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Shiho turned on her back and sighed. Akito was sound asleep beside her, but she just couldn’t drift off at all. She’d tried a lot of things, even the medication that Akito guaranteed would work, but she knew that medicine worked differently with her fish body. (And only she knew what would happen if someone she didn’t know found that out)
Akito was mumbling, but it was incomprehensible. He’d curled his hand around Shihos and his hair fell just in front of his face giving him a look that was really adorable to her.
But it wasn’t just her inability to find sleep that kept her up, there was something else that was plaguing her mind. She looked to her fishbowl, watching the still almost clear water and stared.
“What’s wrong with me….” She muttered. She turned back around to face her boyfriend, keeping her hand tight around his. “If only you knew what happened Akito.”
Akito groaned, his eyes opening just a tad. Had she woken him up?
“You…..okay?” He stammered. He very obviously wasn’t fully awoken yet, which was even better since it meant she hadn’t inconvenienced her boyfriend just yet.
“I’m fine. Go back to sleep, Akito.” She said softly, her other hand finding a spot on his waist to rest for a bit. Akito groaned again and his eyelids shut quickly, leaving Shiho in the dark again. But at least Akito had cared enough to spare his own sleep if it meant she felt better. She was a little comforted by that.
Sleep managed to catch up with her around then. Her eyes closed slowly as she welcomed it, just hoping things were going to be okay.
~~~
“Go An go!” Shiho called out. The water worked against her, which really didn’t help here. An looked back for a second, the jellyfish woman scared out of her life. She swam, Shiho joining her after. But before she could get anywhere Miku grabbed her tail. She stared with that ever upsetting pleading look.
“But Princess, we need you!” She begged. Shiho was angered, smacking Miku away.
“I don’t wanna be your damn Princess! Leave me alone!” She yelled. She darted ahead, grabbing An’s hand and narrowly avoiding other fish and guards. She wanted out, anywhere that would be safe. Until she looked behind her, and she had finally understood this was a dream.
“Come on Shiho~ let’s go back! It’s going to be so fun! You don’t need him. You only need me.”
That wasn’t An. And that was definitely not what she said. Her world was enveloped in black, An’s body twisting and distorting into one of her mother. and Akito, gasping for breath while a chain pulled him down. All the while she kept hearing chanting.
“Please come back Shiho! Please come back.”
It repeated again and again and again. She covered her ears with her hands and shut her eyes tight.
“Shut up!!” She cried. But it was no use. It kept coming until she opened her eyes to a blank face of her sister, staring at her with empty lifeless eyes and a smile so pained it was almost real.
“Shiho?”
~~~~
And she woke up. Startled, scared. She’d moved backwards trying to recover, but hit her head off of the bedside table and slipped off the bed which produced a loud thud. Akito was startled awake then.
“Shiho?!” He said, voice laced with concern as he looked over to the girl on the floor. “Are you alright?“
Shiho couldn’t take it. She couldn’t even look at him. She grabbed the bedside table and stood up, leaping into her bowl as she got smaller. “Leave me alone.”
Akito couldn’t leave that. He climbed over to her side, but not touching the bowl. It was always a rule that he shouldn’t put his hands on or tap the bowl unless asked, it was basic boundaries in her eyes. “Shiho, are you okay? You’re not hurt are you?” He asked. She still didn’t look at him, just turning away and facing the wall.
“It’s not like you need to know.” Shiho replied. She wasn’t particularly injured from the fall, just maybe slightly bruised. But she wasn’t telling Akito that.
“I don’t need to, I want to.” Akito stared into the bowl, sitting on the floor on his knees to keep an eye on his now fish-sized girlfriend. “So tell me, is there something on your mind?”
Shiho floated down to the bottom of the bowl, the soft pebbles touching her legs. It wasn’t worth it to bare her tail right now. “It’s not much. Just bad dreams.” She said, but it was evident that it was more. Akito rolled his eyes.
“Well, can I put the bowl on my lap at least?” He asked. Shiho turned around to finally face him, her expression unreadable. She nodded. He picked the bowl up, the water swaying slowly. It was always comfy for her to be in the water despite her origins, it was just nice. And having the bowl on Akito’s lap as he sat cross-legged just made her feel safer and that much closer to him. “What’s going on..” Akito asked again.
Shiho stared up at him, her eyes glistening in the clear water. She got back up and swam to the surface. “Well…I suppose it does involve where I came from but-” a flash occurred in her mind to the swirling water and her boyfriend drowning in front of her. She shut her mouth. “Never mind.”
“It’s okay, take it slow.” Akito said, his hands floating a little bit over the bowl. She reached up, indicating that she wanted one of them, and he did as implied. She held onto his hand as if she was hugging it.
“It was horrible. I hated it. An and I were escaping and then she morphed into something else and…” even though she didn’t want any of his attention a second ago, she went back on that at that moment, surfacing and shifting back to her human size to dig her face into Akito’s chest, hiding the tears that were starting to spill a little. The bowl had spilled all over the wooden floor, but Akito couldn’t have cared at that moment. He put one of his hands around her back and the other on her hair, holding her closely to him. “You were there, drowning. And even worse…I saw my sister.”
“Your sister?” Akito asked softly. Shiho’s voice was the tiniest bit wobbly.
“I left her behind. I didn’t even tell her. She probably thinks I'm a horrible sister because of that.”
Akito shook his head. “I barely know your sister, but even I know she doesn’t hate you.”
Shiho looked up, her face soaked. “How would you know?!”
“I just do.” Akito assured her. Shiho kept him closer. She felt useless, venting everything she could to him. This was her moment of weakness, and she was putting it all on blast. But Akito didn’t seem to care, he just wanted her to feel like she was safe, and she did.
“I…I’m sorry.” She murmured, turning to the spilled bowl next to them. “I made a mess.”
“That’s the least of my worries Shiho.” he looked her in the eyes, as glossy and half-lidded as they were. She was so tired, and her face was red raw. “I’m glad you were able to tell me this.”
Shiho wiped her face and hiccuped a little. “Thank you.” she put her hands to her eyes, trying to stop more tears from flowing. “You’re always here…I really don’t say this often enough…thanks.”
Akito put his forehead on top of hers, shutting his eyes for a moment. He didn’t say anything else, he didn’t need to. She held his hands tightly, remembering all that long ago when he found her and gave her a place to stay, gave her everything she needed to know and live, she remembered falling in love with him. It was moments like this that kept her going. But she was tired out, and shutting her eyes had led to her falling asleep on him, and he slowly put her back into bed and joined her slowly afterward.