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The corridor is oddly silent.
Jade keeps walking, a bit weirded out, always attentive. The echo of his footsteps is loud and resounding in his ears. One, two, three, and counting. Jade casts a glance at the gray foggy winter sky out there. It's always quiet at six thirty in the morning. The world is still sound asleep. Most students are still buried in their blankets and lost in their dreams.
Not his brother, apparently.
It shouldn't have been strange. Half of the time he's an early bird, the other half he's a night owl. Once in a while he pulls an all nighter. Depending on his mood, really.
And today, Jade woke up to an early bird Floyd, it seemed. A weird early bird. The bed on the left side of their room was empty and neatly made. No candy wrappers or fashion magazines in sight. The clothes that Floyd had carelessly thrown over his chair last night were nowhere to be found, and so were the things that had been on his table since forever that Jade thought would never be put away. As if the left side of their room had never known of Floyd's existence. As if he'd never been there in the first place.
It's oddly quiet at six thirty this morning.
A familiar silhouette in the distance, alone and upright and proper. Heaving an internal sigh of relief, Jade walks up to him, his pace quickened, just a little.
"Azul."
"Jade." Azul's eyes are still glued to the tablet in his hands. Jade recognizes those figures. It's their last night's revenue. Azul is always intensely concentrated when it comes to the lounge.
"Have you seen Floyd? He wasn't there when I woke up." Jade looks around, hoping for a surprise attack, a high pitched 'Bah!', and a sunny sharp teeth smile that can easily light up the darkest day. Floyd loves to do that, ever since they were just little elvers, hiding amongst coral reefs and rocks then pounced on Jade when he wasn't aware. When he pretended to be unaware. He can't help a fond smile tugging at the corner of his lips at the memory.
Azul looks at him, then. He looks at him long and weird and confused, his fingers still hover over the screen of his tablet. He looks at him as if he grew a second head, as if he's spewing nonsense. He looks at him as if-
"Who's Floyd?"
Jade opens his eyes.
The ceiling is a familiar sight. Exactly three hundred twenty centimeters from his face, cast in wavering lights shining through the lone window of their underwater dorm room, blue and white and glistening. Jars of terrarium line up neatly on his shelf. He counts them. One two three four five. Six, if he also counts the one he's making. His dorm and school uniforms are exactly where he hung them up last night. Reaching out a hand to feel his nightstand. The earring is still there, so that's good. And why is he breathing so heavily?
Jade takes a deep breath-
Sweet and sour.
-and turns his head to the right.
Orange and mint candy wrappers lie around on the floor. Floyd's school uniform is thrown carelessly over his chair, while his dorm one stays a wrinkled heap at the end of the bed along with his blanket. Keychains and glow in the dark stickers and all the little trinkets Floyd bought on a whim yesterday are laid out on his table, unorganised but systematic. In the corner is his matching sturgeon scale earring, intentionally, carefully placed apart from all of his other miscellaneous items.
Jade forces his eyes away from it. And there, on the bed, is Floyd himself, posture so absurd and ridiculous he might as well be boneless. His thumb is sandwiched between the pages of the book he borrowed from the library. The Beatrice Letters, he vaguely notes. Must be a good one, if his brother fell asleep reading it.
"..."
Jade gets up. Crossing the room in four silent steps, he sits on the floor, right next to Floyd's bed. Putting his arms on the mattress, he takes a closer look at his twin.
Breathing so slow and soft it's almost inaudible if not for the short distance between them. Chest rises and falls subtly with each breath he takes. For all of the liveliness he displays during daytime, Floyd is always silent when he sleeps. Both of them are, actually. It's their habit, Jade knows, in order not to draw attention of bigger predators when they were at their most vulnerable, small tails twisted tightly together so the current wouldn't sweep them away in their slumber. Couldn't be fully asleep, couldn't just stay up all night either, needing every bit of energy they could. To run. To hide. To survive another day.
Moray eels are timid creatures, after all.
Floyd looks young truly sleeping, innocent even, as he always did, still does, in those long nights that were Jade's turn to take guard of their surroundings, but he knows better. Such harmless appearance, hiding such vicious nature. So still. So gentle. So oblivious and dead to the world.
So defenseless.
As if he trusts Jade to protect him. As if he's safe as long as Jade's here. As if Jade and Jade alone is enough.
Lifting a hand, he run his fingers through Floyd's wild hair. It's soft. The softness had been a surprise the first time Jade felt it on land, having been used to knotted strands and salted dry locks. They share shampoo and conditioner and almost everything, but somehow Floyd's hair possesses the unique smoothness and luster Jade doesn't have and that faint curious warm scent of vetiver and woods and petrichor that never fails to remind him of home.
Floyd stays oblivious.
Jade's hand moves. Slow and tentative. Cupping Floyd's round cheek in his his palm. A thumb softly strokes Floyd's fluttering right eyelid. What are you dreaming about, he absently wonders, all the while applying the tiniest amount of force on it. Just a little bit more, and Jade could have dug that beautiful golden orb right out of his socket. If he wanted to.
Floyd sighs, leaning into his touch. And Jade's breath stutters.
"Stop avoiding him."
"I'm not. I've been busy." He shrugs, hands swiftly polish a flute glass. The lounge is quiet and calm this hour, their customers already left, so did the employees. What is Floyd doing, Jade wonders. Maybe he is already asleep. Maybe he's reading that borrowed book. Maybe he's scaling the astronomy tower. Jade never really knows with him. Not that it matters, he guesses, as long as Floyd enjoys himself.
Azul snorts so loud that he almost drops the glass.
"Yeah right. Busy working different shifts than Floyd and also the extra ones. All of which you purposefully chose." His dorm leader is putting shakers and syrup bottles away with such fluency and speed and confidence that has Jade question where all of those traits go whenever they have flying class. He has half a mind to voice that thought aloud.
"I see him plenty during the day."
"From afar. Like a creep. Which you are, by the way."
"Here I am, working overtime. Voluntarily." Jade fakes a sniff. "How could you wound me so?"
"It's not like you have a sense of personal space when it comes to Floyd anyway." Azul ignores his jab easily. "So I don't see any reason for you to actively avoid him like that."
"Maybe he's the one avoiding me. One of those moods of him, you know."
"Whatever unpleasant dreams or something you have, they won't go away just because you're not seeing him."
The lounge is dead quiet this moment. Jade doesn't even register when the clinking sound of glasses and silverware stopped. He's painfully aware of Azul's gaze on his back, though.
"...Floyd told you, huh?"
"'Something's off with Jade~'" He mimics Floyd's way of speaking so accurately Jade almost bursts out laughing. "Not very helpful, if you ask me."
"It really isn't." So he settles for a bitter chuckle. What a brother he is. Seventeen years, and he still manages to underestimate Floyd's keen sense of literally anything.
They lapse into six minutes of blissful silence. Jade spends those minutes cleaning the remaining cups, listening to the background noise of clock and porcelain and the marine life outside Mostro Lounge's enormous glass pane.
"...It's almost Halloween." Jade sighs.
"Of course you noticed."
"So you're still not over it?"
"Says the one who spent time perfecting the tracking and teleportation spell ever since." At this, Azul, too, lets out a sigh.
"Well, that time did leave a lasting impression, after all." He grabs a clean towel nearby and dries his hands with it. "Not that we need it anymore, I guess. Floyd mastered those spells in a week."
"We both know there's a chance he won't use them even if he's half dead." Jade laughs humorlessly. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Azul shakes his head.
"True." A beat. "You seemed fine last year."
"We didn't exactly have time to worry about anything else beside adapting to life on land, if you recall."
"So being busy this year doesn't help, huh?" Azul shots him that smile of his that Jade always hates: small and pity and infuriatingly knowing.
"Unfortunately." Now that he really thinks about it, they were busy way before Halloween even approached. And this year, Jade chose to be busy because Halloween is approaching. Great. The lack of sleep has apparently caught up to him and mercilessly butchered his critical thinking skill.
Azul kindly lets him sulk in silence, being the incarnation of benevolent that he is. Or half-time incarnation of benevolent, for he's only capable of letting Jade sulk in silence for five minutes.
"But really. What are you even scared of?"
"Pardon?"
"You said you would follow Floyd the moment he died." Although casual, there's a hint of bitterness, melancholy, but also resignation in Azul's tone. "In the end, does it really matter if something does happen to him?"
Jade blinks. Slowly. Then blinks again. The earring suddenly feels heavy on his lobe. Azul just sits there, looking at him. Patient. Thoughtful. Curious.
Jade turns his head and looks. At the ever blue ocean on the other side of the glass pane. At the still and sparkling surface. At the tranquilly swaying seaweed. At the school of fish that is swimming by, carefree and leisure.
All unknowing, all ignorant of the brewing storm inside him.
Floyd is talkative today.
A small flying unicorn followed him when he was wandering in the woods behind school, he said. They do exist, by the way. Lilia-san confirmed it. Which makes it the fifth time Floyd encountered some kind of rarely seen fantasy being in his short seventeen years of life, which is a lot more than average. But it's Floyd, so it's not that strange. But Jade digresses.
He happily stays mostly silent, letting himself bask in the comfort of Floyd's bell-like and drawn-out voice and all those little adventures he somehow got into. Too comfortable, perhaps, because the next thing Jade knows, he's alone.
The corridor is oddly silent.
"Floyd?" His call echoes off the walls, loud and ringing. Then silence. Jade holds his breath. Ten seconds, and he heard it, faraway, but unmistakably clear.
We caught ourselves a merchild!
No.
No!
Jade runs. He runs like a madman, like his life depends on it. Because it is. Where to? He doesn't know. Doesn't care. He just knows that he has to find Floyd. Fast.
Jade calls Floyd again. He can't even hear his own voice. The singing is getting closer. Louder. Overwhelmingly so. He sweeps his eyes left and right. Where are they? Where is Floyd?
E's got eyes o' diff'rent colors, and the fastest-swimmin' tail fin.
Jade sees him. In the middle of a deserted corridor. It's Floyd. But it also isn't. The Floyd in front of him is likely ten years old. He's small, pale, precarious, his limbs are thin exactly the way his tail was when they were that age, when Floyd stumbled home the day after that cursed Halloween night, bruised and bleeding and so goddamned excited. As if nothing had happened.
"Floyd!" Jade runs to him, relief coursing through his blood in waves. A smile blooms on Floyd's young face, endearing and familiar, and for a fleeting moment, all is right.
Then in a blink of an eye, red fills Jade's vision. Red like the little dorm leader that Floyd teasingly calls Kingyo-chan. Red like the remains of their siblings when Jade led them straight to the opened mouth of hungry predators. Red is flowing out of Floyd's empty right eye socket, steady and unstoppable. Red is dripping from Floyd's severed legs, bright and glistening.
He is still smiling that smile. Endearing and familiar. Jade's heart thuds painfully just looking at it.
Jade reaches him, Floyd's name on his lips. But Floyd's nowhere to be seen anymore. All that left is a puddle of sea water and red where Floyd once stood just seconds ago. And that, too, evaporates into thin air the moment Jade's knees hit the ground.
The singing goes on. They are laughing.
What, o what, should we plunder first?
Jade wakes up with a start.
His eyes are blurry. Why are they blurry? He can't see the familiar ceiling. Where is he?! And where is-
"Jade~"
A voice reaches him through the haziness, like an anchor, lilting and bell-like, and pulls him back to reality. Jade turns his head to the right at breakneck speed and looks up. It's Floyd, tall and slouching, standing beside Jade's bed. Still seventeen. Legs still intact. Golden right eye glows softly in the dark of their room.
"...Floyd?" As if Jade's reply is the only cue he needs, Floyd drops the bomb.
"Can I sleep in your bed? It's cold." Which is bullshit. Floyd and Azul and him all have high cold tolerance, coming from the deep of the ocean. Floyd is wearing baggy shorts now, and it's almost November. But Jade's so out of it to even call him out on that blatant excuse. So before Jade can acknowledge what's going on, Floyd has already nudged him aside to make room and dived into his arms.
Jade stills. Floyd is warm against him, head of teal hair buried in his chest, their legs entangled in a way that reminds him of their childhood, tails twisted tightly together when sleeping. Familiar yet oh so strange. His twin is tactile by nature: a brush of the elbow, a long arm draping over his shoulders, a forehead rubbing against his back. But rarely like this. Jade can barely remember the last time they hugged, so many things and so many people have gotten into their shared little world as well as their respective lives.
Hesitantly, Jade wraps his arms around Floyd, palms press firmly on his back. He can feel it. Floyd's heartbeats, faint, but slow and steady, pumping warm blood through his body. Jade tightens his grip. It must be tickling, because Floyd laughs, low and throaty, sending vibration through Jade's ribcage.
Floyd's here.
He's here. He's warm. He's real. And Jade can't help melting completely into the embrace.
They spend the next ten minutes in comfortable silence.
"Hey Jade."
"Hm?"
"It's almost Halloween."
"...I'm aware."
"Hey Jade." It's nice. Jade likes it when Floyd calls him in that childish manner of his. "Wanna hear something?"
"What, Floyd?"
"You know what I thought when those ghosts locked me up and said what to plunder first?"
"That you were royally pissed off?"
"Well yeah, that." Floyd makes this weird face at the memory, half pouting half grimacing. Jade snickers. "But also that I wanna get out soon, because Jade would absolutely love to hear this!"
"..."
"So when I got out, I swam home as fast as I can, so I could tell Jade as soon as possible!" Floyd goes on, excitement and amusement clear on his features. "And I was right! Your face looked so funny when I told you. So was everyone else's face!"
"...That was indeed an interesting story."
"Right?"
What are you even scared of?
"...Floyd."
"Hm?"
"Promise me one thing."
"What?"
You said you would follow Floyd the moment he died
"Whatever you do, don't die without me knowing. Don't die somewhere I don't know."
I will follow you to the end
"Stupid Jade. I will drag you with me myself."
Jade knows himself. Manipulative. Greedy. Selfish. Despicable. And he doesn't have any problem with it. He's undeserving of purity, of mercy, of kindness, and anything alike. Yet the world gives them to him so easily and readily, literally serves them to him on a silver plate.
For what is kindness, if not the warm body in his arms, the laughter against his ribs. What is kindness, if not Floyd's trust and resilience, his unwavering honesty and presence. What is kindness, if not this moment itself, only Jade and Floyd, in their shared little world, away from all the cruelties out there.
Floyd is silent now. His breathing gradually evens out as he slowly falls back into slumber in Jade's embrace, defenseless and peaceful. Jade tightens his hold, just a little, adjusting their positions, hoping that Floyd is comfortable.
Taking a deep breath filled with vetiver and woods and petrichor scent, Jade too, falls into a dreamless sleep.