? Dead or missing. They weren't sure what happened, only that the French had holes up in Pierre's bunker until further notice.

Second off, Cucurucho was now everywhere Vegetta looked. It was like he could never get a break from the bear- the one who he knew was in possession of Leo's rainbow scale. Oh yeah, that was certainly bad. 

Vegetta kept the other items from and about Merpeople on his person at all times, barley taking time to shower or change out of his increasingly dirty clothes. The bear's eyes stayed on him, burning into the pocket in Vegetta's jacket that held his largest secret to date.

Oh mama, where did he go wrong?

First he left home, then he got a boat, became captain, became a pirate, and...

Could he even be considered a pirate anymore?

He was stranded on land, sure, but it was fading before that. He hadn't pillaged or stolen in months- the last job they took was to find a Merperson or disprove their existence. That job from the government would have laid them well enough to retire- yet Vegetta just let them go because of a child??? How fucking weird was that?

Nonetheless, the question still stood. there wasn't any treasures to find on the ocean part of the island, only inland.

Vegetta hated the inland.

The purple eyed man sighed. Damn, this was such a lame question to have. It was definitely the most tame with all of the murder, but still. But seriously- could he even be considered a pirate, much less a captain? He decided to question Roier.

"Captain, it does bot matter what you are now. If I see you now as my captain, it will not change." Roier could be a bug help sometimes "now what else ails you, my friend!? it simply cannot be just this question that has you hanging by a thread!"

"I'm being followed, too." Vegetta's voice lowered to a quiet murmur. "By Cucurucho, that fucking bear."

Roier's eyes widened. "Cucurucho???" He hissed "what could it want with you?"

"I think he found-“

"Good morning." Both humans went rigid, turning around to see the creature they were just talking about. "I am with the QSMP Census Bureau, and I would like to ask you some questions."

Roier and Vegetta looked at each other. "Which... one of us?" Roier asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Please say Roier Please say  Roier please say-

The bear pointed to Vegetta, long black claw glistening in the sunlight that bad finally returned to the island.

"Follow me."

Without much other choice, Vegetta obeyed.

Chapter Text

So this just in: Richarlyson would not let go of Foolish. 

When he spotted Foolish and Fit hesitantly sitting outside of the patch of seaweed, the small Mer had smiled wide and pulled away from his Pod to cling to the shark Mer. Foolish felt eyes bore into the top of his head as he looked down at the little Mer with a yellow and green tail- he'd heard one shout about a prosthetic, something about it being done and that he could finally wear one and not feel an ache, but Richarlyson didn't care. 

And Fit didn't even mind the fact that Richarlyson was ignoring him for a second, he just loved Foolish's blown out eyes at the Merling's clinging. Surely he never expected this, a clingy child who wasn't his not wanting to let go.

Cellbit found it in himself to only laugh, waving off his Pod's concerns. "These are the ones who found Richas." He explained to the other Merpeople. "Richas is clinging to Foolish, and the bald one is Fit."

The octopus Mer waved, smiling in a friendly manner. Foolish looked up too, smiling sheepishly. 

"Sorry..." He chuckled nervously.

The adult Mer with a missing part of his tail laughed, throwing himself backward to lay on his back. Mike looked at the Mer, smiling. The Squid Mer chuckled, waving Foolish off.

"It's nice to see friendly Mer around here." He said "So it's alright."

Richarlyson moved to Fit next, grabbing one of the man's many tentacles and wrapping his arms and tail around it. The bald male snickered, lifting up the limb. 

"Hey buddy." Fit smiled "You happy to be back home?"

The Merling nodded. "Thank you!" He shouted, smiling wide as he hung upside down. 

Foolish felt something next to him, head whipping around to see the strange Mer that he couldn't identify. The Mer made his eyes hurt a bit, they looked way too fuzzy around the edges- Foolish felt like his eyes were going cross- but when he blinked the effect was gone. Had he imagined it?

Cellbit smiled nervously. "So, let me introduce you to the Pod!" He addressed the two foreign Mer. First, he waved to the squid Mer "That's Forever- Forever don't mind the ink on Foolish, we ran into a giant Squid and he wasn't friendly." The Mer had long blonde hair and curious eyes that peered at the shark Mer, observing him quickly to try and spot a drop of ink on him. Cellbit didn't seem to notice, moving onto the adult Mer with part of his tail missing. "This is Pac, it's his prosthetic you found in the sand." The Mer on his back jolted up, dark eyes wide. 

"You have it!?" He asked hopefully, black hair falling partially in front of his face. 

"Yeah, Mike should have it." Cellbit motioned to the pink haired Mer, who started digging through his bag- strange, it was small enough that the tail should have at least poked out of it... "And the Mer next to you is Felps." but Cellbit  brought attention back to introductions, the last Mer, who Foolish saw clearly now. 

His skin had strange markings- some sort of runes only Badboyhalo would know. His tail was more like a sea snake too, something Foolish had thought extinct since Humans started popping up. He was clearly nervous too, biting the inside of his cheek and Foolish though the edges of him were starting to blur again- 

Foolish smiled, extending a hand for the Mer to shake. "It's great to meet you all." He said cheerily, before glancing to the other two unfamiliar Mer. "I'd shake your hands too but you're a bit far away."

Felps observed Foolish hand for only a moment before he shook it, secretly glad that the shark Mer didn't talk about the obvious.

"Sit down." Man, Vegetta hated this thing. 

Sure, he'd agreed to go on a mission to find Mermaids (or disprove them, which Vegetta was starting to wish he could actually do), and sure, he'd maintained alright conversation with the creature. That doesn't mean he had to like the damn thing, and in this bright room with white walls that reflected the florescent lights he was starting to realize that he didn't feel indifferent to the creature- no, he hated it. 

But he had no choice, so he sat down. 

"I'm part of the QSMP Census Bureau. I need certain information. I'll be with you today, sorry for the inconvenience." The room was small, big enough for a pristine white table and two pristine white chairs with a little space from the walls for people to comfortably walk to the seats. Everything about the space was refined; clipped and cold and Vegetta knew already that he would go insane if he stayed here too long. He had to get this done as quick as possible. 

Cucurucho's beady eyes did not leave Vegetta as it wrote something down on a sheet of paper. That's right, the creature couldn't speak that many sentences. it couldn't formulate words properly.

DO MERMAIDS EXIST? Vegetta sighed. 

"No," he lied, feeling a cold shiver trail down his spine. It knew, it had to. "I've told you, they don't exist."

"No." It insisted, bringing one of it's claws up as it wrote something else on another piece of paper. 

THEN WHAT IS THIS? Vegetta hoped his eyes didn't widen all that much when he saw Leo's scale. 

"Something we found while treasure hunting." Vegetta shrugged, trying to play it off "I liked how it looked, so I took it before the crew saw." He could play into greedy pirate, yeah, he could do that.

"Why?" And it seemed that Cucurucho bought it. 

"I like the color of it." Vegetta grabbed the scale, holding it up to the light with mock scrutiny "Don't you see how it gives a little more... color to the room?" A halo of rainbow lined the walls as light reflected off of the surface. Man, Vegetta would have to test that out later. 

Cucurucho stood, snatching the scale from Vegetta's grasp. "Please wait here for a moment." It droned, exiting the room. Vegetta didn't drop his guard yet- who knows if there were cameras. 

When he got out, he had to find a way to warn Foolish. They weren't safe, not while this island grew more dangerous and hungry for the mortals that walked it's soil. Vegetta'd seen beings with green buzzing around them- witnessed one nearly take Trump away one time. They weren't nice, but before now they were manageable. If only because the island had it's numbers and because the Federation seemed to be dealing with them, then so be it. But it wasn't like that anymore, Vegetta had seen about three of the monsters roam throughout the forests since they'd gotten back. The Federation sure as hell weren't doing anything about it, not with Cucurucho trailing behind Vegetta the past while. 

Vegetta heard a click, a mechanism unlatching. He stood up, looking around the small room. Cucurucho had been gone a while, hadn't he? What was he doing? Where was he? Why-

Another click, and the floor beneath Vegetta started to open.

Chapter Text

Foolish and Fit stayed off the patch of seaweed. Don't get them wrong, the Pod that was self-dubbed as 'the Barzilians' were very welcoming, but...

"I dislike how wet it is." Fit muttered to Foolish, the duo setting up for the night just outside of the glowing algae that had found it's home between Felps' scales. It was actually pretty cool, when they could see him clearly. 

"That's crazy." Foolish chuckled "You're literally underwater, Fit."

"That feels more wet than water." Fit insisted, scooping up a loose blob of the plant "Here, feel."

Foolish laughed, leaning away from it. "I don't sleep with any blankets for a reason, you clam!" He waved Fit's hand away. "Siren's sake, you're worse than Slime!"

Fit smiled "And he's not bad at all, so I'll take that as a compliment."

Foolish huffed, snatching an unsuspecting minnow beside them with his claws. Still alive, he popped it in his mouth. Man, he kinda wished he had a sand dollar at the moment. 

"Woah!" Fit and Foolish startled slightly at Richarlyson's voice beside them, not expecting the Merling to be so close by. "That was awesome!"

Foolish had fallen over, scrambling up in a short flurry of sand. Fit laughed once he recovered, looking over to Richarlyson. 

"What, the minnow?" He asked, leaning forward "That's nothing, watch this."

Foolish sat back up as Fit snatched more minnows and various other fish from different areas of their surroundings, tentacles pulling back two or three fish in each wrapped up limb. Richarlyson's eyes sparkled despite the lack of light, the young boy gawking at Fit's display.

"How'd you do that?!" He demanded, smiling gratefully when Fit handed him a few fish of his catch. Foolish also got some too, which he nodded in thanks at. "You guys are so fast! Hunting is never that fast!"

Fit and Foolish shared a look. 

"How... How do you hunt?" The shark Mer asked, tilting his head. Wasn't this the way all Mer had been taught to hunt? To be fast with smaller fish- knowing they would not likely give you a second chance? 

Richarlyson settled on the edge of the seaweed-filled ground. "Well, Pai Felps and Pai Cellbit don't usually hunt, but when they do they're really slow about things. They sneak up on fish, but only the small ones. We can't get the big ones. Pai Forever isn't really good at hunting, so he just gets us starfish and clams sometimes. Pai Mike and Pai Pac sometimes get bigger fish, but they're sneaky." He explained, leaning forward to stare at the two adult Mer "Now how'd you do that?! That was awesome!"

Foolish and Fit shared another look. Was that why they all looked a bit... thin? Weak? More like driftwood? They certainly didn't look healthy for regular Mer- but were they regular? Foolish had watched Cellbit be a bit off in his own head, heard the scared Mer start humming a vaguely comforting melody; and Felps was strange as well. Neither Fit nor Foolish knew how to explain it, but it was certainly stranger than a regular Mer.

"That's how hunting smaller fish should go." Fit said carefully. "You have to be fast, catch them quickly so they don't swim away." he paused, before adding on "It's not something you're good at immediately though, it takes lots and lots of practice."

Foolish nodded "Yeah, and at your age you wouldn't be learning the basics of hunting anyway- that's saved for when you're ten or eleven."

Richarlyson huffed "I'm just ahead for my age, then!" He declared "So you gotta teach me!"

Fit chuckled "Like I said, it takes a while to learn." He replied gently "Longer than we can stay here."

"Then I'll just come back with you! So I can learn!" Well fuck, that answer was exactly what they wanted to avoid. 

Fit and Foolish imagined the Brazilians wouldn't want to integrate with a new Pod once the duo had seen their little setup- and they didn't blame 'em. So, they'd silently agreed to not bring up their offer of joining them around Richarlyson, if at all. It was easier that way, but it seems that a Merling never forgets. 

"Well, would you look at that, I think it's your bedtime." Fit chuckled nervously, Foolish feeling something swim up beside him. Glancing over, he saw the blurry outline of Felps. 

Fuck, he really had to stop doing that.

Richarlyson gave a whine, but obeyed when Fit gave him a slightly stern look. Foolish had found that the octopus Mer was good at getting the kids to do things without making them feel scared or uncomfortable- and that somehow that just made children love him even more. 

Felps didn't follow Richarlyson, and now the pale blue glow of algae crawled over sand instead of seaweed as the blurry-edged Mer settled beside them. Honestly, Foolish was just surprised it was Felps that came near them first. If anyone, he thought the squid Mer would be the first. 

Eh, maybe it was the bits of ink that still speckled Foolish's arms that kept him cautious. The shark Mer wouldn't blame him. 

"Sorry if we're getting his hopes up." Fit sighed, shaking his head "We'll be out of your hair come tomorrow."

Felps didn't say anything, watching the two. Fit shot a look to Foolish, who simply shrugged. 

After a moment, the two continued their idle conversation, assuming that Felps would say something in his own time. They left momentary pauses every so often incase the man wanted to join in, but he hadn't spoken up. They made small talk as they heard the Brazilians start to go to sleep, the pale blue glow of algae floating across the sand gradually dimming. Foolish and Fit could still see each other of course- but after a while they didn't need to rely on any light to do so. 

It was only Foolish snatched up another Minnow that was inching closer to him that the glow came back, nearly full force. Foolish felt eyes burn into the side of his head as he ate the fish, glancing over. 

Fuck, ow, yeah he's just straight up a blurry spot now- fuck that hurts his eyes.

"... Richarlyson mentioned that you guys don't hunt fast." Foolish said quietly, no longer speaking to just Fit. "Do you... only know how to hunt slowly?"

Felps nodded. "'S how we were taught." He murmured. 

Foolish nodded carefully, as if he was treading on seashells. "Usually slow hunting is for larger fish. Like whales, or sea lions."

Fit hummed in agreement, nodding as well. "Hunting for smaller fish requires you to be faster." He added on "Larger creatures are fast, but we can get into the same places they can. We can't get into every place a smaller creatures can."

"Alright..." Felps got a bit less blurry. "How do we do that?"

"Like Fit was telling Richarlyson, it takes time to learn and actually do it." Foolish replied "And we won't have time to teach you the basics, we have to get back to our Pod tomorrow." he smiled apologetically "Really, I wish we had more time to help."

Felps nodded, and swam off without another word. Fit and Foolish looked to each other as the night's darkness started to settle over them, moonlight trying to reach the bottom of the ocean. 

Silently, the two came to the conclusion that it would be better to get rest that night. This place seemed safe enough- and though it wasn't either of their houses it was good enough. So with a quiet goodnight to each other, they both fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Foolish didn't usually dream. He didn't even dream when he was young. The first time he did it was something to do with his family Pod's home being destroyed by humans and watching his family get captured- and when he woke up, he couldn't tell the real from the fake. 

The first time he learned about dreams, he learned about nightmares, too. 

That being said, this dream was of darkness, a liquid slightly thicker than water moving through his gills. He could breathe just fine, but the liquid ran coolly through his gills in a way that he didn't enjoy.

"I am dreaming. I am dreaming. I am dreaming. I am dreamin-" Foolish turned at the voice- the familiar voice. He realized that someone else was floating with him through the darkness- someone he knew. They were a ways away, but if he could just swim-

Where the fuck was his tail?

Looking down, Foolish realized that he had human legs, human feet- a fully human body. He ran a hand over where he knew his gills were, but those were gone too. 

That's when he really knew he was dreaming, yet still curses fell from his lips as he gawked at his new human traits. 

"What the shit- son of a Siren if Fit slipped poison into that fucking minnow... nah, that's crazy." Foolish grumbled, leaning down to poke at the golden flesh that matched his torso and arms. He heard the other person suck in a faint gasp at his voice, and imagined that the man spotted him in a matter of seconds. he wouldn't know though, he was still busy cursing at his new legs. 

"Foolish? Is that you?" He looked up again when the familiar voice inched closer. Yeah, that was Vegetta alright. 

But when did he get a tail?

"Yeah, I'm totally on jelly right now." Foolish took in the other man's deep Purple tail- which was shaped like Leo's. He had a smattering of scales on his hands that looped up to his neck, and Foolish suddenly noted that the other man was Shirtless, while he himself was seemingly fully clothed. Was this was humans called 'shorts'? "Why the hell do you have a tail???"

"Why do you have legs?" Vegetta called back, trying to swim closer. He was more successful than Foolish who currently had legs- the usual-Mer would give him that.

"Because I'm tripping balls, Vegetta." Foolish deadpanned "Which is weird, because I don't think Fit laced that minnow with anything. I might be wrong though, he's sneaky like an eel."

"I don't know what any of that means, friend,” Vegetta chuckled "But I am glad to see a friendly face."

Foolish put his thumbs up, noticng a distinct lack of claws "Kraken be damned- am I really a whole human??? Do I not have anything cool??? No wings??? Nothing???"

"You still have your eyes." Vegetta supplied helpfully.

"My eyes are like yours, I can just see a bit better in the dark." Foolish huffed. 

"Well I like your eyes, they're muy bonito." Smooth charm, but now was not the time for flirting. 

Or maybe it was, Foolish thought as he felt his ears tinge pink. After all, this was a dream. Whatever this Vegetta said didn't matter to the one on the outside. 

"I like your new tail." Foolish smiled, leaning forward as Vegetta finally made it to him. "It suits you well, Leo would love how it looks like hers."

That got the usual-human to smile "How is she?" He asked "You have not visited since you sent us back home."

Foolish shrugged "That's only a few days, hardly much to count for." He chuckled "She's great though, healthy and swimming well."

Vegetta nodded "Good to hear." He seemed to think of something. "Hey Foolish-"

The usual-Mer felt himself get yanked back, pulled away from this new Vegetta. He struggled for a moment before he realized it was essentially useless, hearing the purple eyed male call out for him frantically. Unceremoniously he was pulled from the thick liquid, and into the real world. 

The sunrise from below the waves danced across his vision, and Foolish gave a low grumble as he woke. He heard Fit startle awake at the sudden noise from his friend, making the shark Mer snort as he sat up. 

Huffing, Foolish's head was turned away from where the Brazilians were to look at the deep blue sea. This was certainly a beautiful spot, he'd give them that much. It wasn't the easiest to get to from his Pod, but maybe sometime he'd come back. If not for Richarlyson, then for the view. 

"Have a good sleep?" Fit's voice rumbled, the man's smooth voice going deeper as he groggily sat up. 

Foolish hummed, nodding. Truth be told it felt like his conversation lasted a few minutes, but it must have been the entire night if he was waking up now. Time was strange, he wasn't sure how to feel about it. 

Something hit his arm. turning, he saw fit smack him with a piece of tuna. "Breakfast." The mand insisted "We have one hell of a journey back."

Foolish nodded, taking the fish and slowly gnawing on it as he mentally charted his way back home. They'd likely go to camp out back where they'd been attacked by the squid on the way there, and now that Foolish thought about it he kinda wanted the beast's spine. It made for good 'greenhouse material' or whatever that meant; he didn't know, but Bad was trying to grow new sea plants. Plus, the scraps were good for practice weapons for the kids. They couldn't have the kids carrying actual weapons, could they?

(He ignored the fact that his children before Leo were allowed real weapons. He ignored the fact that they'd been trained on them and yet they died all the same. That was from a different part of his life. This was now.)

"Foolish!" The shark Mer was taken out of his thoughts when Richarlyson slammed into him, smiling brightly. It was odd, didn't he know that they were leaving today? "Foolish, guess what?"

"Richas!" Hissed someone from behind Foolish, but the shark Mer didn't pay them any mind. 

"What's up, buddy?" He smiled gently.

"Pai Cellbit said we're going with you!" Oh. Oh.

Foolish didn't stop his smile from widening. "Is that so?" Someone else made it to his side. 

"Richas, I told you that we were going to talk with them first." Cellbit sighed, before looking between Foolish and Fit a bit nervously. "We talked a bit after you both went to bed last night, and we decided that if the offer was still available that we'd like to join your Pod."

Fit and Foolish shared a surprised look. Honestly, they both hadn't expected that. But Merpeople could be very surprising, and this must be just another one of those times. Were they serious about it though, or was this just for Richarlyson's sake. 

"If you want to join our Pod, we'd love to have you." Fit said finally, a small smile crossing his face. It had been a long time since they'd had a new addition to their small group. 

Richarlyson cheered, hugging Foolish tighter. The shark Mer laughed, scratching the Merling's head in a way he often did for Leo. Man, he missed Leo. It felt like forever since he'd last seen her, but they'd be reunited soon enough. 

"I hope you know you'll be sleeping on my couch until we build your homes." Foolish joked, chuckling when Cellbit's eyes widened a bit. "Ah, don't even start to protest. My house is the biggest, and it can hold you until you're situated."

Maybe that was a better arrangement than the Brazilians thought they'd get, but Foolish didn't care. He and Fit still got up to help pack what little the others had into either Cellbit or Mike's bags, learn briefly how to help Richarlyson put on his prosthetic tail, and formally introduce themselves to the two they hadn't really interacted with yet. 

Richarlyson clung to Foolish's back as Fit retrieved his trident, and soon enough the group of eight set out to go back to their home, new or otherwise.

Chapter Text

"How much of you is a squid?" Maybe not the best first interaction, but Foolish had his reasons to know.

"... The fuck does that mean???" Forever looked quite bewildered as the group was nearing their first and only rest spot. It was midday, and they had a long rest of the day ahead of them- but Fit had already volunteered to go hunting again and Foolish had his own little... side project with the giant squid.

"Y'know, Mer have different mediums of how much of a creature they are." Fooilsh gestured to his own claws, where grey scales were spiraling from his palms and to either end at his wrist or elbow. "So how much of a Squid are you? Do you have ink or the weird spine or some shit like that?"

"I- uh- No?" Forever's eyes widened "Why? Do you wanna kill me for something?"

Foolish chuckled, not realizing that this was genuine concern coming from the squid Mer. "Of course not!" he smiled warmly "I was just wondering, y'know? I've never met a squid Mer before, so I don't really know what you guys really have."

Forever seemed to relax a bit. "Oh... Okay."

"Anyway, you wanna dissect a giant dead squid for it's spine later?" Slightly ahead of the duo (and leading the group), Fit bit back a groan. 

"Is he always like this?" Mike raised an eyebrow, trying to keep pace with the octopus Mer. 

"Yeah." Fit sighed, blowing bubbles through the water "You get used to it."

"How long does that take?" Pac raised an eyebrow, leaning out from around Mike. 

"Depends on how much he's already weirded you out." Fit laughed, hearing Forever's concerned mutterings from behind them. "Don't worry though, Foolish is a good person. He's just trying to get to know you."

Pac and Mike nodded in unison, and then suddenly Felps was on Fit's other side. "Are the others the same way?" The octopus Mer had to keep himself from balling up his fist at the sudden appearance though- damn this Mer was the quietest thing ever. "The rest of your Pod, I mean."

Fit let out a breath, shoulders untensing. "Eh, Bad might be. He's just overly friendly though." He said thoughtfully "Slime'll probably flirt or something if Mariana isn't around- Mariana might actually be the most normal out of those three. Then there's the kids, they'll probably be all over you until they know everything they want to about you."

"And the rest?" 

Fit laughed "The rest? there is no rest. There's only nine of us, five adults and four kids. Well, now there's fourteen adults and five kids, with the addition of you guys. But still, we're a small Pod." He raised an eyebrow "Did Cellbit not tell you?"

"He said something about it to me after I first met you." Mike volunteered "I wasn't really listening though..."

Fit smiled "It's alright." He shrugged "We're small, but we're a very healthy Pod. Your addition won't change our dynamic in a bad way, if Richarlyson's stay with us is anything to go off of." he snickered "I don't think I've ever seen the kids sleep over at Foolish's house more nights in a row than when he was staying there."

"It's nice to hear that he gets along with the other kids." Pac said "I can't help but feel bad though, the kids must have been cooped up inside with him the whole time, right?"

Fit shook his head "No, actually they were very active." he informed "When Richarlyson's tail started to hurt he'd just hitch a ride on another kid- usually Leo, but the other ones helped out too. It was very sweet to watch."

Well that was certainly a surprise. Though Fit didn't seem to understand the shock on the three Brazilians' faces, he didn't question it and instead focused on keeping their course forward. 

They got there quicker than they'd anticipated, the light filtering down from the sun displaying that it was only just passed midday when they'd arrived. Nonetheless, they decided to settle for the night. Those who weren't present for the Squid attack watched as Foolish practically dove over the sandstone shelf and into a deep ravine that the light could no long reach. Richarlyson followed too, much to the dismay of his fathers. 

Fit was the first to settle his stuff, hooking his kelp-woven bag over a small spiral of rock he knew could hold his belongings to make sure it didn't drift away. From there he idly looked for a rock to help sharpen his trident with, making sure to keep an ear out for Foolish. 

The others settled down a bit on the sandstone soon enough, Cellbit rigidly taking the same spot he'd been at two nights before. He watched the deep blue sea carefully, listening to his surroundings to ensure their safety. Mike was more casual, but Pac could tell that the pink haired Mer slightly disliked how open everything was when he half-shoved himself under the cover of a smaller sandstone shelf. Forever settled at the edge of the shelf to make sure Richarlyson was okay, and Felps settled beside Cellbit before becoming a heavily blurred blob once again. 

Meanwhile, Foolish and Richarlyson were having a field day. 

"Look here- this is the ink sac." Foolish had dissected many squid in his life.

He knew where every part was, had memorized it like he memorized the organs of other sea life that he'd observed before. He knew where the spine was- how to get it intact too! -where the eye connected to the brain, where the beak connected to the stomach, everything. He'd never dissected a giant squid though, but they were still squid, if a bit more oversized than what he was used to. It was probably a suspicious thing to know, especially to any outside eyes, but it was useful enough. 

"Right here?" Especially now, with a bright eyed child watching his every move with wide eyes. Richarlyson had followed behind Foolish after hearing his conversation with Forever about the squid while he was clinging to Cellbit's back after growing tired of swimming an hour into the trip. When Foolish had raised an eyebrow at the boy, he nervously explained that he wanted to learn about a larger prey's weak spots so he could hunt for them easier. Foolish supposed that it couldn't be all that harmful to teach the boy. 

"Yeah. If you want to hit the squid hard, make sure you avoid this spot so you don't damage the inc sac and ruin the meat." He poked at the deflated organ with his claw "I didn't do that, and along with my claws being stained, the meat is completely poisoned now."

Richarlyson nodded "So where do I hit it to kill it fast?" He asked

Foolish motioned to the glassed-over eyes the beast had. "There. If you hit the eyes hard enough you might also hit it's brain, and then you're home free. 

Richarlyson nodded excitedly, opening his mouth to ask another question. But suddenly and without warning, something shot out from the dark. It looked like a tentacle, aiming for the Merling's tail.

Foolish jerked forward, catching the tentacle in his grip and shielding away Richarlyson. The tentacle yanked itself from Foolish's grip and slithered into the darkness again, but when the shark Mer looked closer, into the darker part of the ravine, his heart clenched. He knew that the dead giant squid was a bit small for it's species, but he'd assumed it was a birth defect or something.

But now looking into a giant eye, he was sure that he'd killed this squid's kid.

Chapter Text

Fit was getting increasingly worried about what the Brazilians thought of them. 

When Richarlyson had darted out of the ravine with Foolish following seconds later, Fit didn't suspect a thing. It was only when Foolish veered off and something within the depths gave a noise that he'd never heard before did his spine chill. 

"SO UH FIT- HELP?!" A giant squid, larger than the one who'd come after them that night- looking close Fit could only assume that this one was an adult. If the one Foolish had killed was a kid then...

Krakens and clams, he killed the squid's child. Of course, just their luck. 

Fit stood from his resting position, grabbing his trident and watching as Foolish ducked behind a scraggly rock pillar. The beast simply smashed through it, and Foolish was on the run again. He was yelling up a storm, apologizing even though technically he shouldn't- not when the damn thing's child had tried to nab them barely two nights ago. This was actually kinda funny, not gonna lie, watching as Foolish and the squid played a game of chase in a seemingly even match. 

Fit felt a tug on his free arm. Looking down, he spotted a terrified Richarlyson. Oh yeah, they had new people- ones who didn't know that Foolish could probably handle himself. Yeahhh he should probably kill the squid before someone did something stupid. 

Fit twirled the trident for a second, trying to predict where Foolish would dart next. His cover was dwindling rapidly, and there was no doubt that he'd run out and have to face the beast soon. He kinda wished he could watch it, but... Yeah, these guys looked more scared than Foolish. 

"DUCK LEFT!" Fit yelled, drawing the hand with the trident back and waiting patiently as Foolish found the correct place for cover. As the squid went to body the rocks again Fit's hand snapped forward and he launched the glimmering weapon into the side of it's head. 

"FUCK YEAH!" Dark liquid expelled from the side of the squid's head as Foolish tumbled out from behind the spiraling rock. He turned, pointing at Fit in an accusatory manner "YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE, THOUGH!"

Fit chuckled, watching as the parent squid sank lifelessly into the depths. Foolish swore quietly, racing down to grab the trident. Swimming back over, Fit swat at his head. 

"Maybe don't go dissecting fish with only a child with you next time." Fit teased "Now go apologize to Richarlyson, I have to clean this thing."

Foolish found himself in the darkness again, but the liquid was thinner than before. 

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?!" The shark Mer groaned "Kraken kill me, I hate dreams."

"Foolish?" Vegetta? Was this the same dream? "Are you here?"

"Vegetta?"  Foolish turned- yeah, he had legs again. And Vegetta still had that gorgeous tail. "Oh don't tell me this is the same dream-"

"You are my dream, are you not?" Vegetta interrupted, tilting his head "This... You would not have legs if this was your dream, no?"

Foolish raised an eyebrow. The usual-human did have a point, but Foolish could argue that he was actually alive and whatever iteration this Vegetta was only resided in his head. "Sure. Would you be dreaming of having a tail if this was your dream?"

"So it's nobody's dream, and we are only thoughts?" Foolish did not expect that. 

"That's a little bit existential, Vegetta." Foolish chuckled nervously, giving his human legs a few test kicks in the water "So maybe we're both dreaming, and somehow we connected our dreams?"

"I don't feel like I'm dreaming." The usual-human frowned. "I feel so alive- it is strange."

Foolish hummed "So you just actually have a tail now?" He joked "As if, that'd mean I have legs now. That's impossible, not when I still feel water move through me." He traced the area on his neck where his gills were, Vegetta watching with curiosity. 

"You... Feel that?" Vegetta moved closer, peering at the usual-Mer's neck. "I do not see anything, friend."

"That's because this is a dream." Foolish giggled "And whoever's dream it is must be thinking weird stuff, beca-" Foolish felt himself get tugged back slightly, cutting himself off. He turned to Vegetta to inform the male, but as he opened his mouth to speak he was torn out of the abyss by the bright sunlight. 

Fuck, why'd that always happen?

That day, the group traveled quicker than the day before. Foolish had taken the lead, antsy about seeing Leo again after such a long time. This excitement sped the group along, with Richarlyson insisting that it was Fit who carried him today- which was probably to deal with what'd happened yesterday. 

Foolish didn't take it personally. It was an oversight on his part and he'd already apologized to the Merling and been forgiven. The young boy's parents only seemed mildly miffed about the whole ordeal, but most of that was from all the yelling during the panic. 

They made it to the shipwreck in no time at all, Foolish noting as the Brazilians eyed the waterlogged wood with wide eyes. He saw Cellbit's eyes move to where a skeletal hand was reaching from beneath the ship, eyes widening. 

"I sank it a few years back." Foolish explained sheepishly. "They were too close to the reef."

"You have a reef?" Gasped Forever "With so little of you to tend for it?"

"Our... way of being raised taught us to not try and maintain it, rather let the dead mingle in the afterlife." Fit explained carefully. "We do not trim them, unless we want to be haunted the rest of our lives."

There was maybe one Mer Foolish would want to be haunted by, but her body was long gone, torn tor shreds by sharks and whales and squids. Taken by humans as his parts surfaced, they were the father of all Mermaid rumors. And without a reef to bury them, he had to roam the ocean forever. 

Foolish felt kelp brush across his face, realizing he'd spaced out long enough for them to be in the middle of the kelp forest. Fit Idly chopped at the thicker areas and stuffed the plant in his bag, Foolish knowing that he'd ask Bad to start weaving again so he could get more bags out of the other Mer. 

They only lost Richralyson once before they emerged on the other side, so Foolish thought that was a win!

However, what wasn't a win was an unfamiliar Mer at his doorstep, swimming into the space like he owned it.

Chapter Text

Vegetta had no fucking clue where he was. All he knew was that it was cold and it was dark and he'd faintly felt something flowing straight through his neck- but other than that? Nothing. 

His dreams were getting stranger though. Dream Foolish was certainly a character, silly and sarcastic and just full of a personality he'd never seen in the Merman before- but maybe that was because he'd kidnapped the poor guy for a month and almost accidentally killed him.He insisted that it was fine whenever Vegetta brought it up, but the man didn't really believe it. 

The two times Foolish had "Visited" during Vegetta's sleep were probably the most calming moments since  whatever'd happened to make him end up here had happened. He still wasn't sure on it- or why it happened. What events lead up to it, who was there... Nothing. Every time he tried to think the thoughts just got further away and... well, yeah. He didn't want to dwell on that. 

What he did know was that Foolish didn't stay for very long. He'd be yanked away in what felt like moments, leaving Vegetta with his strange dream-tail that the Merman kept complementing. 

Vegetta had to admit too though, Foolish didn't look too bad with legs. 

They were both like baby deer in the sense that neither knew how to work the other's specialty limbs- though Vegetta was starting to get better with his tail he was nowhere near Leo's level. He'd assume, at least. He was still in firm belief that this was all just a dream, and that he'd fallen overboard his ship. 

Then again, the Federation might have pulled another Quackity. 

He remembered the man vanishing for months, a different being taking his place. Tilin didn't want to go near the doppelganger, and tried to find out where their real father was. That was how they died. 

Breaking the news to Quackity hadn't been easy, Vegetta remembered. There was lots of yelling, lots of tears. Lots of blaming, too. Roier still hadn't forgave himself, even though it was not his fault. Quackity had blamed him, and it was enough for the poor man.

In the end they'd all grown a little wiser, a little more on edge. Some of them holed up in their homes most days on shore now, spending time with their children and not visiting locals. It was only when the Mer were found that a majority of the crew returned to the pub for a round of drinks. A celebrating for new friends found, ones they had to keep sacred. 

Vegetta himself didn't... have a house. His ship was his home mostly, and he slept in his hammock even when the others were empty. He used to have a tower, but he wasn't sure if anyone was taking care of it anymore- and if they weren't that meant it had fallen to ruin. 

He remembered it being beautiful, tall and proud with machinery buzzing inside and out. A track for the island's shoddy train service ran near it, just close enough for any tourists to be satisfied. 

(He ignored the fact that the only tourism they got was from Federation workers. He ignored the fact that the eyes never left no matter how far away the train got. He ignored the fact that he too was probably a target like those taken or murdered the day they're returned home. It was all too likely- he didn't have a child on the island, he was a target just as much as Abueloier was)

Vegetta sighed, trying to do a flip in the liquid of his dream. What he wouldn't give to see Foolish again. 

After Foolish, Fit, and the others departed, things got really strange really fast. 

First things first, a new tree of coral sprouted where Leonarda was told the body of the dead human was buried- his Tio Bad mentioning that this was the fastest he'd ever seen a coral of that size sprout. 

Tio Mariana said it was because the body was human, not Mer. 

But then, things got stranger! There were no small fish near them now- even though there were some yesterday! How was Leo and Ramon meant to hunt like their fathers now?! They needed to get really good before their dads got back- maybe they could go on a hunt with them!

Tio Slime chalked it up to "Fish Migrations", whatever that meant. 

That wasn't the end though. The end was when something started coming into their territory at night- something big and clumsy enough to break a few branches of the coral off of the reef. 

Tio Bad made everyone sleep in the same house after that. 

Leo didn't like this. It had been two days since her dad had left, and already they were reduced to what, scardy-squids? That was crazy! Her Tios were probably the most capable Mer ever- what had them all cautious and on edge? They barley let her or her friends go out anymore- even when Ramon said his underwater machine was gonna explode!

Well, judging by the ear-splitting noise a few hours ago, Leo figured that the threat was in vain now. 

The children were alone in the house for the time being though, the midday sun teasing them just outside of the doorway. Leo saw Dapper practically itch just to dart out for a moment, but he listened to his parent more than the other Merlings, and he had orders to uphold from his dad!

That didn't stop Ramon from poking a tentacle outside though, a cheeky smile on his face. Juanaflippa watched with exhaustion as Dapper yelped indignantly, trying to pull Ramon away from the doorway. Leo thought the two were evenly matched enough- though she was clearly wrong as she watched Ramon not budge from where he stood. Ramon's strength for a Merling was puzzling, but maybe all octopus Mer were just... like that. 

Leo hoped one day they would be as strong as their dad, too. 

Leo heard a sickening rrrip! in one of the house's bedrooms, head snapping in the direction of the hallway. Nothing ripped the net- the thing that kept them safe despite how open the holes were. Nothing wanted to get stuck in a net though- kelp woven or not. 

Dapper and Ramon were still bickering, but Juanaflippa had perked up when she saw Leo's head snap toward the rooms. She quickly shushed the other two Merlings, motioning to Leonarda. 

"Someone's here." Someone they did not know.

Chapter Text

He was pretty sure everyone else was dead. 

Vegetta had set sail, going off with the children to see what he'd discovered a month away at sea. He'd promised to tell them what was happening when he got back, and so all the islanders could really do was wait. 

But as the day dragged on, he was sure he should have gone with Vegetta and the crew- like Wilbur had. 

Missa huffed, leaning against the bar counter top. The locals hadn't been coming in as often as they used to- not for nearly two days. Missa was pretty sure they were enjoying the sun and the sand, and if he looked outside of this dank little tavern he might surely see Spreen messing with Abueloier. He was certain Luzu and Dan would be sitting next to each other- he knew that Kameto would watch from afar, likely on a grocery run for the little French "colony" on the island.

And yet here he was, stuck inside the fucking bar. Nobody to keep him company, not his son or his husband- man did he wish he was outside. Maybe he'd catch a glimpse of the ship if it was clear enough, maybe the glint of bone on his face would flash to the boat, maybe that was how Phil and Chayanne knew he was safe. 

Not like there was any danger on the island- not from what he saw anyway. Everything was smooth sailing. Some people liked to report that there was a monster of sorts on the island, the thing that killed Tilin- but everyone knew how Tilin died, and it wasn't from a monster nobody had proof of. Tilin had died because Quackity was a deadbeat, and they all knew it. 

At least, that was what the Federation's report said.

Truth be told, Missa'd heard of ElQuackity long before Tilin's death, and had gone to see him. The man was nothing like his friend, no. He freaked Missa out, thus making him stay away from the man. 

He just hoped that Tilin died quickly and painlessly. They didn't deserve torment. 

Missa sighed again, standing upright. The mustiness of this tavern was more noticable with nobody there. The building was old and wooden, the ceiling that held up the floor above was always slightly damp, the walls constantly dripped, the tables and chairs were rickety and nearly rotten- fuck, even the door was falling apart!

One Phil got back, Missa'd ask him about renovations. He knew the avian wasn't the best in architecture, but he didn't have the balls to approach Vegetta. What could he say? The captain lived up to his reputation. 

Missa reached for the door handle to exit the tavern, sighing for the umpteenth time that day. If the bar was gonna be empty, he might as well not waste away in it.

Before he could pull open the wood though, something pushed him back into the building. 

"Buenos dias." Oh, the bear. Cucurucho, wasn't it? Missa frowned as the bear nearly pushed him back into the tavern. He could barley see the outside from behind the creepy creature's structure. Surprisingly, no sun reached Missa's eyes. Only... fog. 

Strange, there was never fog on the island. 

"What are you doing?" The creature loomed over Missa, and suddenly his attention was not longer on the strange weather. Those beady eyes were more important, more dangerous than the fog. 

"Going outside, you?" Missa was never the best at putting on a mask of confidence. He was often described as a wet cat, most people believed he was pathetic in some capacity. He could hold himself well in a fight, don't let anyone tell you otherwise- but he was a wet rag in social situations. 

"Why?" The creature didn't answer him, rather, a book found it's way into it's hand as it asked Missa another question. 

"Because nobody's here- where is everyone, by the way?" Missa tried to look around Cucurucho to where the outside was, but he found the door had been closed. "If they're not at the beach, and they're not here... where are they?"

"Classified." Man, fuck this bear. He doesn't answer for shi- oh, would you look at that, the book was finished. 

COME WITH ME. YOU ARE IN DANGER. 

Missa frowned, looking up from the book, only to see those lifeless eyes stare straight back at him. 

"Are the others in danger too?" He leaned forward, observing the gangly creature "Do you have them too, or did you just get to me now? What abou-"

"Silence, please." Cucurucho interrupted "I don't know."

"You don't know?!" Missa hissed "How much more useless could you be! What about the crew- what about the children?!" He moved passed Cucurucho, despite the clicks of protest that came from the bear's mouth. "What could be so-"

Missa didn't remember anything after that. 

He woke up in... goop.

What kind of goop, Missa didn't know. All he knew was that his body felt heavy and some cold liquid sloshed through his veins- he felt so wrong. His legs were too numb, he couldn't move them. 

Missa took a breath- but air didn't go to his nose despite the tubes in them, no. Instead, something prodded at his neck. Like there were small holes. Missa grunted, reaching a heavy hand to his neck where the holes were. When the pruned pads brushed over the skin though, there was nothing. He felt like the skin was slightly ridged like his fingers, but there was nothing other than that.

Curious.

Missa's eyelids got heavier soon after, and for the next while that was the routine. Wake up, get freaked out about potential holes in his neck, trying to touch what he deemed as a wound, getting tired, falling asleep, repeat. 

On maybe the tenth go-around, Missa gained enough energy to actually investigate his neck. He poked, prodded, and even downright dug his nails into the flesh to try and find something. And eventually, he did. 

They were stiff, likely cartilage. Well that was strange, why would he need cartilage he- 

It clicked. 

Being able to breath underwater, that meant he had gills! The gills would match with the numb legs and the beginnings of what looked like dark scales along his legs-

They were turning him into a fucking fish, weren't they?

Chapter Text

Missa missed Philza. He also missed his son.

Really, he was sure that missing his son should have came first. He wasn't even sure where his relationship with Philza stood- if the man loved him as he said. 

(Missa was very distrustful towards words, he'd been backstabbed before. What was stopping Phil from being the same?)

But it wasn't Chayanne that came to mind first, no. It was his dearly beloved Philza. The man who was at sea most of the time, the man who was just gone for a month doing Gods knew what- only for him to leave a few days after he got back. Missa usually wouldn't mind, but...

But now he was here.

Wherever here was, really. He knew the timeframe had to be tight- the leaves were turning last time he saw the outside world. Then whatever happened with Cucurucho happened, and now he was... wherever this place was.

Why was there just water? 

Missa saw the greater sea, it faced off against him as he stayed clinging to the rocks he'd woken up at. He wasn't sure how long he'd been there or when he'd even gotten there, but he was still wary of the greater sea that taunted him.

He just wanted to get back to Phil and Chayanne.

Missa bit back a whine. Fuck, he missed them both. Why couldn't he have just gone with them? The islanders could make their own drinks! Spreen surely knew how, and if he didn't he could as Abueloier, who claimed to know everything! Fuck, he should have gone!

But he hadn't, and now he was here. Clinging to the rocks that the current tried to steal him from, the angry waters likely trying to drown him more than he already was. 

He did drown, right? That's why this happened? He totally got stolen by Cucurucho and then drowned in toxic goo, all to madly hallucinate and end up here?

Yeah, he could go with that.

But toxic goo or not Missa was getting really homesick and he didn't know where he was- or how exactly to use the strange tail he'd presumably grown.

He looked like a Mermaid, if those things were even real. He had stereotypical fins- though his were swirling with purples and blues and blacks and he found it kind of pretty- he almost wondered what Phil would say.

If he would even look at Missa the same. 

Missa frowned, feeling his arms go slack. That's right, what would Philza say? He surely would be horrified- he'd likely call Missa a monster. Mermaids weren't real, but if the Federation made them so and he was just another amalgamation similar to Cucurucho... Missa wasn't sure he'd want to face Phil like that, let alone Chayanne. 

And another thing, why mermaids? They weren't real- at least not that Missa was aware of. But even if they were real, they would definitely look different from Missa. He was sure of it. He was sure no mermaid would have a mask of pearly white bone like his, he was sure they wouldn't have thin skin sticking to skeletal hands- and he was damn sure that they would be much more ferocious than he was.

Missa registered that he was moving, he watched as the rocks started to float away as reality sunk in and the currents swept him up. Aw man, now what was he gonna do!? He couldn't use this tail, he didn't even know how to swim! His only hope of drowning was false as cool water slid through what he guessed were gills and supplied him oxygen... and as he was taken further into the sea he knew that whatever waited was not hood. Sailors died, ships sunk with little to no warning- how could he of all people survive???

Miss groaned as the current got faster, eyes closing as he was carried for an undetermined amount of time. If he was gonna die, he didn't want to see it. There would be less fear that way, right?

He kept going, somehow smelling the sea as his presumed gills started to pull in more oxygen despite Missa's calm status- at least he thought he was calm. He chest wasn't rising that fast when he rested a hand against it, so that had to count for something. So why was-

Missa slammed into what felt like a net. Immediately his eyes popped open in a strange feeling of both panic and relief- was this a boat? Someone from the island who would recognize him and help?

Apparently not, because when Missa looked down he realized that this wasn't really a net. It was woven as such, yes, but below it was a cozy looking rock shelf with what looked like wide squares of seaweed hanging from it. Missa wasn't gonna lie, that looked more comfortable than the rocks he was just at. Maybe he could hang out here and wait for rescue.

Testing the woven netting, Missa totally did not flinch when it ripped open. What was another hole? It was full of them, right? Besides, whatever fisherman had lost this wasn't going to miss it- it must have been a long while too, there was thick algae clinging to every inch of the rope that was likely underneath!

Missa tumbled into the space. Landing just beside the rock shelf. Well damn, he really missed, huh? Missa huffed, finally deciding to use his shaky arms to lift himself into the shelf. It was easier in water anyway, there was less gravity. Miss huffed again, once he was settled he go back to wallowing until he was found, this was all gonna be oka-

A sudden childish shout startled Missa, the man flinching so hard he fell off the shelf he'd just settled in.

What was that?

It sounded like talking- how could there be talking? They were underwater, there should be no speakage!

Yet, here it was. Tiny voices stacking on top of each other before being silences.

"Someone is here." Oh. Did they mean him? 

Water swished, something moved closer to where Missa was. They were just around the door before they were stopped, something else hissing something that Missa couldn't understand.

Whatever was said though, the first thing didn't listen. And that was how a small head of black hair fell into his vision from the doorway.

They stared at each other for a second, mouths ajar. Missa spotted gills on the child's neck-

And then he screamed.

They both did really. They were both curling away from each other and suddenly there were more heads and more screaming- and then there was a louder commotion and suddenly Missa's ears started ringing and he couldn't hear anything over his thundering heart.

There was no way. That was not a fucking mermaid. That could not be a fucking mermaind- what the shit do you mean these things had gills like him- why the fuck did that one look like an octopus?!

Missa was pressed against the furthest possible wall from the doorway when more... mermaids arrived. They were massive, the three of them likely adults and nearly four feet taller than Missa at the shortest- and the man felt even more threatened.

"Holy fudge- who the heck are you!?" The first had red horns and inky black skin- also having a tail to match. His ghostly white mouth matched his eyes- but right now he just looked worried.

"Oh fuck no- honey get the kids and go." The second had familiar anatomy to a sea creature Missa had seen in one of Phil's books, but he couldn't remember it's name. 

The second had waved off the third, the man having an anglerfish-like build. 

(Missa only knew what those looked like because Chayanne had found one washed up in the beach a few months ago and practically forced Missa to taxidermy it and keep it in the family room.)

Nonetheless, Missa was very freaked out. If he could press himself against the wall anymore and not break a bone, he would. Hell, he considered breaking a bone if it meant that he was even a millimeter further away from them.

"Okay- uh- what's your name??? How did you get in here??? Do you have a Pod???" The first mermaid-thing asked gently, looking Missa up and down. "Are you hurt?"

Oh fuck no- Miss wasn't having this shit.

He bit his tongue, trying to press back even more against the wall. What would Philza do? What would he say? Would he fight his way out if this? The weird creatures weren't really... threatening, he supposed. Fuck, what should he do?

“Uh Bad? I don’t think they can speak…” the strange-limbed mermaid piped up, and Missa suddenly realized that this thing somehow had glasses.

How the fuck do they get glass underwater?

“Oh, okay!” The inky skinned mermaid perked up “Are you hungry then? We have some fish if you want some!”

“Ay! He could be a bad guy!” Came the anglerfish’s call from another room. “Be careful of him!”

“Oh they’re fine!” The inky mermaid waved off “They would have attacked us by now!”

Anyone other than Missa would have, but he just simply stared at them, terrified. Reality started to sink in. Was this real? Was he really here and not home? Why the fuck had Cucurucho kidnapped him just to make him into a fairytale creature? None of this made any freaking sense. All he knew was that he’d woken up some time ago at the rocks, but now he was here.

And again, why the fuck was he here?

The two mermaids in front of Missa were staring at him. Oh right, he’d been asked several questions. Which one was the latest? Ah, right, food! He could go for some food, even if it would likely be poisoned or some shit- hell, Missa didn’t even know if they ate the same things humans did!

Slowly, Missa nodded. He didn’t know if it would get the point across, but it must have, as the inky skinned mermaid’s face lit up joyously. Missa definitely did not flinch as he was grabbed suddenly, and he was totally not panicking as he was literally dragged to a stone table in a much larger room. The two larger mermaids sat Missa at the table before going off into a side room. There were four small mermaids also sat down there, all peering at Missa in interest. Gods, they were a foot or so smaller than he was. 

“Hi mister!” One propped themself up on their arms “How’d you get in?”

Missa made a vague gesture, hoping that that they’d understand- how the hell did they even speak!? Missa would absolutely die if he spoke down here, he was sure of it!

“Are you a kid like us?” A mermaid that looked to be of octopus decent popped up beside Missa suddenly, the man letting out a yelp. 

Water flooded his mouth, but… nothing really happened. The noise sounded clearly throughout the room, and Missa was hit with the sudden realization that he’d also screamed and he hadn’t drowned earlier.

Oh.

“N-“ Missa stopped himself for a moment, wondering what he should say. 

How much should he give away, really? Did mermaids even know about humans? Were they just myths to mermaids as mermaids were to humans? 

“No. I’m not a-a kid.” Missa waited to start drowning as he spoke, but once again, nothing happened. What a miracle! “I’m an adult.”

“But you’re tiny, mister!” A child mermaid with anglerfish-like qualities piped up, leaning forward. “Small enough to be a Merling like us!” 

So was that what kid Mermaids were called? Missa would have to keep a mental not if that.

“I’m just… small for my age?” Not really the truth, but not really a lie. There are quite a few people on the island that are taller than him.

Or were, maybe. Depending on if the Federation got to them too.

Missa tensed when the octopus Mermaid drew closer to him. What if the Federation had taken the others, Philza included? Oh no… his husband (platonic, Missa told himself), Chayanne… were they alright? Would they be alright now that he was gone? Also, why’d he have to get stuck with these nosy little kids!?

“Ramon, table manners!” The inky mermaid lightly scolded, coming out of the side room with four baskets in both hands. He was followed closely by the mermaid with strange limbs and the anglerfish mer, both holding four baskets each as well. “We don’t really know what you… like. So, it’s kinda like a big lunch feast!” 

They placed the baskets- which Missa now saw was woven with what looked like kelp -onto the table before joining the side of the children, the octopus mermaid finding a spot between the kid anglerfish mermaid and another kid mermaid who looked like they had inky skin.

Aw fuck, these were his hosts’(?) kids, weren’t they?

“Th-Thank you.” Missa really hated that he stuttered when nervous. He should act tough, be manly! It’s what he’d taught Chayanne to do, and he turned out tough like Philza!

But Missa couldn’t be tough, not when he saw the sharp claws and the sharper teeth as the mermaid children grabbed from baskets and started eating. He couldn’t hold his composure when one wrong move would likely mean certain death, and he certainly couldn’t hold his composure when he couldn’t even swim with this weird tail he had!

“It’s no problem, really.” The adult mermaid with inky skin smiled widely. “Go ahead and dig in! There’s prawn, seaweed, starfish… lots of things! Foolish keeps this place stocked, so we come here to eat a lot.”

Missa nodded, pretending to know whatever that meant. He peered into the baskets, grabbing whatever was closest to him- which turned out to be a green glob of seaweed.

He felt eyes on him as he observed the green substance, trying to sniff out if it was tampered with. He had a good nose for that because after all, he was a bartender.

It didn’t smell too bad, so Missa shrugged and popped a small bit into his mouth. It didn’t taste that bad, clearly something he wasn’t used to, but it wasn’t poisoned by any means. Okay, he could work with this.

Missa hardly noticed as the eyes went away, focusing completely on taking handful after handful if seaweed to eat. He was content with this for now, especially because the meats in other baskets looked raw and uncut… and Missa could not handle a whole fish.

After a while, conversation started up. The kids started speaking amongst themselves, and then the adults followed. Soon enough everyone was happily chatting to each other, while Missa ate his seaweed. It would have been awkward was it not for the warm atmosphere, the children finding a place to sit next to him. Out of kindness or curiosity, Missa wasn’t sure which, but the sentiment was nice, he supposed.

“So, I guess we should introduce ourselves?” The inky mermaid smiled. “I’m Badboyhalo- just call me Bad -and my son sitting on your right is Dapper.”

Missa nodded. Feeling his arms tense with the sudden conversation shift. 

“My name’s Charlie, most people call me Slime, and my bitch of a wife right here is Mariana.” The mermaid with weird limbs grinned toothily, motioning to the anglerfish mermaid. “And my daughter next to him is named Juannaflippa.”

Missa nodded again, before looking to his left where the last two mermaid children sat. They both smiled, shoving at each other for a chance to introduce themselves first.

“I’m Leo!” The one with a shimmering purple tail shouted first, face shoved by the octopus mermaid soon after.

“I’m Ramon!” Somehow, this one was louder. Missa refrained from rubbing his ears. “What’s your name?”

Missa tried not to tense at the amount of eyes on him. Maybe if it was ten years ago he wouldn’t have, maybe ten years ago he would have matched the energy despite the weird new situation. But this wasn’t ten years ago. He’d found a lovely man in that time, someone he’d fallen in live with. They had a child together, so sue him if he got a bit comfortable. He could still defend the family if it came down to it, but he’d become unsure without his friends- and without Phil.

Nevertheless though, these creatures has been nice to him. They deserved his name at least. So, with a deep breath and a spindly smile, Missa introduced himself. 

“I’m Missa.”

Here’s to a new chapter in his life, however this amalgamation of a body the Federation forced him into lasted.

Chapter Text

Foolish didn't get any less stressed when the unfamiliar Mer came back outside. In fact, he was probably more stressed.

For one, Leo was following behind the stranger- why was the stranger so small? -and for two, the stranger kept wobbling. It sort of looked like he was on jelly, but the wobble looked more permanent than jelly would allow.

So what was happening?

It was only when Richarlyson lept from Felps' arms that Leo caught sight of them, eyes widening. She tugged on the stranger's arm, turning him to look at the group-

-to look at Foolish, specifically.

And if the Mer's paling face was any indicator, Foolish would argue that he was right not to trust this one, despite bringing new Mer into his Pod that he'd never met before.

"Pa!" Leo smiled brightly, Richarlyson tackling her. "I missed you!" She popped up in an instant, easily carrying Richarlyson as she'd done almost a hundred times now. She kept a hold on the stranger's arm, pulling him along "We got a new friend! He's tiny!"

"I am a perfect height for my age!" When the stranger spoke, Foolish was taken aback. Despite this guy's small stature, he was quite clearly an adult- his accent similar to Mariana's. Foolish wondered if they came from the same place. "Stop calling me small!"

Leo giggled when she made it to them, eyeing the other Mer as Fit peeled off from the group to enter Foolish's house.

"Who're these guys?" Leo asked, tilting their head. They squinted at Felps, trying to make out the now blurry Mer's features. "Mister, why are you blurry?"

"Leo!" But Felps' blurriness lessened in an instant, as if he wasn't expecting such a question. Maybe he was used to people politely ignoring it, maybe he thought every child would be like Richarlyson and not say anything.

"Ah... sorry." Whatever it was, Felps didn't answer Leo's question.

It was tense for a second before Badboyhalo ruched outside, a wide smile splitting across his face.

"Foolish!" He exclaimed, rushing over “You’ve missed so much and- oh wait- why is Cellbit still here? And who are these guys?”

Oh right.

“Uh- surprisssssse!” Foolish waved his hands eccentrically at the Brazilians. “Newwwww Pod members!”

Bad’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow! We’re getting more Mer left and right!” He slung an arm around the strange Mer’s shoulders “This is Missa, he came in like two-ish days ago? He’s an adult though, don’t let his size fool you!” Bad looked to the Mer Foolish realized had a mask of stark white bone. “Missa, this is Foolish! He’s kinda like the unofficial leader of the Pod.”

Missa gave a shy wave. Behind Foolish, one of the Brazilians gasped.

“Leader!?” Ah, Mike. “You are leader!?”

Foolish turned around sheepishly “I mean, you heard Bad.”

“And you left your Pod!?”

A streak of unidentifiable emotion went through Foolish. I didn’t leave, he wanted to snap suddenly, I was bringing you back. 

But he didn’t. Instead, he kept smiling. “They know how to hunt well enough.” He said simply “that, and they have access to my kitchen.”

“Speaking of which!” Bad called attention back to himself, while Leo swam off with Richarlyson still clinging to them. “You are out of prawn!”

“As long as you didn’t fuck with my sand dollars, we’re good.” Foolish huffed playfully, glancing back at the Brazilians. “Come inside. We’ll get you set up in the living room while your new spots are being built.”

“We can’t live with each other?” Pac bristled, floating a bit closer to Mike.

“Oh, you can! Just let us know and we’ll start on something that’ll keep you safe. You can build out from there.” He smiled warmly at the stranger, as well. “And you, Missa, right? You’ve been staying in my place too?”

The Mer with a bone mask nodded. Looking closer, Foolish thought the skull could belong to a mammal of some kind.

“Also, he ripped a hole on your net roof.” Bad volunteered, cackling when Missa’s face paled a bit. “We told him it was okay, and lucky you- Mariana already fixed it!”

“Great, now i’m really gonna die.” The group moved into Foolish’s abode, the Brazilians eyeing the open space. 

In truth, there wasn’t really much stuff that hadn’t been shoved into the closet that held a body only days before. Something you need to tell new Pod about, his mind hissed, see if they like you then. Shaking his head, Foolish made his way to the stone table and watched as the Brazilians explored. Bad and Missa followed beside him, also curious.

Felps was less blurry now that he’d found a particularly shaded corner of the house, long coily tail wrapping around himself as he settled down with clear fatigue now falling over his features- oh that’s right, he hadn’t slept last night.

Pac and Mike, on the other hand, had stolen the larger of Foolish’s two couches and were making themselves comfortable. Foolish distantly heard Missa mumbling to bad about the smaller couch, which he’d apparently claimed as his.

Forever was more adventurous, sifting through the house and looking for the best spot. He passed by the kitchen in his search, poking his head into the room. Foolish swore he heard a soft gasp come from the Mer, but he wasn’t all that sure about it. Either way, the squid Mer moved on, and soon found himself settling in front of Pac and Mike’s couch.

Cellbit stayed in the doorway. Not quite in or out of the house. Though, when Foolish blinked the Mer was suddenly in, peering into the body closet (Foolish had to be honest with himself, as that was all the closet got used for these days) before leaning out of it. Then in, then out. Then in again, then out.

Foolish was starting to think Cellbit was a bit fucking crazy.

The constant in-out-in-out-pause-in-out-in-out was over with soon enough, and Cellbit eventually settled next to Felps, who was nearly completely seeable.

Foolish chuckled tiredly, leaning back some. If this was their final arrangement, then he wouldn’t complain. 

Now, what was for dinner?

Vegetta was released.

He wasn’t sure when, or why, or how he was found- just that he was. 

He’d woken up in a vat of water as it spilled from cracks that had been created by familiar voices, feeling his heart leap into his throat. Friends- they came. 

The container was shattered more, and suddenly Vegetta was rushing out with the water, feeling tubes and needles yenk themselves from his skin. Though it stung, he would live.

Vegetta found himself on his back on the cold floor as alarms blared around him. He didn’t feel real. He didn’t feel human.

“Vegetta! Up man, up!” Roier was pulling him to his feet, shouting something over his shoulder. The white ceiling glowed red. “C’mon, captain!”

Somehow, Vegetta got up. Somehow, Vegetta put one foot in front of the other. Somehow, he made it out of wherever he was being held.

I can’t be real. This can’t be happening.

Vegetta was pushed onto a bed, people speaking over him. He only caught a few parts of the conversation.

“-only him there-“

“-ederation was trying to turn him into something-“

“-found a book-“

At that, Vegetta shot up. Book- a book? His book!? The book on Foolish and his Merling daughter? That book!? Oh no, oh no-

“Captain, lay your ass back down.” Jaiden pulled him into his previous resting position. She seemed to sense his stress. “It was a book on fairytales.” She sighed “legends of Mermaids and Sirens and stuff. Sea serpents too. Old folklore, tales of the sea. I snagged it, if you wanna read?”

Vegetta breathed out through his nose. Right. His book was in his tower, hidden behind false bricks and inside of a lead box nobody would ever find. His secret. His and only his. 

He shook his head at Jaiden’s question. No, he didn’t want to read it. It was okay.

Jaiden only smiled, before talking to fill the void as she worked on whatever injury the captain had sustained. Vegetta would have been fine listening to Roier and the others go over what they’d found, but he was content to just… sit there. Listen to what he’d missed.

“After Cucurucho grabbed you for questioning, we didn’t see you for a couple of days. We started to get worried, but then Quackity just fucking vanished too.” Jaiden breathed out a laugh “it was a spectacle, you should have seen it. Everyone panicking… hiding the kids…” her face fell. “After you and Quackity went missing, the monsters started showing up again. More fierce. They…” she pursed her lips together, not finishing the thought.

A horrible feeling struck Vegetta. How long had he been gone? What could have happened? Wha-

Jaiden broke his thoughts. “In other news though,” she hummed “we learned something new about the French.”

Vegetta made a noise he thought sounded like “oh?”, waiting for Jaiden to elaborate.

“Yeah, uh, apparently they know Mermaids and shit exist. You wanna know how? Because they have a fucking kid that’s one.”

Chapter Text

The French were strange.

Pierre had a bunker, they all knew that. Baghera had a castle- and Antoine... well, he was Antoine. They all had their differences, but somehow they'd stuck together so well that only one- Kameto -had gone missing from their group.

 (Died, Vegetta believed, he's dead.)

They'd holed up in Pierre's bunker for whatever reason- be it they knew the Federation was trying to weed them out or not. They hid away, guarding whatever was in the bunker.

And as it turns out, it was a very familiar secret being kept.

See, after Vegetta was taken, Pierre had come out of the bunker alone. He was on edge, looking every which way- but he managed to herd Maximus into the facility to show him something. Vegetta had been told that the Frenchman had taken Maximus down about a hundred flights of stairs- before the two had found themselves in what looked like a large aquarium-like setting. 

Max said glass walls held back deep blue water carried from the sea, sand poured into the bottom by the ton, dead coral for what he guessed was decorative purposes, a section of spiraling kelp forest that was so dense the luminescent lights in the top of the take surely  couldn't breach-

-all complete with a pair of eyes staring at him. Watching his every move.

Vegetta didn't know what happened next. Max reported that he took the news very well and told the Frenchman he needed to talk with the others about this, while Pierre himself recalled that Max had "screamed like he was on fire and ran. It hurt Pomme's feelings, she has been wanting to meet with you guys!"

Whatever the truth was though, that wasn't what they were focused on right now.

The French had a Mer child, and nobody had known about it.

So, that was were Vegetta and the others came in- once Max had bolted from the bunker there was no more hiding that secret. Yet looking at the bunker's entrance now...

"That is a toilet." Quackity deadpanned "A toilet you're standing in."

Pierre nodded. "It is the entrance!" he declared "You must stand in it if you have not gotten the waystone yet!"

Philza shook his head "Yeah, no, fuck this mate." He waved off, turning to walk out of the French man's bathroom where mostly everyone were squished into. "I'm takin' the kids and leavin', findin' Wil and shit."

Vegetta tilted his head. Wilbur was gone? They hadn't told him about that yet. 

Pierre laughed, crouching and vanishing with a wet sloosh! It wasn't long before others followed behind him. 

They hadn't told him a lot of things. Like where Trump was. Where Bobby was. Why did Roier have puffy eyes? Why did Max smell like he'd been drinking again?

It didn't take a genius to guess what may have happened, especially with Quackity giving the two knowing looks and casting concerned gazes at Jaiden- who had a face of stone. 

Vegetta was the last in, finding himself slightly dizzy and in a room with stone dust that invaded his lungs. There was even less room here, but the crowd started to thin as a warp plate was placed down for all to further travel. 

Where had it all gone wrong? When they left? Why now? Why the ones they left behind- the innocent ones? None of this made sense to Vegetta- he wasn't built to be on land, he wasn't built to deal with human problems or questions. Ever since he'd gotten to this damn island he'd been content and left alone- well, until he built a crew of those willing to brave the sea locals had condemned. 

Once Vegetta was through, Pierre held the heavy, secured door for them to move through, not staying behind the crowd for long. They were soon bustled to a waystone for each person to activate, and then taken through yet another secured door. 

Maybe that's what saved the crew. Vegetta wouldn't be surprised, the ocean was always good to him. 

It favored him, he thought. He would like to believe that it saw him and his crew and out of thousands of ships in the world it decided to favor him. Lead him to treasure, mystery, new discovery. 

And a daughter I haven't seen in a long time.

Vegetta's heart ached when he thought about the young girl. She was probably so worried. What if she'd visited while he was taken? Would she have thought he left, that he didn't want her? Had she already experienced this with her mother?

Surely so, as Foolish had told Vegetta about his- their child's origins, about how she was found as an egg, abandoned near what Foolish had called the "kelp forest". It reminded him of how the island's children were found- and that even though they were found as eggs too, they were more lizard or dragonic in features- they looked nothing like a Merperson. 

The group began their decent to where the aquarium presumably was. There looked to be forty flights- which was good, Vegetta still had a lot to think about. 

The aquarium- and the child. How had the French found her? And why was Pierre the one tasked with keeping them safe? The man was out like ninety percent of the time, be it at the tavern or trying to find Max so they could flirt- it would have made more sentse for Antoine or Baghera to be the primary caretaker!

Maybe it's because Pierre's the only one who'd do something like this too keep a secret. Yeah, that was probably it. All of Baghera's secrets were sewn onto her sleeve, and all of Antoine's were easily found either on his person or in his home. Pierre was the only one who had a bunker, he was the only one who would make the teleporter to said bunker in his toilet- he was the only one who seemed to know everything, yet nothing at the same time. 

Maybe it was a Pierre thing, but Vegetta was thankful for it nonetheless. 

"I told Maximus this already, but after you left Cucuruchos started coming from everywhere." Pierre had started to recall halfway down. "They grabbed whoever they could. those who resisted were not lucky enough to be subdued, especially the older residents." Vegetta didn't miss Pierre's quick glance at Roier. "I was not around to see, but Baghera was. They did not see her, thankfully, and she managed to get Antoine here and alert me so we could go into lock down." He didn't mention Kameto.

That was probably the most hopeful news the rest of them had gotten though- it was a shame Phil wasn't there to hear it. They'd tell him later though, hopefully he didn't go ape shit to find Missa or his adult son. Right now, they'd made it to yet another door. There was the distinct sound of running water inside, and the crew prepared themselves for whatever would be thrown at them. If the words of Pierre and Maximus were to be believed... Then this changed everything.

Pierre typed something into a keypad- he said it was the only door that he could not automatically open in his base -and pushed the heavy iron out of the way. 

"Papa Pierre!" Automatically, a shout rung out. "You came back with them!"

Vegetta saw Pierre's soft smile "Of course, ma ptite Pomme." He replied. 

As the group piled into the room, Vegetta felt his breath leave his lungs. It was a wide space- clearly there was enough room for a party -with three walls covered in glass. It was like the aquariums from Vegetta's old city, only this one had seemingly no other sentient life than the small Merling that was to their left. 

Her body was smaller than Leonarda, but her tail was twice as long- ending in a rope-like way Vegetta had seen on sea dragons from the book of legends back on the boat. She had red and blue scales, a few crawling up her arms and lining her cheekbones. They almost looked like little paint splotches, but from how they shimmered in the soft glowstone (of course Pierre had glowstone) light. 

"I'll go get Papa Etoiles, he wants to meet you too!" The child was a fast swimmer too, so fast that it took Vegetta a moment to process what she'd said. 

"Etoiles?" he turned to Pierre, who's soft smile broke into a sheepish one. "Who is that?"

"Well, about that-" A loud thud tried to cut Pierre off, coming from where the Merling child had disappeared to. When Vegetta looked over, he was taken aback by two glowing green eyes that bore into him. "-He's the other one."

Oh my Void, that's another Mer.

Chapter Text

Missa was... strange.

For one, he kept running into things as if he'd only just learned to swim. He was fine in open water- though sometimes he got swept up in the currents -but being in tighter spaces was a bad idea. He kept hitting his tail or bumping into the others. He seemed really apologetic, and Foolish wondered if he had a health condition.

But that wasn't all. He kept talking about... well, Foolish didn't know. The small Mer kept muttering something to himself, what sounded like names. Repeated over and over again. It was almost worrying, but nobody could get close enough to hear Missa before the Mer stopped speaking. He seemed lonely, homesick, even. It wasn't good, but Missa didn't seem willing to talk about where he came from, or who his past Pod was- or what happened to them.

That being said, the children loved him. Ramon would always be the first Merling up in the morning, racing to Foolish's place from across the reef just so he could pounce on Missa. Foolish was usually up by then, so he got to watch as an only slightly frazzled Fit came in next. 

Missa would be situated on his couch when Ramon jumped him, and his quiet yelp would wake Felps or Cellbit, which meant the others in Foolish's living room would be up soon after. 

It was a nice routine, all things considered. The days went by easier, even if Foolish started to feel a small longing for the sun. He enjoyed it when Vegetta's ship was around. He loved seeing the creatures of land that came in all shapes and sizes. It never got old, even though the ocean had the same to offer.

But Foolish had seen the ocean. He had seen the trenches. He'd been though nearly everything the ocean had to offer- good and bad. He once thought he'd gone through everything that the surface had to offer too, be he knew now that he was wrong.

Bad and Slime knew. They knew everything about that old island, it's old people- the ones who'd died. The three of them had separated for a while, and they'd never seen their other Mer friends since then, but Foolish couldn't focus on that particular loss now. He had to remind himself that he couldn't change the past, and that enough time had gone by for more things to occupy his brain.

Like his sudden want to see Vegetta again.

Maybe it was because Foolish used to talk with the captain every day during his recovery. Maybe it was because he wanted to know more about the captain who seemed to know everything about him. Maybe it was just because he missed learning about the surface.

Whatever it was though, it made Foolish less hesitant when Leo suddenly started begging to go see her other dad again.

"Please, pa!" He whined "I don't get to see papa Vegetta anymore! Last time I saw him I asked to be his kid!"

Foolish thought it was a bit strange that she didn't consider their trip to the boat back when they hadn't met the Brazilians as seeing Vegetta, but he wouldn't be the one to press it.

Miss, however, would.

"You know Vegetta?" A hushed whisper, called the night before Foolish would take Leo to visit Vegetta. The shark Mer was putting together final preparations, expecting to camp out for a while in case Vegetta didn't show up right away like last time. Missa shouldn't have been awake, yet he was.

"... Do you?" Foolish squinted at the small Mer. He didn't recognize the other from Vegetta's ship, so who could he be? Vegetta would have known Merpeople existed if he knew Missa- but how did the guy know in the first place?

"Uh... his reputation precedes him?" Missa sounded unsure of himself. "He's a well-known pirate, y'know?"

"He is?" that was news. Sure, Foolish had heard rumors of the human's life at sea, but the violet eyed man never outright said anything. He was pleasant, unlike any other pirate Foolish had come into contact with. Really, the Mer thought of Vegetta as a simple sailor; there was no malice behind that man's eye.

"... yeah?" Suddenly, Missa wasn't so sure of himself. Foolish frowned. Yeah, something was strange with Missa.

Something he wanted to figure out.

Holy fucking shit that thing's bigger than Foolish.

The new Mer looked weird- off in a way that Vegetta hadn't expected. As if they were more fish than human- not half and half as the legends (and Vegetta's daughter) had described. No, this one looked nearly identical to a Whale Shark. It's deep dark blue scales dimmed in the presence of the Mer's white speckling scales that layered on top of them- almost like stars. 

Vegetta looked closer. Though he couldn't tell where the scales ended and the skin started at first- he soon realized that at some point the Mer's skin shifted to dark green- about mid-torso? -wherever it was, it was strangely subtle, and the specks of white turned to a small smattering up his arms and onto their shoulders. 

The hair matched the scales, too. Stark white and drawing attention to the dark abyss that was the Mer's eyes. There were no whites; just pupil. If Vegetta knew his animal facts- which he didn't-he'd guess the Mer was nocturnal.

Yet here it was, staring at the group in it's seemingly twenty-foot glory.

Someone hit the ground and looking over, Vegetta realized it was Maximus. Ah, that's right. He already had a time with the discovery of the French's Merling. A full adult would be more intimidating to a man like him.

Pierre frowned. "Did you... not know they exist?"

“They do!” Baghera called from her small setup further into the room. She lazily strummed her guitar, the young Merling swimming to her side. “Maximus is just a big baby.”

Pierre chuckled. “Well, we must introduce you so you don’t fear them!” He smiled, waving a hand to the large Mer in the tank. To Vegetta’s surprise, it swam up and emerged from the top of the tank- which he hadn’t realized ended about ten feet before the ceiling started. “Everyone, meet Etoiles!”

“Hello there.” It’s voice was heavy, tired. Had the Merling woke it up? It didn’t seem too mad about the prospect. “It is nice to meet you.”

Jaiden gave a small, sheepish wave. Roier followed suit. Quackity had stars in his eyes, and Maximus was still passed out on the floor.

Vegetta nodded his head in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, friend, i’m Vegetta?”

The large Mer tilted his head. Friend? He liked the sound of that.

Chapter Text

Somehow, they met up that day.

With no communication, Foolish and Leo had made preparations to stay at the dock until the Merling saw Vegetta's boots skim the water's surface again. 

(Yeah, Foolish totally wasn't looking)

Truth be told, it felt like years since he'd seen that human, the one he didn't mind seeing. The one he'd want to see as many times as he could from now until forever's end. The one he'd dreamed of, the one he kept getting ripped away from.

Was this obsession? Maybe.

Leonarda cheered suddenly, zipping up to the end of the dock. The two'd set up "camp" under the wooden structure, Foolish making sure they were shielded underneath large flat rocks that were unusual in their placement.

"Papa Vegetta!" The Merling burst from the water, nearly launching herself onto the dock. 

The Spaniard cursed in surprise, catching the young child as she practically tackled him onto the dock.

"Leo!" Foolish head surprise when he surfaced, staying under the dock's edge. "How are you here? Where is Foolish?"

"He's here too!" Foolish chuckled quietly when he heard Vegetta let out another curse as Leo launched themself from his grip and into the water again. You wouldn't catch that Merling sitting still for long; especially when they were excited. "Papa Foolich!"

Since when had she started calling him papa again? The question hit Foolish as he let his child pull him into the light. Eh, no time to question the change, not when Vegettta was right there.

"I see you don't have a tail anymore." Foolish teased, smiling as he watched Leo launch himself onto the dock and into Vegetta's arms once more.

"Ay, and you don't have legs." Was that Foolish's imagination, or did Vegetta's eyes flash with disappointment? 

Foolish smiled despite his slight confusion "So it wasn't just a dream."

Vegetta smiled back "Even if it was, I am glad I dreamed of you."

Leo watched Foolish duck underwater quickly, snickering to herself. "You made him pink." She giggled after a second, looking up at Vegetta. "Last one to do that was Tio Fit!"

"The octopus?" If that was who Vegetta was up against... 

"Yah, but I think Tio Fit likes someone else- we got new Pod members y'know?" Leo didn't seem to notice Vegetta's seemingly sudden change of emotion "Tio Fit keeps looking at them. Dunno why. I heard Flippa say that he like likes one of them though. And she can tell, she's an anglerfish!" 

Vegetta wasn't sure if Anglerfish could sense that kind of thing, but maybe it was different for merpeople? He could never be truly sure. 

"You have new Pod members?" Foolish had explained a little bit about what Pods were a while back, and Vegetta thought he remembered enough about the subject.

Leo nodded "Mhm! There's six adults and one Merling. Five of the adults came with the Merling, and the sixth adult accidentally stumbled into our territory!" She smiled "Y'know the hurt kid that was clinging to my back when we saw each other last? That's Richarlyson. He's the new kid in our Pod!"

Vegetta nodded, an idea forming in his head. 

"Do you take in new members often?" He asked curiously.

But Leo frowned, shaking her head. "No... before them it only happened once when I was young. Tio Fit joined with Ramon, and after that things started going wrong."

"Wrong... how?" Vegetta frowned.

"Mers started dying." Vegetta nearly jumped. Fuck, that's right, Foolish was here. "One of the largest mass deaths i've ever seen. It was like a new Mer died every other day. We... lost a lot of good Mer." Foolish looked away, and Vegetta swore he saw a tear streak down the Merman's already wet face.

Leo took attention away from Foolish, nodding. "Lots of funerals, but now our reef is a big one!" Foolish couldn't scold her for that one, she hardly understood death, and she wasn't that close with their old Pod members to begin with. 

Still though, a part of him wanted to be mad.

After that somber moment, Leo changed the subject to something much brighter, and the "family" of three chatted the day away, the sun soon sinking into the horizon, marking Leonarda's bedtime. The Merling huffed but swam down to their makeshift shelter, wishing Vegetta a tiny "buenas noches" as she vanished beneath the waves.

"How does she know that language, and you do not?" Vegetta asked after a beat of silence.

"Who's to say I don't?" Foolish shot back teasingly "But for real though, Mariana taught her most of it. He's the only one who speaks it as his first language." He chuckled "strange how he ended up with Slime then."

"Slime?" Vegetta tilted his head.

"Long story- actually the whole story is fucking insane so i'm gonna spare us from that conversation for now." Foolish's chuckles turned into full on laughter. "Anyway, what's been happening since we last spoke? I don't know how much you remember about dreamland- and to be honest I don't think we talked about anything worth substance, so-"

"Uh, i have something to tell you." Vegetta looked around, before leaning down to the water. 

"I'm listening." Foolish swam close, and the two were mere inches from each other's faces.

"The French, uh... of my island." Vegetta bit his lip, as if he wasn't sure what to say. "They've been hiding something. A big something." 

Foolish nodded "Yeah?" He felt his heart stutter. Were they against the Mer? Did they hunt Mer for sport? It wouldn't be the first time he'd seen or heard of something like that, wouldn't be the first people he knew of to-

"Foolish, they're hiding Mers, just like you and Leo." 

Foolish world froze. More of them? Here? Likely on land where they could be found out?  Vegetta had to be joking, right?

"There's a kid, and a big whale shark down in Pierre's bunker, and they're as safe as they can be-"

Safe? Safe in a likely cage? How could someone be safe? He may have been in a tank for a month on that ship, but he was never safe. Never let his guard down- who knew how long the Mer lived in a tank like that?

"So we told the French about you guys. We told the other Mer."

Release them. They're going to release them, right? Into the ocean, with Foolish and his Pod. That was what Vegetta was going to say, right?

"They want you to join them. You and your Pod."

Foolish ducked underwater, the slight splash it made hitting Vegetta's face. 

No. He couldn't imagine that. Leaving the reef behind. Leaving his home behind. Even if whatever this 'Federation' was that Vegetta used to speak so ill of would find out about him and his Pod- Foolish wouldn't take the risk of land- of another tank. There was a severe difference between a tank on land and a tank at sea- and one of them was that he could sink the boat and escape. He'd done it before, and he could do it again. But a tank on land...

Screams flashed in his mind. The bite of wind as he was trapped in a net that flew toward a large glass structure filled with water- avian and human alike cheered for this sort of thing, for the red vines that infested the water, reaching-reaching-reaching to try and steal him away as it had stolen so many other Mer from them. 

Foolish surfaced moments after he sunk. Vegetta was still there, eyes widened.

"No." Foolish said "We're not going."

And really, Vegetta knew better than to argue, so he let the conversation die out for a while, the two going back to watching the sunset. Once it was fully gone and stars started to flit through the sky did Foolish speak.

"You know how I refused to answer any questions about the reef back in the ship?" His voice was quiet, but Vegetta could never miss it.

"Do I." Vegetta chuckled.

"So, what's your deal with that reef?" Vegetta asked one night, leaning back in his chair. It was sometime after Foolish had woken up, the shark Mer had lost count of the days. "Leonarda keeps mentioning it."

"I don't think it's any of your business." Foolish, despite him trusting the Humans with his body autonomy, didn't trust them with this secret.

Vegetta raised an eyebrow, writing something down. Foolish simply huffed, moving quickly as if he'd get out of the tank to do something. The sudden movement aline was enough to startle Vegetta, who's chair tipped all the way back to hit the floor.

A good way to distract him from the conversation, Foolish would pat himself on the back if his back wasn't trapped against either the wall or the floor at all times.

Foolish smirked. "Well, we have a legend in my culture." He started slowly. "Were the dead do not rest easily."

That caught Vegetta's attentionz "Hm?" He yilted his head, eyebrow raised.

"When a Merperson dies, their soul stays with their body for a long time." Foolish gripped onto the dock, claws digging holes into the wood. "They aren't able to rest until they are buried, and their soul expels in the form of coral."

Vegetta didn't seem to get it yet, but that was alright, Foolish could explain better. Lifting himself onto the dock, Foolish watched Vegetta's eyes dart back to land. Would they get caught by someone who shouldn't catch them?

"We have legends of strange dragons, the ones of the sea , ones that created Merpeople. Ah, forgive me, but I'm not one for religion and shit." Foolish smiled when that drew a laugh from Vegetta. "But the dragons wanted to make Merpeople special from fish, so they gave us souls. Things that allowed us to live and love. When we die we must choose if we want to give back to those who gifted us our souls in the first place." Foolish chuckled "They say that most of us do, and that as a reminder of the Mer's soul coral sprouts up on the area the  Mer is buried." 

Vegetta nodded. "So... coral reefs are...?"

"Cemeteries, yes." Foolish chuckled once more. "There seems to be a lot of debate on what to do with the coral once its a full reef. Some say they must trim the creatures to keep order and make sure there is no confusion between souls, while others let the reefs run so they do not trifle with the dead's activities."

The human nodded slowly. He understood. "And Tilin...?" Leo had said the body was taken as a threat. What could they have done with it?

"Who's that?" Foolish asked, frowning suddenly. He’d never heard that name leave Vegetta’s lips before.

“Ah, the child.” Vegetta looked out into the sea “The one we put into your water. Where are they?”

Foolish froze. That child? The one they kept in a closet, the one that lay on his table for a month? That child? Were they even meant to bury them? Could they even usurp the kid if Vegetta wanted them back!?

“Ah, don’t panic!” Vegetta sensed Foolish’s stress “If they were gone by the time you got back, it’s okay! We kind of expected them to just get… swept into the sea, before we knew about you.”

Foolish squinted at Vegetta. A human, not burying their dead? How strange.

“They’re… fine.” He said after a moment. “They’re resting in the reef.”

Vegetta nodded after a moment. “Thank you, then.” He smiled sadly. “They could not be buried on the island.”

“Why not?” Foolish leaned toward the other. “Is it not safe?” But the  why would Vegetta live there? So-called “pirate” or not, he couldn’t hurt a fly.

“There are monsters here that we didn’t know about before we arrived.” The human sighed “and even then, we did not have children just yet. When the kids came, the monsters left for a while. But then they came back- and a lot of horrible things happened.” 

Foolish nodded, he felt that was the only correct response. Vegetta kept speaking.

“Quackity got kidnapped, someone different took his place- a spy. Tilin- they were Quackity’s kid -didn’t like the spy. They tried to go find their dad, but one of the monsters got to them first.” Vegetta shook his head “we could not bury them because of the monsters.”

Foolish didn’t know what that would be like, not being able to visit a loved one’s grave. Well, maybe he did, but that was from his last life. This was now, hand he’d been able to visit every grave he knew.

Maybe now he could visit the once nameless human for Vegetta. Would he appreciate that?

Vegetta suddenly shifted to stand. “Ay, it’s getting late.” He smiled softly. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

“If you wish to.” Foolish replied, bumping his shoulder with Vegetta’s hip. Wow, humans really were small. 

Vegetta laughed “Then I will see you tomorrow, Foolish.” He started walking back up the dock, hearing Foolish’s body splash into the water.

Chapter Text

Missa wanted to follow them.

Really, it was a bad idea. He couldn't swim without running into something- and bumps in the night didn't go over well with the Brazilians, he learned. 

But still, that didn't stop him.

Missa had seen Foolish and Leonarda go north toward where he assumed the island was- and he was determined to try and follow. So off he went that night, trying to make sure he didn't run into anything.

And of course, nothing got past Cellbit. 

"What are you doing?" Missa yelped, turning around quickly at the sudden voice. Cellbit blinked at him owlishly, clearly wondering why Missa was out so late. 

"I- uh-" And the usual-human didn't have a lie to tell. He didn't have a backup plan- a story. 

He didn't think anyone would catch him, let alone Cellbit. The guy who watched his every move, the guy who could probably smell something wrong with Missa. Fuck, their noses didn't even work underwater!

"You're trying to follow Foolish, aren't you?" Cellbit's eyes widened, as if he just got it. "Why? What purpose do you have with humans?"

Missa swallowed the lump that had been steadily growing in the back of his throat. Would Cellbit be mad if Missa said that he used to be human? Would he alert the others, would they have his head for breakfast? Would he end up in the coral, where Bad had been patrolling more heavily now? What was the right answer to this-

What would Phil do?

"I- uh-" Phil would tell the truth, wouldn't he? If he'd been around someone long enough, if he knew that they were alright with certain people. If Foolish had a human boyfriend, the others wouldn't mind his little secret, right?

"Wait! You've never seen a human before, have you?" Cellbit guessed suddenly "So you want to see one up close now that you know Foolish is friends with them, right?"

And well, when an opportunity presents itself- "yeah, yeah! That's totally it." Missa nodded quickly "One hundred percent. That's why."

Cellbit laughed "i've always wanted to see one on shore." He confessed, swimming over to join Missa "Mind if I tag along?"

"Oh, uh-" Missa smiled shyly "sure..."

Cellbit smiled brightly "Great, let's get a move on!"

As Cellbit passed Missa, the usual-human felt an ache settle into his bones, one that felt as if his body was buzzing with a melody-like march. One that yearned to follow Cellbit. Missa didn't think much of it though, and followed Cellbit anyway.

This was about to be a long journey, neither of them knew where they were going, neither of them had food or tools- but hey, Cellbit had worked with less, Missa was sure of that!

The next day, Foolish and Leo watched from the shallows. 

Foolish hadn't told Leo about the new developments with what Vegetta had called "the French", he didn't mention the Mer that were trapped in a tank.

So he was surprised when by her own volition Leo decided that they were going to follow the shore after an avian woman Foolish didn't recognize. He had to keep her away from lugging herself onto the sand to greet the human, but he'll admit she did a damn great job otherwise!

"She feels funny." Leo was explaining "I like her. She's like the other birds."

"How so?" Foolish asked, drifting beside the Merling.

"I dunno. Tio Bad says that it's a feeling someone can get sometimes. It was a- uh..." Leonarda squinted at the sand below momentarily "A groin feeling!"

Foolish giggled "Oh, is it really?" He smiled, a silver glint catching his eye "Are you sure it's not 'Gut feeling', Leo?"

The Merling nodded "uh-huh!" She declared "and- !"

Foolish ran face-first into a steel cord. He grunted, grabbing his nose as he felt something else come up behind him- realizing that it was a net. Leo yelped, paddling away slightly. Before Foolish could get out, the top of the net cinched closed.

"Pa!" Leo leapt at the net, small claws gripping the steel.

"For fuck's sake-" Foolish grumbled, one hand still holding his sensitive nose. He turned around once, twice, three times "Leo, go find someone before I murder your other father."

Leonarda's eyebrows furrowed, but she nodded and jet off anyway. 

No sooner had she left, Foolish felt something tugging the net up and through the water. The shark Mer groaned, shanking his head. He better hope this wasn't the island's government, of which Vegetta had heavily warned Foolish against.

Up and up, until Foolish's wet hair clung to his back as chilled air hit his skin. He would go further up until he could see that he was at another dock; this one outfitted with many strange contraptions- likely to capture fish. Nevertheless, it was now being used to hoist Foolish to eye-level with the unfamiliar female.

"Why are you following me?" She was blond, similar golden wings folded behind her back. A colorful hat with a pinwheel on top sat on her head, almost looking like a human child's. Her arms were crossed, and now that Foolish looked closer- it looked like the woman had patches of feathers all over her. "Are you working for the Federation?"

The Federation didn't know anything about Merpeople though, unless Vegetta had been lying to him. Foolish tilted his head, unable to keep his next words in his head.

"That's crazy." The female's eyes widened "I- Vegetta said that they didn't know merpeople existed!"

"Oh- shit- you know Vegetta?" The avian frowned "you would not happen to be a Merperson he encountered on his trip, would you?"

Foolish chuckled, feeling his nerves let up. Okay. Alright. She wasn't a government spy- at least he could only assume so.

"I am only the Merperson he encountered on his trip!" Foolish tried to act as if he was lounging back against the net, but it was difficult to do so because of, well, gravity. "The Foolish Gamers, y'know."

"Foolish Gamers? But Vegetta only said he knew a Foolish." The woman tilted her head, one hand ghosting at her side. "How do I know you're the same?"

"Has he shown you my dope ass claw yet?" Foolish held up his hands to display his gray claws, one notably shorter than the rest  "Yeah, one of his nets chipped the damn thing when we first met."

The avian nodded "I should really check-"

"Can you let me down first though?" Foolish knew what she was going to say- he knew who she was going to call. "You kinda scared my kid- and Vegetta's by proxy."

"Your kid...?" A realization dawned on the woman "oh, shit, you have a kid!" She all but lunged for a lever, which suddenly released the net's hanging position. Foolish couldn't complain as he felt the wetness on his scales and skin again, hearing a muffled "Sorry!" Come from the woman. 

Foolish was back at the surface in no time, watching as the avian took out a rectangular slab (metal? Glass? He couldn't tell.) and type into it frantically. At least, Foolish thought it was typing. Vegetta had done quite a bit of it before back on the boat, though it wasn't often that the man did it in front of Foolish. 

The avian woman put away her contraption just as there was a tug at his tail. Looking back underwater, he spotted Leo with a shocked Cellbit and Missa in her grip.

"Vegetta is on the way." The woman was saying "so sorry about-" she watched as Foolish ducked underwater without a word "fuck, okay then." 

Taking a seat at the edge of the dock, Baghera could only sigh and wait.

“What are you doing here???” Foolish’s eyes darted between the two “Neither of you can swim in a straight line- why are you this far from the Pod!?”

“We uh-“ Missa shrunk back a bit “We wanted to- uh…”

“We wanted to see the humans.” Cellbit interrupted, which Missa was seemingly grateful for. “We haven’t met them- and even though we haven’t we want to-“

“That’s crazy!” Foolish breathed, eyes darting back up to the surface “You heard what they wanted to do to us and-“ he chuckled “That’s crazy!”

“But Vegetta is better than that, no?” Missa picked at the net that still had Foolish. “You said he would not trap you.”

“And he wouldn’t.” Foolish pointed upward “That’s not Vegetta.”

“It’s the pretty avian lady!” Leo chirped helpfully, head ducking back underwater- hey, when had she gone up!?

“Leo!” Foolish groaned “Why!?”

The Mering smiled sheepishly “She looked so lonely, and you guys were talking! So-“

She didn’t get to finish, because Foolish was hoisted back up, grunting as the wire net dug into his skin a little.

“Ah, Foolish!” Beside the avian woman who’d pulled the lever up again, there were two familiar people now- plus a third newcomer. “Sorry, my friend!”

Foolish deadpanned “You could have done this literally any other way, dude.”

The avian woman chuckled “We can let you out safe, now that we know you are not Federation.” She started “Count yoursel-“

“Pa, Cellbit’s bullying Missa again!” Leo shouted, head popping up from underwater. “He’s making fun of the stutter!”

“It’s all in good fun, Leo.” Foolish looked down, sighing “Like how you and Dapper are.”

“Dapper’s a bitch.”

“Language, Leonarda!” Vegetta called, the Merling perking up at his voice.”

“Papa Vegetta!” Leo chirped “I missed you!”

“You saw me a few hours ago!”

“Hold on- wait a fucking second!” Roier, the other person that Foolish recognized, shouted to pause the reunion “Did you say Missa, Leo!?”

The Merling hummed “Yeah! He’s tiny like me, but he says he’s an adult! He doesn’t look like a minnow though, and he runs into walls all of the time- but he can speak the same language as Tio Mariana!”

“Shit- Baghera release Foolish from the net!” Roier called “Foolish, get Missa up here!”

Before Foolish could respond, the net released his body, and he landed back into the water with a large splash.

Chapter Text

Foolish knew something was up with Missa!

First off, the mer wasn’t swimming right- okay, yeah, that can be excused by saying he had an injury that healed wrong ling ago. Foolish had known someone like that.

But the breathing? The nose thing??? That was weird.

See, Missa had a little thing he did. The Mer would sometimes suck water straight through his nose and end it out in a coughing fit. It was strange, not something a Merperson would do. Hell, Felps was weird and he didn’t do it!

So it had to be something else. Leo was right when she said Missa was small, at least, compared to other adult Mer. He was a good couple of heads bigger than Leo, but he was by no means as bug as Foolish- or as big as the smallest adult in the pod, that being Bad. Foolish had his suspicions, but none of them could have led to where they were now.

“Missa!” Roier was grabbing onto the small Mer’s arms, smiling wildly “You’re alive!”

“I am alive and I am a fucking Mermaid, Roier!” Foolish and Cellbit exchanged a glance. Yeah, okay, this was weird. Vegetta said that nobody knew Mer existed-

“He is not usually like a fish, Foolish.” Surprised, the shark Mer looked over. There was Vegetta, crouching down as far as he could on the dock so he could speak to Foolish at eye-level. “He is, in fact, human.”

Cellbit nodded, agreeing “That explains it.” He said, Vegetta startling slightly at his sudden voice “He’s by no means a stable swimmer.”

“He said it was an injury.” Foolish waved off “remember? He said it healed wrong.”

“Pac and Richas do just fine.” Cellbit raised an eyebrow

“You can’t base all of your knowledge on injury by knowing two people with amputated tails!”

“Uh- Foolish, who is he?” Vegetta interrupted Cellbit prematurely, the other Mer having opened his mouth the spew a retort.

“That’s Cellbit- remember that guy I was telling you about when your ship got fucked up?” At Vegetta’s slow nod, Foolish waved his hands to motion toward Cellbit “Well ta-da! They moved in!”

“Yeah!” Leo chirped, launching her body up and pushing Cellbit’s head below water as she used him as a stand “There’s five more adults now! Plus Richarlyson!”

Vegetta nodded, smiling as Cellbit resurfaced “that’s good.” He replied “You are happy?”

Foolish shrugged “Eh, they’re more of a pain in my ass.” he smiled at Cellbit mischievously “Eating all my food and stinking up the place.”

“Hey!” Cellbit tried to tackle Foolish, but the shark mer was too big. “Puta que pariu- you shut the fuck up right now-“

“Woah, Foolish!” The Shark Mer looked over at Roier’s call “you have a catfish on you?”

“Huh?” Foolish chuckled “No no, I am safe. You carry on with… reuniting?”

Roier smiled “We have, we have! I have called Philza over, hopefully he has the kids.” He was still holding onto one of Missa’s arms despite this claim, their grips on each other tight. “When did you get a little catfish, though?”

Foolish giggled “Who, Cellbit?” He poked the other Mer’s face. “I guess he could be a cat fish.”

“I’m not a cat!” The Mer clambered off of Foolish pretty quickly after that, the hiss he let out underwater sounding awfully a lot like a land cat’s.

While those familiar with each other had been taking, the two French-speaking people had hatched a plan, having observed the interactions the Merpeople had with the other residents.

Let’s just say, things were about to go really well.

Foolish and the other Mers had decided to camp out under the woman they came to know as Baghera’s dock. She was surprisingly eager to allow this once the Mer learned that Philza was, well, MIA for a moment. Thought it put Missa on edge, he did at least get to see two children he identified as Chayanne and Tallulah before the sun set.

Once the sun had set and it was time to go to sleep, Foolish volunteered to take the first watch. He was up for hours before Missa stirred and couldn’t get back to bed, allowing for Foolish to get some shut-eye.

And the  proceed to wake up in another tank.

Now, Foolish hadn’t opened his eyes and he already knew this would happen. How? There was no fresh oxygen in tanks, all artificial- and now that he knew the difference, he could pinpoint his location.

Also, the fluorescent lights and the yelling from Cellbit about being put in a tank. That’s how Foolish also knew.

“GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, YOU FUCKING BITCH!” And really, it was too early for this. Foolish had gone to bed late, Missa was supposed to wake up Cellbit, and then Foolish could sleep till midday. That was the plan.

“Please please, just hear us out?” The plan was not to have French speakers try and persuade Cellbit into not breaking the glass of the tank “You are much better in here! No need to worry about danger! Plus, you are not alone!”

“I see Foolish and Leo sleeping behind the rocks you dumb mother fu-“

“No no, he means us!” Foolish felt his body stir harder at the sound of a new voice. Fuck, did he really have to get up and make sure Callbit didn’t start biting people again? “You are here with me and Pomme!”

“ARE YOU A FUCKING WHALE SHARK!?” And on second thought, no Foolish did not need to go make Cellbit back off. The Mer was doing it for himself. Good on him, he was usually very self destructive. “FOOLISH, COME PICK ME UP I’M SCARED!” Only, the backing off led to Foolish being used as a meat shield.

“Oh great, you are awake!” Bleary eyed- Foolish tried to take in his surroundings.

The tank was deep, he’d give it that. He couldn’t even see the back wall, and as far as he could tell the glass that separated the Mer from the humans only spanned three of the four walls- and he could see a space behind the solid stone wall to be out of sight. There was sand and seaweed all over, a few small fish swimming along here or there. 

Yeah, this could hypothetically pass as an ocean.

Only, oceans didn’t have three humans staring holes into your soul for Poseidon knows why. They also didn’t have a big ass whale shark Mer inching towards the glass.

“Yeah, no, I’m done.” Foolish grunted “why the fuck are we here, Baghera!?” Hey! At least he was kidnapped by someone he knew!

“We wanted to make sure you are safe!” The avian chirped “You are not safe when the Federation might see you!”

Foolish simply groaned, shaking his head. Well there goes his plans to get back to Fit’s for the octopus Mer’s birthday!

“We know this is not ideal,” the human-looking man to Baghera’s left started “But you are safe!”

“That’s crazy.” Foolish grumbled, having not shaken his grogginess “I was just talking to Vegetta about this. I distinctly remember telling him no.”

“Well unfortunately it was either ignore your consent or let the Federation find you.” The man with a long burlap sack and a paper bag over his head said, Foolish’s eyes moving yo Baghera’s right. “They have started putting out underwater vehicles to try and catch you.”

Foolish huffed. “Fuckin- whatever. Go tell Vegetta we’re here, otherwise he’ll have a fit.”

“You entertain human fits?” The whale shark mer grinned, leaning forward as the three humans nodded and left the room.

“It’s not as bad as a Merling’s, I’m sure.” Foolish rolled his eyes “Leo was a pain during his rebellious phase”

The whale shark chuckled, tilting his head “I am Etoiles.”

Foolish tilted his head as well “i’m Foolish.”

Neither said it was nice to meet the other, because under these circumstances it wasn’t. However, it was the best they had.

Fucking hell Vegetta, you better hurry or Cellbit gonna go feral.

Chapter Text

A ways away, Fit was growing nervous.

First things first, Forever was gone. Just gone, the Brazilians (except Cellbit- where was he?!) said that he had a  tendency to wander off to what caught his eye, but they had no idea where the squid mer was otherwise. After a few hours of searching they'd found a severed tentacle, but nothing else. 

He was gone.

Which, okay, fine! Forever was his own mer, now that his family was safe he likely felt right just leaving and going to do his own thing, whatever! Fit didn't care, even if the other Brazilians did. This was fine.

But secondly, Foolish wasn't here. He'd left days ago, and still hadn't returned. He'd taken Leo with him- which was a whole other can of worms now that Richarlyson was near-catatonic and Jusnnaflippa grew more and more worried for one of her best friends... Fit was running himself thin trying to figure everything out. He barely realized that his apparent birthday was in two days, and was struck with sudden deja-vu. 

"Maybe birthdays are bad luck." Bad seemed to be having the same idea, laying across Fit's couch.

"We can't say that so fast." Fit sighed, packing a bag. "What we can do is go looking for them."

"And what? Leave Slime and Mariana with the Brazilians?" Bad scoffed "What happens when they get high off jelly?"

"Slime hasn't gotten high since we took in the Brazilians." Fit pointed out "So far that's been you and Mariana."

"Whatever, my point still stands! Plus, what about the kids!?" Bad asked

"You can stay, I want to go find Foolish." Fit slung the bag around his shoulders, trident in one of his hands. "Foolish'll kick my ass if I don't tell someone they're in charge though, so c'mon."

"Wha- you're not putting me in charge!?" Bad complained as they exited the large stone structure that served as Fit and Ramon's home.

"We're having a meeting so we can decide." Fit replied "You of all Mer have been real good at leading, I get that. But the one night me and Foolish left to go return Cellbit and Richarlyson- what did you and Mariana do with kids under your watch?"

"We watched the kids!" Bad responded, huffing.

"You got high, Bad." Fit corrected as they came into sight of Foolish's house "Maybe if you broke a bad habit it wouldn't have to be a conscious choice."

Bad frowned, but didn't say anything else as the two entered Foolish's house.

"Dad!" Ramon crashed into his father, ever observant. "Why do you have a bag? Where are you going? Are you gonna go find Tio Foolish and Leo?"

"We'll see." Fit replied, scooping up his son with one arm. "Right now we need to figure out where the group is at."

"Well, we don't know where Tio Foolish is, and we don't know where Missa is either!" Ramon counted off as Bad went to gather the other Mer to Foolish's large table "And also Cellbit and Forever are gone, too!"

"We're not going to find Forever." Fit murmured to the boy quietly as Richarlyson and Juannaflippa were the first to come to the table "We found evidence that he..." Fit shook his head "don't tell the other kids."

"Dapper probably knew before me." Ramon huffed "Bad always says all his secrets to Ramon, he said so!"

Fit shook his head "I'm sorry, kid. There are some things you just shouldn't know at your age."

Ramon didn't say anything else, curling up in Fit's arms as Slime sat next to them.

"What's this about?" Slime eyed the bag and Fit's trident "Where are you going?"

"Not sure yet." Fit replied "Depends on how this meeting turns out."

"Alright, that's everyone!" Bad announced, others coming in to settle down. "Now tell them what's happening."

Fit rolled his eyes "Basically as we know, some Mer haven't been seen around the area for a few days." He started off, and the  dove right in because what else could he say? "I am planning to go and locate Foolish and Leo."

"Not pai Cellbit?" Richarlyson immediately voiced, Pac and Mike shushing him quickly.

Fit shook his head "As it stands I need to find Foolish in order to find anyone else. Foolish has... experience with this sort of thing, and he has Leo with him." He informed "Right now the meeting here is to determine who's going to look after the Pod while i'm away."

"I told him I could do it." Bad huffed

"Bad, you got high last time." Fit groaned "So stop bringing it up."

"Bad could be a good choice." Slime stated "but not alone. Someone else should at least try to help lead the Pod."

"I could do that." Mike shrugged "Bad is not very hard to work with."

Mariana laughed "Then you have never worked with him on drugs, my friend."

Mike shrugged again "Maybe, does anyone else want to help?"

Nobody volunteered.

Fit nodded "Alright Mike, I believe you're out best bet then."

"I don't need a babysitter." Bad huffed

"You need a fucking babysitter, dude." Slime objected

"Language!"

Fit chuckled, setting down Ramon. "Alright you two." He weakly tried to break them up. When it was clear they would only bicker to each other under their breaths, Fit turned to Mike "I feel like I don't need to say this, but don't beach the Pod."

Mike laughed "You got it, Fit!" He waved off "Go get Foolish and Leonarda, we will figure the rest out later."Fit nodded once, hugged his son, then ducked out of the house. 

Sighing, he began in the direction of land.

Fit would like to think he paid attention well.

It's what got him through the trench and the wasteland- the territory known to other Mer as 2b2t. It's where he learned to wield a trident, where he learned to lead, sneak around, fight- it's what taught him to be him.

It also taught Fit that he couldn't trust many people, if anyone. It showed him that even the best Mer could be skewed for the right reasons, and they could creep up behind you and stab your back. So to combat that, Fit started paying more attention to details, to sounds- he made sure nobody could sneak up on him.

At least, he tried. As it turns out, two very sneaky Brazilians had other plans.

Fit had settled for the night when he heard something hit a rock outcropping to his left, someone cursing softly. Fit's head snapped to the outcropping, reaching down to grab his trident.

"Wait wait wait!" Only to stop when Felps and Pac tumbled from behind it. Pac was the one who'd spoken, hands up to show they meant no harm "We are friends!"

"Fucking hell, guys." Fit retracted his hand, sighing "why are you not back at the Pod?"

"We uh- we think we know where Foolish and Cellbit are." Felps said, reaching into a small pouch that hung from around his neck. When he took his fingers out, Fit saw a small piece of dead coral. 

The octopus mer raised an eyebrow "Okay?"

Pac smiled sheepishly "It uh- you know how Felps and Cellbit are weird?" Felps lightly knocked his elbow into the back of Pac's head "You're the one who said it!"

Fit nodded "Wouldn't call it weird, but sure."

"Well uh- how do I explain this, Felps?" Pac looked over to his blurry friend, who was strangely fully unblurred.

"Me and Cellbit are magic." Felps said shortly "I am cursed, Cellbit is a siren." He waved the dead coral "This is a vessel, one that reaches for a siren. We all had one, but Forever sorta vanished with all of 'em."

"Except yours." Fit said, skeptical 

"Except mine." Felps nodded "I think Cellbit followed Foolish, and Missa followed Cellbit."

Even Pac looked surprised at that. "How do you figure?" He asked

Felps shrugged "Missa's weird. Human weird. He feels a pull toward Cellbit whenever that guy is tired, or accidentally humming a tune. Y'know, like the legends say." He explained "I think Cellbit followed Foolish because Cellbit's been skeptical of this whole human-Mer thing for a long time."

Fit let the words sink in. Magic, it had to be magic. Of course Felps had this weird curse thing and of course Cellbit was a siren- of course Missa was human-weird, and of course Cellbit was skeptical of Foolish and Vegetta's friendship. Of-fucking-course.

Sometimes, Fit forgot Mer had their own opinions. He'd been with Foolish for so long, they'd had the same views for so long- he forgot that outside Mer didn't have the same experiences; that they couldn't abandon their way of thinking so easily if given enough factual proof.

Was it factual though? Was it really a fact if the Brazilians had sparsely seen Vegetta and Foolish interacting- if they hadn't seen Leo and Vegetta interacting?

He probably shouldn't be thinking about this right now, not when there was sleeping and swimming to do so he could at least reach Foolish and Leo tomorrow.

Finally, Fit sighed. "Okay then, you guys can come with." He couldn't really control them, anyhow. He wasn't the actual leader. "I'll take first watch tonight." 

Pac practically glowed, while Felps actually did. The duo said their thanks, before settling down next to Fit. They stayed awake a while, talking with the octopus Mer and trying to learn more about his history. Everyone falls asleep eventually, and Fit was soon left alone as darkness crept along the ocean waves.