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‘Blue always tints everything in this room but maybe that’s to be expected when working with sea life’ Timekeeper’s thoughts wander too as she lays still on the floor watching different fish pass by ignoring them entirely. ‘I should get up but quite frankly I couldn’t really care to do my job right now or anytime soon. Plus it helps with the queasiness I’ve been feeling lately.’ they think to themself as they continue to watch the different aquatic life swim in the large tank to to the right of them. The clock continues to tick as more time passes as the researcher remains on the floor, turning her head to look at the time a sigh leaves their mouth as she finally gets up from the floor and looks at their desk.
It’s messy with papers, notes, and drawings of the different marine life they have studied scattered across her desk. “I should clean this up at some point” she says to themself but already decided that would not be now. Deciding that there was no point in staying in this room any longer Timekeeper skips out of the room while humming a tune to herself. Before quickly stoping as the speed causes them to feel uncomfortable.
Timekeeper knows they should go home and they know this. She should turn to the left and just leave this place already like she’s done for the past week when leaving with Baguette. However just like every other time they stop and just stare in the right direction. They know they should snap out of this trance like state and just leave already it’s already long past when she should have left, but they don’t after all following the right path would lead her straight to them.
Timekeeper stares for what felt like an eternity but was truly only a couple of minutes. Before finally snapping out of it and turning to face the left and promptly walking down the right path their feet carrying her straight to where her beloved is located in this facility.
While on their way to where her beloved is she thinks about the whole mess that lead to this in the first place. ‘In all honestly I didn’t think I would get as attached to them as I did. I mean I was curious since the start I mean who wouldn’t be a mermaid not like you see on of those everyday.’ They didn’t notice that they were starting to walk faster when thinking about Longan. ‘I was on the research team too it was fun to mess around with them I swear there were times they looked like they wanted to kill me, thank the witches for the glass between us! Though… anyways’ shaking their head to move on from that thought she definitely wasn’t going to complain especially with how their relationship progressed.
Actually thinking about their relationship with Longan makes them a bit salty and annoyed considering that she wasn’t the only one who was in some way romantically involved with one of the few mers in this place ‘Are they even bothering Umbra over their crush on that one mer Peach blossom was it? Wait now that she’s thinking about it they probably are considering Umbra is supposed to be doing research on some other deep sea creature right now. Some kind of creepy maybe corpse thing.’
Timekeeper is cut from her thoughts as they instinctively take a step back after walking right into a door.
“Ow” Timekeeper mumbles bringing their hands up to her head. Finally paying attention to their surroundings she notices that they’ve made it to where Longan is located. Moving to get their keys from their bag Timekeeper notes to herself how it’s funny that despite her now studying topical fish and crustaceans found in the topical soda island they still have the key too here from when they were on the research team for Longan.
After taking her keys out of her bag Timekeeper grabs onto the door handle, noting quickly that the handle went lower than it should have if locked. Tilting their head to the side “Huh? This area should be locked and there’s no light coming from coming from underneath the door. Hmm, probably someone forgot to lock the doors after left.” Timekeeper says to herself while shaking her head to the side. Putting the their keys away and slowly opening the door Timekeeper is greeted by a room unusual quite and coated in darkness.
Timekeeper enters slowly letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Heading straight towards where the tank is located forgoing turning on the lights wanting to see her partner sooner. Walking up to the glass Timekeeper pauses and watches to see if they can see any movement in the water despite the how dark the room is.
Timekeeper lets out a huff after not being able to spot any movement though they do note strange shapes in the water. ‘Probably added after I was reassigned.’ Timekeeper bangs on the glass once before moving to the right. ‘If their awake they most certainly heard that and if not well then I hope I woke them up’ Timekeeper thinks while walking up the stairs to the top of the tank.
While on their way up they can hear movement in the water. How she would like to swim with Longan but swimming for a while has oddly made her feel like throwing up as of late.
Reaching the platform at the top Timekeeper walks to the side removing their shoes and socks they then move to sit at the edge the water reaching her ankles. ‘Huh, when sitting here when I was still on the team the water barley grazed by feet now it’s up to my ankles. What did they add in here to make the water reaches this high?’ Timekeeper ponders while watching the water for Longan to appear.
While watching the water Timekeeper spots a shadow moving towards them, before watching the water break and their love ascends towards them. The two look at each other and there’s a beat of silence before it’s broken as Longan lets lets out a sigh. Moving towards her they lift themself out of the water wrapping their arms around her waits and resting their head in her lap. Timekeeper moves one arm to rest on Longan’s back and the other to their head as they start running their hand through their partners hair.
Timekeeper lets out a content and sleepy sigh as they continue to play with their loves hair. Turning her head to the side a bit they can barely make out what seems to be a statuesque figure near the desks. Deciding to ignore the weird decor in favor of focusing on her partner.
Timekeeper’s grip on Longan tightens as they feel sleepiness creep up. The hand running through Longan’s hair slows to a stop as her eyes close letting Exhaustion take her.