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There are people Outside.
Tommy doesn’t stay out long enough to look—instead he darts to his den, peeking through the cracks between the rocks at the blurry figures moving on the other side of the glass wall separating him from Outside. He’s sure he could take the strange humans on—sure enough, when he runs his tongue over his teeth he can feel the sharp points of his canines against the rough flesh of his tongue. There are murmuring voices Outside. Fuzzy shapes. Tommy blinks, pushing his face a little closer to the gap in between the rocks.
One of the humans Tommy knows is Dream–his pale green suit is familiar in that it hurts Tommy’s eyes to look at it. But the first time he vocalized his dislike in a series of chirps, Dream had nicked off one of his pectoral fins.
“No noise,” his caretaker had chided. “No noise unless I say so.”
Tommy’s a lot quieter now. It’s hard holding back his croons, his instinctual clicks, but now Dream doesn’t take his fins! Tommy likes his fins.
He wonders if the people Outside want his fins. He hisses quietly, a stream of bubbles flowing out of the corner of his mouth. If the humans want his fins, they’ll have to catch him first.
One of the other humans approaches the glass. He had long pink hair and lots of gold. Like, lots of gold. Gold on his ears, on his neck, on his wrists–even some in his hair. Will he give Tommy gold? He pokes his head out from inside his den. The human bares its teeth–Tommy flinches before he remembers that humans bare their teeth like a greeting. He hesitantly bares his teeth back. The human barks. Is that a laugh? It sounds kind of like Dream’s. But Dream only laughs when Tommy does something stupid. Was he not supposed to smile? He chitters apologetically before forcing himself to stop, shoving the noise down his throat.
The pink-haired human frowns. Oh no. Tommy did something bad. He croons sadly, as quietly as he can, making himself small. Small Tommy can’t be hurt. Small Tommy can hide in the cracks of the den, follow the streams of water, float away, away from Dream. Small Tommy doesn’t have any fins to cut off.
Then the other new human comes up to the glass. This one has blonde hair, and he’s also covered in gold. Tommy uncurls himself slowly. Maybe this human will give him gold?
Dream clicks his little green clicker, pointing to the surface. Tommy really doesn’t want to breathe air right now–it makes his lungs all dry and cold, but he doesn’t want Dream to take his fins so he obeys, swimming to the surface and poking his head out of the water.
Blonde-hair man smiles at him, and Tommy chitters, eyes fixed on his gold wrist-things. He swims a little closer. He wants the gold wrist-things. Blonde man watches him with curiosity as Tommy touches a finger to the gold. It’s cool and shiny and Tommy loves it. He wants to take it and wrap it around his fingers and just look at it, because it’s so shiny —
Dream clicks the clicker sharply, making a disapproving noise. Tommy flinches, swimming back, and blonde man also frowns. Oh no. Dream’s going to be mad once the humans leave. He never gets mad when they’re here, but once they’re gone Tommy might lose a fin –
He’s panicking, he knows, and Dream hates it when he panics, but he really really doesn’t want to lose a fin today. He lets out a distressed warble, and Dream clicks furiously, but Tommy can’t breathe and he’s gonna be in so much trouble–
A spot of light catches his eye and he stills, breath catching in his throat. Pink-haired man is holding one of his gold neck things, swinging it slightly. The light of the rippling water reflects off the chain, glinting and flickering tantalizingly. Tommy’s ears flutter and gazes at the glint of the gold, the way it moves as pink-haired man swings it, the steady glimmer. Slowly his breathing calms, and he swims a little closer. Pink-haired man smiles, a little smile, and holds out the gold.
Tommy looks up. Take? he chitters. Pink-haired man holds out the gold a little further, so Tommy takes that as a yes, snatching the gold and swimming back before it can be taken back.
Oh. Oh, it’s so shiny, Tommy loves it. He chirps rapidly and twists the gold in his hands. It feels so cool and smooth against his scales, he wants to decorate his whole den with it. He loves the gold, it’s so pretty –
Dream clicks, a bad look on his face. He clicks again and again, reaching for the gold. Nonononononono not the gold –
Then it’s the blonde man that makes a noise back, angry and loud. Tommy cowers, and pink-haired man clicks at blonde man, who quiets, but still makes odd human snapping noises at Dream. Tommy wants him to stop, because Dream is getting mad and once the other humans leave he’ll hurt him–
Pink-haired man is still looking at him. When Tommy’s eyes meet his, he smiles.
Youokay? he chirps, a little hoarse and rough but still understandable, and Tommy’s eyes widen. He holds the gold a little closer to his chest. A human… can speak Siren?
Scared, Tommy warbles back, floating a little closer to him. He likes pink-haired man, and his odd human chirping. Scaredgonnabehurt.
The man’s eyes narrow at that, and Tommy flinches. Whohurt?
Tommy hesitates. Dream and blonde man are still making loud angry noises at each other. Dreamhurt , he croons, swirling his tail in the water. His red scales glimmer teasingly at him through the teal. They’re dirty, crusted over, but his clipped nails can only do so much, and Dream doesn’t give him anything to clean them with. He wishes his scales were as shiny as pink-haired man’s gold. Dreamtakefins.
Something flashes across pink-haired man’s face. Whytakefins?
Didbad, Tommy warbles. Noisy.
Pink-haired man stands up abruptly, and Tommy squeals. No! Dontgohehurt.
Neveragain, pink-haired man reassures. He goes in between the other loud humans, making an especially loud noise at Dream. But this noise doesn’t scare him—it’s harsh, protective, and Tommy floats a little closer. Is he going to get more gold?
Instead of coming back, pink-haired man snarls, and Tommy doesn’t even try to suppress a shocked, but excited chitter when pink-haired man throws his fist into Dream’s face.
It’s over fast. And Tommy leaves the tank cradled in the pink-haired human’s arms, a gold chain held tightly in his webbed fingers.