Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Mirio loves the beach. The waves are always calming, and the grainy texture of sand has always fascinated him. Sunsets at beaches feel like the most radiant things in existence, and boardwalks always feel like you had the supernatural ability to walk on water itself.

That’s partially why he agreed to this school trip.

Basically, U.A’s aquatic club had finally persuaded the school board to allow a trip to the California coastline over the summer, to conduct a study for plastic, and send representation as a clean-up crew.

Mirio, having the leftover savings, decided to go. He had been a part of the aquatic club for quite some time, and his plans for this summer had fallen through anyway, so why not? Have some adventures, give back to the environment, and look at different cultures from a closer viewpoint.

Which is how he ended up in a plane, with thirty-five other students, flying to San Diego.

Well, technically about to land.

He had just slept for most of the flight, but they still had about an hour.

Mirio didn’t really know what to do, so he looked out the window, which he conveniently was sitting next to.

The ocean looked nice. They were still flying over the Pacific, so the waters were pretty dark, but the way they rolled and wound together was pretty mesmerizing.

The clouds would occasionally block his view, but they were nice too. Thick, and heavy, almost like sky blankets.

A text notification broke his thought process, and otherwise reminding his that there was a world outside of his plane seat.

Nejire:
Hey Mirio! You near the beach yet?

MeMoji Man:
Almost! I got about 50 minutes until landing, and then a 25-minute drive to the beach house!

Nejire:
Dang, an entire beach house full of people as kind hearted as you? I’m regretting not coming with you.

MeMoji Man:
We both know you don’t mean that, Hadou, you’ve still got that very prominent crush on Yuyu.

Nejire:
Shit, you right.

Mirio chuckled, smiling at the memories of Hadou’s very obvious swooning, accompanied along with her questioning about Yuyu’s love life, and only the most oblivious people in the world would be able to see a heterosexual explanation.

Unfortunately, the title of most oblivious person was currently headed straight to Yuyu.

The excess amounts of googly eyes, subtly holding hands, inviting each other on not-dates. It looked very sweet to a mere observer, and, (admittedly), Mirio did sometimes think that it was sweet as well, when the unresolved romantic tension was not three feet away from his face at all times. Nejire was his closest true friend, and such, Yuyu would follow him to find her. He hadn’t minded it at first, but now he was slightly missing peaceful walks around campus.

But, Mirio knew he didn’t have the heart to tell Yuyu to stop following him. He understood the major crushing, and she did made Hadou smile, so, who was he to interject?

40 minutes left now.

His phone buzzed again.

Nejire:
You okay, dude?

MeMoji Man:
I’m okay, just thinking a bit!

Nejire:
Okay man, just checking, it’s getting kinda late where you are, so I was curious if you had gone to take another nap!

Mirio did indeed take actual note of the time, it was apparently 10:45pm, which meant that it was about 2:45pm in Japan.

Wait.

MeMoji Man:
Nejire, why are you texting me during class?

Nejire:
It’s an off day for people who completed the science project, so I got free time. Class ends in 30 minutes anyway, so the teacher is just downright too tired to stop people from checking out their phones, especially on a Friday.

MeMoji Man:
Oh, I see. I know that you are ahead of me in time, but I keep thinking about it as in you’re living the day earlier.

Nejire:
I guess. So, work begins tomorrow, on a Friday? That sucks, man.

MeMoji Man:
It’s just one day, before we have the weekend to spread the product and generally look around. It’s the first official day before schedule kicks in, y’know?

Nejire:
Gotcha. Still sounds a bit tough though.

That made Mirio smile, as he checked the time again.

25 minutes left.

MeMoji Man:
Alright, I’m gonna sign off. Enjoy the rest of your class period!

Nejire:
K then, I will leave you and your surfer bros be!

Mirio put his phone down, before picking up his copy of ‘The Hobbit’ and starting back at page one for the rest of the flight.

————————————————

Finally, they were all on the bus. Some people ended up falling behind in the airport, so there was a 15-minute delay. But now, after the momentary stress, Mirio could peacefully continue his book.

He had never been carsick, or planesick, or boatsick. He had a surprisingly strong stomach, which he was now grateful for, so he could entertain himself during the (mostly) silent drive.

The house was worth it though.

It was two-ish stories, with coral paint on the outside. A pristine, white painted ramp lead up to the house, where two picnic tables faced the ocean. The door, painted the same shade of white as the ramp, was placed so that if you were walking past it would be invisible to the human eye, but from where the group was standing, you could just make out the frame. There was a storage space under the platform which the house was built, and two outdoor showers. The house itself also appeared to be just close to the sand, so the water itself was still several yards away.

Excitement split the edges of Mirio’s cheeks, even as he slightly struggled to hold all of the belongings he would need for the next two and a half months.

He could already tell this was going to be great.

————————————————

After the tired teenagers had been given a schedule and rooming information, they all shuffled off, too exhausted to care.

Even Mirio was tired. Sure, hehad slept most of the flight, but he had overslept to the point where the sleep was rendered useless, and he felt more tired than before.

The bedrooms were all on the second floor, and there were about seven of them in total. In fact, all of the rooms were bedrooms, minus the two bathrooms located at opposite ends of the floor. Mirio was in a room with five other boys, who his brain couldn’t render the names of at this moment.

There were two bunk beds and a sleeping bag. Thankfully, Mirio managed to win against just the last person, so while the bed was still slightly lumpy, it was better than a sleeping bag.

Mirio set his stuff down, and got situated, deciding to send Nejire one last goodnight text. They sent each other one regularly, so why stop?

After he could finally rest his bones peacefully, Mirio let his thoughts drift to static.

‘I don’t know what will come of this summer, but I’ll remember it forever’

Chapter Text

Mirio woke up at 5:00 am, much earlier than was necessary, due to the fact that one of his roommates forgot to turn their alarm off.

After that, there was no point in trying to get back to sleep, since Mirio usually had trouble, and knew he would just lay in his bed for hours. So, he shot Nejire a ‘Good Morning’ text, before climbing down the ladder on his bunk. He threw on dry-fit shorts, a tank top, and set aside his sandals for later, before leaving his room and going downstairs.

Mirio walked into the kitchen, where, surprisingly, there actually was another sign of life. A girl in a black hoodie and sweatpants was sitting on the counter, drinking what smelled like coffee.

Not wanting to disturb her peace, Mirio simply grabbed a foil of pop tarts and popped them in the toaster. He did notice that there appeared to be a bit more coffee in the coffee maker, though. And the girl was finishing her mug.

“Hey, is it okay if I take some of this?” Mirio asked her, gesturing at the coffee maker.

“Sure, go ahead.” The mysterious she responded, sliding off the counter to put her now-empty mug in the sink. She then exited the kitchen, only offering a simple wave before she walked back up the stairs.

Mirio shrugged, not awake enough to care, before putting the remaining contents into a thermos. The tarts popped out of the toaster, so he quickly finished them, and then wolfed down the coffee.

The rest of his routine was fairly uneventful, with no one else being present for the brushing of his teeth, or his shower. (Although, come to think of it, someone you barely know watching you shower is kinda weird).

He still didn’t have anything to do, what with activities beginning at 9, so he walked to the patio outside, and checked his phone again.

Nejire:
Ey! Glad you slept well! Just wrapping up some Friday pizza dinner with the art group!

MeMoji Man:
It’s running that late? Isn’t it 9:00 pm there?

Nejire:
Yeah, well, the bus ended up running late, so we got there late anyway. About 7-ish.

MeMoji Man:
Still, wow. Eating pizza for two hours? Impressive.

Nejire:
Hey now, sassy, listen up. We’ve been waiting for our check for an hour, and there was a painting project that took up most of our lunch.

MeMoji Man:
Oh dear. That sounds difficult. I’m sorry. I’ll let you have fun with your art bros though. Do enjoy!

Nejire:
Alright. Do the work!

Mirio turned off the screen, just in time to look up at the view.

The sun started to spill over the horizon, painting shades of purple, red, and yellow. The water reflected the colors, mixing reality and reflection in a dreamy way. There was really only one way to describe it.

Gorgeous.

It felt so peaceful, thinking of all of his family, friends, music.

Mirio forgot about everything that was ever bad in that instant.

Well, you see, in that instant.

“Hey dude, I kinda don’t remember where the shampoo is, could you tell me?”

Mirio jumped, and spun around to look at a guy he remembered seeing on the bus, but wasn’t rooming with.

“Sure, I think I put it back in the closet? If it’s not there, check in the other bathroom.”

“Thanks, dude”

The guy left, trying to close the door to the deck as quietly as possible.

While the magic of that moment had been ruined, Mirio still spent another hour and a half relaxing, listening to music, and checking what little social media he did have.

7:46

‘Well, this was fun’, Mirio thought. ‘But I’m about to spend the rest of my day outside, and I should properly meet everyone before the day truly starts out.’

Mirio sighed, removing himself from the wooden chair somewhat reluctantly, before walking back into the house.

There were people around the dinner table, talking and waking up, wearing summer clothes, or various types of pajamas.

Mirio walked past them, as not to disturb the system they had set up. He walked up the stairs, humming the tune of a song he didn’t remember the name of, thinking about what was to come that day.

And he walked into the bedroom, not thinking that anything would be chaotic in any way, shape, or form.
Oh, naïve, young, Mirio.

The second he walked into the room, a kid flipped off of one of the bunk beds, landing in the arms of one of his friends, who had his arms out in a cradling gesture.

Mirio was so shocked by the sequence of events that he nearly stumbled out of the doorway, alerting the pair to his presence.

They immediately jumped away from each other, righting their hair and T-Shirts.

“Hey dude!” The catcher said, extending a hand for Mirio to shake.

“Hey, man. What’s your name?” He replied, only slightly hesitating to accept the hand.

“I’m Suzuki Akihiro, nice to meet you dude, what about you?”

“Mirio, Mirio Toogata. It’s mice to be properly introduced to my roommates!”

Suzuki had nervous brown eyes, extremely sunburnt skin, and dark hair that fell straight down to his shoulders. The nervousness lit in his eyes was actually receding, now that the surprise of getting caught catching his bro was over.

The other guy definitely looked more nervous, though.

He had red hair, that was light enough you could confuse it for orange. His eyes were darker, and skin much paler, without looking like he had bathed in tomato juice.

Wanting to return the favor, Mirio extended his arm.

“You’ve probably already heard my name, but I’d like to properly know yours.”

“Yamamoto Hiroshige” He blurted out all at once, before realizing how informal he sounded and slightly recoiling.

His friend patted his back, even lightly massaging parts of his back with his fingers, as to calm him down.

Mirio didn’t ask, and merely said “Do you know where everyone else is?”

“Not really. Although, I heard that some of them are going to look at the greenery before we go. If you’re interested, then you can check it out!”

Mirio looked at the clock.

8:23.

Darn, so much for getting to know people.

“Alright, well, thank you for your time!”

The two waved as he left the room, albeit, one with much more exaggeration than the other.

Turns out, there was nobody near the side of the house, looking at some of the potted plants, or vines sneaking their way around the beams of the house. For some reason, Mirio didn’t find it that surprising, and wondered why he thought teens would be spending their summer vacation looking at vines.

By the time it was 8:45, he gave up, and went back to his room (which had become empty of its other residents) to set his phone down and grab his flip-flops, so he would be ready for the morning announcements.

Well, maybe his first day on California clean-up crew wasn’t what he was expecting, but it was shaping up to be interesting.

Chapter Text

All thirty-six of the volunteers split equally into three lines. It was a part of instructions for what to do every morning, they were to separate into easily enough to manage groups; apparently, what that meant to the main instructor was 3’12. Mirio was in the second line, standing rigid, waiting for instruction. His fellow peers were much the same, only some brave enough to whisper their thoughts and opinions to the people who brushed up right next to them.

And then, a whistle snapped the tension, replacing it with something somehow both ominous and yet more relaxed than the previous aesthetic.

A very short, very muscular man stood in front of the group, dressed in classic high school gym teacher clothes.

“Hello volunteers! Today is the first day of your assigned work! Each row of twelve will be assigned a different assignment and or sector!Row one, head to the north part of the public property! Row two, you take the south property! Row three, your job is to hang posters all throughout here and the surrounding towns for our later September cleanup! If you are confused, then I am under the contact for Coach Henderson!”

Everyone stood there in shock, trying to process what had just happened.

“Don’t just stand around! Do your work!”

Everyone scrambled away from the man apparently named Coach Henderson, trying to perform the task before anything else could be spitfired at them.

Mirio wasn’t that disturbed by the coach, just mostly confused and following the lead of his group, because getting lost wouldn’t do him much good.

Eventually, all twelve people crashed onto a wooden bench, waiting for their heart rates to go back down again.

One pulled out their phone and opened google maps, showing the members Row B were still about a quarter of a mile away from their location. This induced moans of displeasure, before coughing fits followed as a result.

They rested for five minutes, just gasping for air. Before someone managed to actually string a sentence together.

“Y’all want to start walking again?”

Everyone took a final, shuddering, deep breath before standing up and reluctantly heading towards their general sector. They didn’t, of course, perfectly know where the border was, but they were able to get a general idea.

Walking past the ocean, you could see the way that the current flowed. A strong, thick, path of water was heading to their east, so it wasn’t too hard to judge where the trash would end up washing up.

Sure enough, they were not wrong.

Couches, food packaging, styrofoam.

Any and every substance, object, it manmade good could be seen, far and wide.

Mirio heard disapproving clucking behind him, and even though he knew this was going to be the gist of this entire trip, he couldn’t stop the knot of negative feelings from twining in his chest.

“T-They left trash cans here, but there aren’t any bags.”

Everyone turned, looking at the person who has just spoken.

Mirio recognized him as Yamamoto, the anxious boy from earlier that morning.

“Is there a convenience store nearby?”, asked one of the girls in the group.

“Think so- I’ve definitely been here before.” Was the response, let out from somewhere in the crowd.

She nodded, before running back to find the nearest accessible way back to the town.

People started to shuffle around the garbage cans, moving them so it would be easier to sort and contain things later.

The girl came pack, huffing and puffing, but holding three boxes of trash bags nonetheless.

“I.. got... it! M’here!”

Geez, girl. You didn’t have to sprint the entire way here and back.

She got a few back pats, before the female in question squatted onto the ground and balled up.

Nobody questioned it, or made her get up, but she didn’t wait too long until she was helping them sort out, measure, and carefully move the trash.

————————————————

The rest of the day was just as tedious, but at least the group came up with a system.

There were four trash cans, two for waste, and two for recycling.

Two thirds of the group did the heavy work, but half of the last third would carry the cans assorted to garbage to the end of the pier, while the other half of that third carried the designated recycling cans to the recycling center, which was only about five blocks away.

Of course, all of this had to be done quickly, so they would spend a lot of time running, and then rest before they were assigned to take their next can.

They wrapped up at around 2:35, when the trash carriers came back from their final delivery. They ended up waiting another ten for the runner’s sake, and then walked back to the beach house.

Mirio was exhausted, and felt like he was going to fall over, but they had made great progress.

They had cleared about sixty feet of trash from the beach, and had even managed to lightly comb through the water.

When the group got back, they were met by row three, who was talking lightly, with varying conditions of stressed looks on their faces.

Of course, when the door opened, most everyone broke off the conversation and turned their heads to see the group.

“Hey! How was your guys’ first day?”

Mirio chuckled, just finding it in him to respond with a simple, “We’re still standing”.

There were no objections to that statement made by either side.

“You too? Yeah. Once we had everything figured out it didn’t take long, but finding and printing out the posters was an absolute bloody mess...”

Mirio did try to listen to her entire speech, but he was honestly only running on satisfaction and the support of the wall behind him. Once there was a break in her rambling, (not that he was one to talk), Mirio excused himself to his room, before passing out on his bed, no blankets drawn over his body, still dressed in his extremely sweaty clothes. He truly didn’t even find it in himself to care that the sun hadn’t even truly started falling down from it’s peak.

Chapter Text

When Mirio awoke, the sun still hadn’t set, but now had a deep favor towards the opposite horizon.

He lazily shook the blankets off his body, yawning and popping his fingers.

Picking up his phone, he read the time. 6:45.

The time was not the only thing being displayed, however.

Nejire:
You alive?

Nejire:
Hello?

Nejire:
Hey dude, how was your first day?

Mirio smiled, despite the blue light from the screen decimating his corneas.

MeMoji Man: Tired. I’m alright other than that, though. Stressful work.

He knew the reply wouldn’t come for about another two hours, so he turned off the screen, before slightly smoothing the wrinkles on his shirt, and walking back to join the group.

There wasn’t much that they were doing, just sitting around, probably waiting for the afternoon announcements.

Nobody even really noticed him slide into the room. Except the Suzuki guy from yesterday.

“Hey, dude! You seemed chill, how are you?”.

Mirio grabbed a plastic cup, filling it with water.

“I’m good. Glad that my first day went well.”

“Nice. Hiroshige mentioned that you were in his group today, so I wanted to talk.”

It tolk Mirio a second to recognize him by given name, but then remembered that Yamamoto was more than just Yamamoto.

“Oh! You two good friends?”

Suzuki’s shoulders slightly tensed.

“Yeah, we’ve known each other for a while. This is our last big trip before college.”

Mirio nodded, processing the information.

————————————————

The two of them were able to make easy small talk for about an hour after that.

It wasn’t much of anything important, mostly about how microwave chicken should always be breaded, and root beer and pizza went together better than they had any right to.

Suzuki left to meet up with Yamamoto, and Mirio slinked back outside, walking down to the shore.

It was getting dark, but Mirio didn’t care much. All he really wanted to do was relax after a long day, and finish letting the sores in his shoulders disappear.

He didn’t know how to skid stones, but he had always thought that it looked cool, from the movies he had seen.

Picking up a small, dark, slate of rock, he turned it so the smoothest side was facing down.

He drew his hand back slightly, before throwing the rock underhandedly.

With a ‘plop’, it sunk down into the water, defying his efforts.

Mirio hummed, before picking up the next rock, which was about the size of his palm.

It was fully rugged, but Mirio thought that maybe he could make up for its lack of aerodynamics with force.

That one didn’t skid either.

Mirio picked up another rock.

It was very smooth, almost smooth all over, except for one sharp, jagged edge.

Mirio threw the rock, trying to launch it as far as he could go, about fifty feet.

It didn’t skid, but this was a different kind of stop. It was closer to a ‘THUD’ than a ‘plop’, actually.

Mirio would have shrugged it off as just a rock, or maybe floating tree branch, but then there was movement under the water’s surface.

This type of movement was too sharp and purposeful to not be an animal.

Mirio got up, approaching the spot where the rock landed as closely as he could without leaving the shore.

Was it a fish? The manuals Mirio had read said that they didn’t swim so close to shore, but there could be a straggler.

A straggler that Mirio had hit at full force with a rock.

Oh no.

Mirio began to walk faster, trying to find the fish. Admittedly, there was a bit of blood in the water, so the form was slightly hard to find.

But wait....

That body was too long to be a normal fish. If was slender, silhouette changing in the dark, red, mist.

Nope. That was no fish.

Of course, not that the truth makes a whole lot of sense either, but Mirio would see the form with his own two eyes. Would learn, about the silhouette, about where they came from, and about what the fuck was happening.

Of course, our friend Mirio didn’t know that now.

So, in a state of fear, he grabbed the silhouette, the scaly waist protesting as it felt Mirio pull it out of the water to check for wounds.

That was obviously a stupid desicion, but in time, he will thank his past self for making it.

Because, in fact, the injured being was not a fish.

Chapter Text

Holy shit.

That is not a fish.

Mirio almost dropped the body he was pulling out of the water because oh my god it had HANDS.

Okay. Did he hit a person? Maybe they were trespassing and he caught them square in the forehead as the person was leaving the water?

That was a possibility.

Wait.

Nevermind.

Oh god oh fuck.

There was a tail. That could be artificial. Now was not the time to think about that though.

Mirio set the body down, grabbing the first aid kit from the side of the house.

The rock wasn’t his only injury, apparently. There was a large fishing hook, deep sea fishing, embedded deep into his side. It was at just the right angle where he would have to reach to the space right under his shoulder blade, find the tip of the hook, and then use full force without seeing the hook to yank it out.

Mirio slowly pulled it out, stopping every other second to dab the newly-flowing blood off.

Guy was still not moving an inch. Damn, surely it wasn’t just the rock Mirio had thrown. He had put a lot of force behind it, sure, but he didn’t have the force to knock someone out. Did he? He might’ve. Oh god oh fuck.

Now that he was in a different light, that tail definitely could not be fake. Or, if it was, it was a custom made, highly detailed artificial prosthetic, which had been surgically attached by professionals.

The total of all of that would’ve been at least tens of thousands of dollars. This guy looked like a teenager. Sixteen, maybe seventeen, if he was lucky.

The scales both looked and felt real. The tail was deep violet, with yellow and white swirls on the sides. It was iridescent, almost like spilled oil. These features were accentuated by gills, a pair on each side.

The main color of the tail was actually quite close to his hair, only a few shades darker. His hair was also dry, so THAT was another thing to add to the list of questions. Next to the hair was, instead of ears, fans, with webbing in between them, colored gold.

Mirio finally finished bandaged him up, double checking the light indention on his forehead, as well as yet ANOTHER wound, a gash which had been on his tail. Another confirmation that it was a flesh mass, great.

Mirio stood up, putting away the remains of the med kit, before sitting next to the form again.

‘What am I supposed to do?’ Mirio thought, looking at the still-unconscious figure.

‘He does have gills, maybe he would fare better in water? Wait, I’m thinking of this being as a he now? Cool, yet another thing I do not want to process right now.’

Nonetheless, Mirio picked up the form, and laid them back on the clear water.

He had started skidding stones around sunset, and bandaging up the unconscious being (he was still in denial, still refusing to acknowledge the situation for what it was) had taken at least forty-five minutes. Hopefully no one had noticed he hadn’t shown up to go back to his room.

But, that was not his main concern. Why, you may be asking? Well, you see, the water next to him started to stir.

Mirio startles from where he was sitting on the sand, backing away in case the creature decided to strike.

A cough.

A slight heave.

The merman was inhaling deeply, holding his chest.

“Are you okay?” Mirio whispered.

The merman gasped even louder, toppling back over into the water.

“What do you want? Why did you hit me? Why did you bandage me?”

His voice was quiet, but still had a firm, elegant air to it. It also had an audible quake to it.

He was afraid.

Mirio was too shocked to respond.

A merbeing, a creature that was hundreds of years old, that had teeth sharper than actual knives, possessed a voice that could woo the most loyal of citizens, could even swim at least four times as fast as an Olympic athlete, was quivering in fear at the sight of a teenage boy, with no means of defense at all.

“W-well...”

But Mirio was too late. The merman’s adrenaline was kicking in, and, with a giant spray of sea foam and saltwater, the living piece of mythology retreated from the shore.

“Wait!” He yelled, trying to stop him, not knowing if he was yelling at the universe, or the other intelligent being. Either way, he was begging for an answer. What are you? Is magic real? How common are you? If merpeople are real, what about the endless other creatures I’ve been told are fakes?

Neither answered, let alone all of those questions.

So it was with this, that Mirio slunk through the door, back into the beach house, at 11:15pm on a Friday night, after one of the most insane encounters of his life.

————————————————

He woke up at exactly 8:25 the next morning, slightly disappointed that he couldn’t sleep later. Even as an early riser.

He didn’t want to think.

To actually process what had happened would be too much.

Even though it was far too early for Nejire to respond (he knew it was just past midnight there, but was hoping for a slight chance that she was ignoring her sleeping needs).

Falling back against the sheets, Mirio let out a sigh, scouring his brain for any possibilities that lead to his life not being at least partially a lie.

A dream? It had been extremely vivid, but both hallucinations and dreams had endless abilities to screw with your mind and senses.

There was a way to check.

Hopping out of bed, changing the blood marked T-shirt and shorts, he walked down to the side of the house, where the first-aid kit was.

Oh no.

It was just as he feared.

Not only were things missing, but the exact materials needed to bandage up someone with the merman’s wounds.

At least he had something to go do.

He brushed his teeth, his hair, and got his wallet.

Walking to the nearest convenience store (which you all should be wearing your masks to, by the way), he bought new bandages, gauze, and ointment cream. Stopping past one of the shelves, he saw a pack of hi-chews. As a last-minute impulse, he added it to his pile, just craving something sweet.

He walked back, not knowing much about where he stood.

But, he sure as hell knew one thing.

Mirio Toogata absolutely would not stop trying to figure something out.

He was going to return to the place he found the merman, and wait for it to show.

Chapter Text

Mirio spent the rest of the day thinking about what to do.

He could set a peace offering down on the beach and hope that the merman found it later.

But, there was no guarantee that said merman would be the one to find it, and even then, any more he could have written to inform the merman would have gotten soaked.

He eventually decided on bringing snacks, proper disposal bags for said snacks, and just waiting to see if he showed up, no matter if that was tomorrow or three weeks from now.

Mirio decided against telling anyone that he found a merperson, because:
1). Who would be close enough for him to bring it up in conversation.
2). Who would believe him?

At 7:30, Mirio grabbed his snacks, a physical copy of Irish folklore, and sat down on the beach to wait.

He watched the sun come down, and waited.

He was about 3/4ths of his way through his Irish folklore tales when something stirred in the water.

Mirio immediately stopped moving, eyes alert on the water.

A head began to rise, eyes shining against the darkness. Violet against a pure black background.

Apparently not seeing him, the figure arose from the water, revealing the bandages and gauze Mirio had applied the night before, as well as the hair and face of the figure.

Mirio moved, trying to catch the figure’s attention. “Hey...”

The merman jumped back a little, and for a second Mirio thought he would bolt again.

But, he stayed. He seemed drawn to something, or at least compelled to talk to someone.

“Hey” the mythic said, swimming closer.

“H-Hey. Why did you come back?” Mirio said, trying to seem as friendly as possible.

“I-I don’t know. I think I’m curious, it’s been so long since I’ve let myself near a human. I think I forgot that they have the capability to be kind.” He said, slight sadness sleeping into his gentle voice.

“Oh. Why did you come near the shoreline?”

“I like looking at houses. These usually don’t have many people who rent them. Speaking of, what are you doing here? I would like to know about you as well, considering the shady situation we met in.”

“Well, I’m here as part of a voluntary trash clean-up crew. I signed up for the summer. What else specifically do you want to know?”

His head fins pricked up at that, apparently happy with his answer.

“Why did you harm me?”

“I was skidding stones. You accidentally surfaced when I threw one of them.”

The merperson gave him a slightly disbelieving look.

“No, really. I know that sounds fake, but I can guarantee that’s exactly what happened.”

“O-Okay. I’m pretty sure that you were the one who bandaged me, so I came to thank you for that. I should get back to my pod, I can’t talk forever, sorry.”

He said, earlier sternness fading into a soft, gentle, apologetic facade.

“We can meet up at sunset tomorrow, if that would be okay with you?” Mirio said, still trying to sound friendly enough for the apparently shy merperson.

“O-Okay” The tailed figure said, before slipping back under the water, off and into the horizon.

Mirio walked back to his bed in a daze, not believing what he had just witnessed or said that night.

Setting his alarm, Mirio crawled under his covers, definently not going to dream about crystal waters and certain-tailed beings.

————————————————

Now, Mirio’s brain had been a bit pre-occupied with its entire world being re-formed, so he hadn’t thought of much else.

However, if he didn’t respond to Nejire soon, she would probably get a heart attack.

Nejire:
Oh, man. That sounds super tiring.

Nejire:
Mirio? You that pooped?

Nejire:
Hey! Can you talk before you go have your day off?

Nejire:
Mirio? Are you sleeping in late?

Nejire:
Hey, Mirio? You okay?

Nejire:
You awake? It’s kinda early but I thought you might be

Mirio looked at the messages, not knowing how to respond.

MeMoji Man:
Hey

He cringed at the message, but went to follow up:

MeMoji Man:
I got real tired and then passed out, then had to do chores the next day. Sorry I didn’t respond!

He clicked the off button on his phone, expecting it to stay quiet. It was midnight, after a-

Nejire:
Oh, okay! I was just curious! You usually never wait that long to respond to texts, lol!

MeMoji Man:
Ha! I guess you’re right!

Wait, it was supposed to be midnight.

MeMoji Man:
What are you doing up so late, anyhow?

Nejire:
I felt real inspired, so I’m deciding to pull an all-nighter to finish a canvas

MeMoji Man:
Oh! Cool! What are you painting?

Nejire:
My plants <3 I love them so much

MeMoji Man:
Oh! If you’re inspired, I’ll let you continue painting! Have fun! Get some sleep eventually!

Nejire:
Alright! Please try to respond sooner next time! I hope you have fun too!

Mirio set his phone down on the bed, stretching his limbs.

He had an entire day before his meeting with a mythic, after all. He needed to learn what to bring.

————————————————

A mere hour later, Mirio thinks he has a pretty good list.

-A pen and notepad, for questions and answers

-The Hi-Chews

-A blanket

-Some fish

-Replacement bandages and gauze

He didn’t even need to go to the convenience store, he was able to find salmon in the fridge, and there was a wound repair kit in the bathroom sink.

He sat down on the porch outside, laying in the sun.

Mirio wasn’t able to control what was going to happen in the future, but, for now, all he could do was mentally prepare himself for the absolute information dump he was going to receive that afternoon.

Chapter Text

Packing up his materials into a drawstring bag, Mirio walked and thought over the questions he had written in his journal.

It was nothing too serious: Basically just questions about the merpeople iterations of everyday human tasks. Maybe anatomy, if the merman was willing to talk further than that.

He sat down, taking the Hi-Chews out of his bag.

They had melted a little, the plastic and candy just sticky enough for it to be inconvenient.

He did try to carefully unwrap the sweet, but it started to climb under his fingernails, and so Mirio gave up after that.

“Darn it”. He mumbled, trying to pick out chunks of candy from underneath the keratin.

A splash made him alert of another presence.

He looked up, to see the merman. He was intently watching Mirio and his Hi-Chews.

“Oh, hey!” He said, letting him know that it was okay to approach.

A blush appeared on the other boy’s face and shoulders, and he made a croaking noise as he swam over to Mirio.

“Would you be okay with me asking you a few questions?”

“What kind?”

“Just about how mermaids function, traditions and just generally what you guys do. You can also ask me any questions as well!”

“A-Ah, okay!”

Climbing onto a rock, the merman folded his tail, hugging the area that would be around where the human knee was.

“S-So, do you have a question you want to ask first?”

“Why did you come so close to shore?”

The merman gulped, ‘ears’ flicking back and forth.

“It’s relaxing. There’s usually no one at the house you’re staying in, and I like to lay on the sand and watch the cars’ headlights.”

“O-Oh”. That was surprisingly innocent. Most of the tales Mirio had heard about the mer were about their selfish, murderous nature. The way ships would crash into rocks because of the pretty voices that promised ecstasy to their captains.

“How does your tail work?” Mirio continued, trying not to think about the ways mer used to lure sailors to rocky cliff.e

“It’s just a muscle, really. It’s kind of like a dolphin’s tail, just scalier. There’s a lung chamber that’s located at the top of it, and is kind of close to the muscle, but that’s about it. Those lungs are designed to hold more oxygen and filter through the water.”

“Wow. That’s super cool! So it’s designed to go up and down?”

“Exactly. Like a dolphin.”

“Awesome! So, uh, how do you know exactly how a dolphin is built?” The second that statement left Mirio’s mouth he felt a bit idiotic. Not only was he going off of his list of questions, but Amajiki literally lived in the ocean. Where there were dolphins.

“Back when we were in Northern Europe, there were a bunch of college students. They asked my pod some questions, and one of them was a marine biology major. So, he told us some facts in exchange. My mom thought it was quite funny, how they had such long words. Dad was more interested in the, uh, medical terms since we don’t have anything as complicated as that.”

“Wow! That’s super cool! So, do you travel, since you said ‘When we were in Northern Europe?’”

“Yes, me and my pod have to migrate regularity, due to water temperature or the path of currents.”

“What kind of temperature do you usually live in?”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure what the human terms are for it, but my pod usually stays around mid-cycle heat. This is the one exception of the year. We have to meet with another pod. Supposedly, it’s to set up more opportunities with partners.”

A light blue crept all over his features, taking over his skin, like a flush.

“Do merpeople blush blue?”

Said merperson jolted backwards, face falling back into the water.

The blue turned a shade deeper.

The dark-haired being clambered back onto the rock, coughing.

“I don’t know what blushing is, but we do become blue when we get flustered or angry.”

“Oh. Humans turn red.”

“Ah, I see. I assume that you call it ‘blushing’ when you turn red?”

“That’s correct.”

They sat in silence, turning deeper shades of their respective color. Then Mirio realized that there was one particular piece of information that he was missing. That, by human standards, would have made him incredibly rude.

“So I don’t have to keep calling you merman, what’s your name?”

“I have a merperson name and a human name. Which one do you want?” His purple eyes widened kindly, sparkling a bit as water dripped from his dry hair.

“The human one, please.”

“Tamaki Amajiki. That’s my human name.” A shy smile crept on his lips, and he picked his head out from under his arms.

Mirio blinked, shocked for a second.

“That’s a Japanese name.”

“That is where I was born.” Amajiki said, adjusting his position so that his stomach was on the rock.

“Really? Didn’t you say this is where the pods meet up to become mates?”

“This isn’t the only location where you can do that. And, sometimes, people in the pod mate. It’s a mix between people from other pods mating and in-pod mating, depending on the family blood in the pod or whoever said next generation loves.”

This was all said with calm precision, though Mirio thought he could pick up unnormally blue skin among the water and dark night.

Speaking of the dark night, holy shit, it was way past sunset.

“Oh, I see! Thank you for talking to me! I have to go back to the house, but, uh, I would like to talk to you tomorrow, if you could?”

He was trying not to seem rude, but he didn’t want anyone to suspect where he was or what he was doing.

“Sure, there’s a few more days before the other pod meets us here, so I shouldn’t be busy until then.”

“Alright! Cool! So, uh, same time tomorrow?”

A simple smile from the merman.

“Yes, I think I would quite like that.”

Mirio rushed to the house, clambered up the stairs, and climbed under the bed sheets.

Little did he know, there was a figure in the kitchen watching him, squinting their eyes as he ran as silently as he could.

Or, more specifically, her eyes.

Chapter Text

The night was overall pretty restless for Mirio, even though he fell asleep once he hit his pillow.

It was a dreamless state of sleep, but too easily broken by the snores of his roommates to actually re-juvenate his strength.

And when he awoke, his thoughts would drift to the thought of the mer- of Amajiki.

Of how absolutely batshit insane his life had become in less than a literal week.

And how he was actually more interested in learning about the thing that made it batshit than removing himself from the entire mythic creature equation.

Amajiki was very shy, but he was also kind, and Mirio had genuinely enjoyed spending time with the merman.

He was nervous around people, but given he obviously didn’t spend that much time around another intelligent species, that was more than fair.

Not to mention that the species of mer sounded very interesting. Apparently, they got to pick their own human names, and were born in a bunch of different regions, despite all traveling together.

At about 4:30, Mirio decided to get up and start his day, giving up on some half-assed sleep attempt.

If he was going to hypothesize and review notes about half-human half-aquatic species, he was going to do so hyped up on caffeine and adrenaline.

Changing into clean clothing (he really did need to stop sleeping in saltwater-infused outfits), Mirio slunk down the stairs, trying not to wake up his house mates.

Today they had to go back to assigned clean-up work, so they would probably be extra resentful if he woke them up before extreme laborious activity.

It appears that he wasn’t the only one awake, however.

“Good morning”, said a clipped, deep voice.

A female voice. And a vaguely familiar one at that.

Mirio looked up, to see the same girl who had been drinking early-morning coffee on Friday.

She was wearing a different hoodie, but she still unmistakably the same girl.

“Come, have some coffee.” That sentence was not phrased as a question.

“Uh, I’m good, really.” No, he wasn’t. He was running on around three hours of sleep and too much information to process.

“No really, I insist.” The tone hardened even further, something steely and clearly unmoveable.

Now, Mirio was weak. He was tired, he had no current physical support, and was about five seconds away from passing out of the floor and turning into a ball of tangled string.

So, the tired, not properly thinking being, weakly uttered: “Alright, sure.”

The girl smiled a little, moving so that Mirio could access the coffee pot.

“You’re up awfully early.”

Mirio tensed, looking at her from the corner of his eye. She sported the same smile, though this time it had strayed even further from her eyes. She looking at him over the brim of her coffee mug, almost as if she was making conclusions about him as he watched.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

Mirio almost dropped the mug, only holding onto it because of pure freeze instinct.

“Yeah, I think I’m just excited to get back to beach cleanup.”

An acknowledged hum.

“Weird, I would think that you would be tired after sneaking in after midnight. Must be exhausting to stay out that late.”

Mirio choked. No over-exaggeration, he was lucky the entire countertop wasn’t covered in hot coffee.

“W-What do you mean?”

“Don’t lie. I saw you sprint through the door. With a drawstring bag, no less. What was even in that thing?”

Stunned, Mirio sat in silence, still nursing the coffee mug, trying to subtlety wipe the streaks of liquid from his face.

“Did I break you? C’mon, respond, buddy. We don’t have all day.”

Slightly more able to respond, Mirio actually managed to squeak out a response.

“I-I had to speak to someone. There were answers that needed to be solved.”

Close enough to the truth, if a bit on the nose.

“Really? Who is this mystery person?”

Downing an entire gulp of the hot liquid, Mirio tried his best to break the tension.

“It’s not really your business, sorry.”

The tilt of an eyebrow.

“Oh, really? Not when you’re breaking protocol and possibly endangering yourself and others around you?”

“How could I be endangering others?”

“You’re going onto public property. No one knows who could be there. You’re showing your location. And, since you’ve already snuck out, you’ll probably do it again.”

Mirio swallowed. Goddamn.

“Someone I met recently. He knows a lot of important things.”

“That’s awful vague, what sorts of ‘important things’?”

She sounded amused now, if slightly annoyed.

“Oceanic things. He knows a lot about aquatic organisms.”

“Really? Hmm, interesting. I wasn’t expecting to learn so much in one night. Thank you, for the information I mean. Might want to finish getting ready. It’s about that time.”

She put her mug in the sink, smirking as she left the room.

5:15, everyone would be waking up soon.

The shower was on, as a matter of fact, so people most likely were getting up.

Chugging his now less-than lukewarm coffee, Mirio dropped the mug in the sink, went back upstairs, and very non-suspiciously started his normal morning routine while pretending he had actually slept.

————————————————

Hm, well.

Turns out that barely any sleep before intense labor is not a good thing.

Mirio was exhausted.

They didn’t even get to actually drag the garbage bins off the beach, that would be half a day’s work for tomorrow.

Mirio sighed, stretching out his aching arms.

Everything hurt, but at least he had something to look forward to.

More merperson facts.

He had put the drawstring bag on the side of his bunk, out of sight for anyone else in the room, but nowhere near hard for Mirio to access.

It was 5:00, so there was no need for it yet. Not a single use for that notebook.

But there would be. He himself would fill up the pages, with Amajiki’s help.

The two of them would educate each other on their separate species, intentional or not.

Chapter Text

Since he hadn’t done much to help out around the house the past few days, Mirio decided to help make dinner.

Chores were a bit of the on-the-spot volunteer situation, so he hadn’t had obligation to do anything so far.

But, he didn’t want anyone to think that he was lazy, so, he should pick something up.

The second he walked into the kitchen, however, the thought of deep cleaning every bathroom suddenly sounded more appealing.

Because, apparently he wasn’t the only one who thought cooking dinner sounded appealing towards.

The exact same girl from this morning was there, turning on the oven and defrosting chicken.

No turning back, Mirio was going to do his duties, fair and square.

“Hey, good evening. How’re you?”

She looked up, a wry smile settling on her face.

“I’m doing pretty good. How about you?”

“Tired, but I otherwise feel good. It feels great to help people out.”

“I do get that feeling, especially when I’m being a rule-abiding student who is not putting my fellow workers in trouble.”

Mirio clenched, hesitating as he put the pasta on the stove.

“Yeah, that’s oddly specific, but I love to do that too.”

Ah yes, the pure example of a non-suspicious, innocent teenager.

“Hmm. Interesting. So, Mirio, what were you actually doing last night?”

“I thought I told you this morning? A friend. He knows a lot, and educating yourself doesn’t hurt. Especially when I’ve been interacting with the ocean a lot.”

“It was a weekend. Why couldn’t you meet said friend during the day?”

Mirio gulped. That was a fair point.

“He works long hours on Sundays. He had just got off from his job, and had an update of a species of jellyfish that he wanted to tell me about.”

“Where does he work?”

Shit. He didnt think of an answer for that either.

“Don’t know. Never asked.”

“That’s awful trusting of you. Maybe you should.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Maybe. He’s not necessarily a guy I shouldn’t trust, though.”

“I’m glad you’re not suspicious of someone who’s feeding you so much information, that you pretty much believe blindly.”

“He’s a believable guy.” Mirio says, knowing he’s just repeating himself. But the rest of the cooking passes in silence, so maybe he did something right.

Dinner didn’t change much either, people silent and trying to eat their meals. The girl looked at him, eyes fixed in a cold stare as she twirled pasta on her fork.

————————————————

Mirio had everything ready.

Notepad, pen, Hi-Chews, beach towel, all folded up nicely in his bag.

But, now that he knew that the girl was most likely going to watch from the kitchen, he didn’t know how he was going to talk to Amajiki without attracting her attention as well, he was sitting, coming up with a new plan.

He didn’t have anything to distract her with, and there was no telling if waiting until later would do anything, since he didn’t know how long she sat there, waiting every night.

Well.

There was a way that he could get out... without going the usual route.

Creeping past the bunk beds, trying not to wake up his roommates, Mirio slunk to the window, unlocking it and sliding it up.

This was probably a very bad idea.

Slowly, he crept out of the window, and climbed down the vines, trying not to apply to much pressure and disconnect them from the side of the house.

Thankfully, they did not break, and Mirio’s feet landed on solid ground.

Wasting no time, he sprinted the rest of the way to their meeting point.

Amajiki was already there, tracing little drawings in the sand with his fingers and flicking his fin-ears whenever he heard a strange noise.

So, it didn’t take long for Amajiki to notice Mirio running towards him, and he noticeably lit up, going to prop himself up with his arms and bring a sparkle back into his eye.

“Hey! I was wondering when you’d show up!”

“Yeah! Sorry, it took a while to get past this one girl, she’s just curious about where I’ve been going.”

Tamaki’s brow furrowed. “What kind of curious? Is she onto what we’ve been doing?”

Mirio gave a quick, comforting hum. “No, I think she’s just very adamant about rules, you know?”

“Hmmm. That’s fair. As long as she’s not trying to do it to get a power kick.” Amajiki said, picking up a shell and flattening the drawings in the sand.

“Yeah, that’s very fair!” Mirio said, opening his drawstring bag, pulling everything out.

“What questions do you have for me today?” The merman said, straightening up to be more attentive.

“Uh, none, actually. I just wanted to look at what I had. Get everything laid out, y’know?”

Amajki leaned forward, looking at the bag’s spilled contents.

“What’s that?” He asked, pointing at one of the objects from the bag.

Mirio looked down, at where the merman’s band was pointing.

It was the bar of strawberry hi-chews.

“Oh! It’s a type of candy. I got it at the store but I just haven’t eaten it yet.”

“Really? Nice. When I lived near Britain, they had some caramel candies there. They were pretty good. Are these like those?”

“Uh, no. These are sweeter.”

An eyebrow raise.

“Sweeter? The caramels were already very sweet. How sweet is candy on land?”

“Well, not sweeter, but, fruity. Y’know? Those flavors.”

Amajiki’s ears flicked up.

“Oh! Really! A fruit!”

Mirio looked at Amajiki confused, as mentioned merman’s face reddened.

“Huh?”

“Oh, do humans not-“

Don’t chuckle, Mirio. Please, don’t laugh. He’s a mermaid, he probably doesn’t know.

“We eat fruit that’s not in candy form, I’ve just never seen someone that excited to eat fruit candy.”

“Oh. I think the fruit’s natural sugars make it really appealing to mermaids. I love it, and everyone else I know does too.”

“Huh, interesting. Not usually what I think about when mer people are mentioned, but I guess that makes sense.”

“Mhm.”

Amajiki’s face turned a shade darker.

“Can I try it?”

Mirio couldn’t help a smile. Man, he really was cute.

“Sure. They might be a bit melted, but you can have some.”

Amajiki happily open the packaging, pulling out the pink, wax-covered cubes that were glistening in the ocean light reflection.

Sweetheart he was, he took another one out and handed it to Mirio. Mirio took the chew, struggling to pull the wax from the candy.

After he managed to do so, Mirio popped the chew in his mouth.

Oh dear god.

Bringing it outside so many times had melted and then re-froze the candy, so they were misshapen and tasted slightly like the wax they were packaged in.

They tasted awful.

To humans, apparently.

Mirio looked at the ocean, ignoring the slimy, vaguely flavored thing sliding down his throat.

Amajiki looked like he was having the time of his life.

Pupils blown and eyes wide to accompany it, ears flicking every which way, even a smile flicking up the corners of his lips.

“So, I’m guessing you like it? Land candy is pretty good, to be fair.”

Amajiki fell out of his trance, giant eyes now focused on Mirio.

“Y-Yeah” he says, reaching for a second hi-chew

Mirio laughed, so happy he forgot about just everything else except the sand and the sea.

Too bad he was too hyped up on happiness to realize the dark figure, watching from the house’s shadows.

Chapter Text

Mirio carefully climbed up the vines,
Making sure that they didn’t russell in the wind. He then jumped over the window frame, before closing it with only a soft noise of protest.

He wrote down more notes about what he had learned from Amajiki, before sliding the pad and drawstring bag under his pillow.

He tried to sleep, but he was too giddy and kept drawing himself out of the chance of slumber every time he would laugh or chuckle quietly to himself.

His eyelids were about to become droopy again, when he heard the door open.

Instinctively, he stiffened, and felt his blood run cold.

Maybe one of the guys had been in the restroom when he had slipped in through the window, and was just coming back? But he had to have climbed back into the bedroom fourty minutes ago, surely it hadn’t taken that long-

“Hey, rulebreaker”

Oh.

Oh no.

If Mirio’s blood had gone cold before, it was now positively ice. He was almost frozen to the bed. Because he knew that voice.

“Y’know, I never did get your name” He whispered, impressed at how well he kept the quiver out of his voice.

“Hmn. Guess you didn’t.” The girl from the early mornings and dinner responded.

“Not that important, really. You snuck out again.”

She paused, almost like she was waiting for Mirio to defend himself. When he didn’t, she continued.

“Sneakier this time. I almost thought that you were actually going along with what I asked, before I went to the side of the house and saw that the window was open.”

Another pause, this one more to put suspense onto what the girl was saying.

“Please man, why? You really don’t seem like a rebel, and you actually seemed concerned when I brought up other people in danger. Are you fucking around? Why? What are you and your friend doing that’s so important?”

On the surface, she seemed desperate, like that switch from bad cop to good cop. But, there was something less detectable in her voice, that was understanding; like she was already aware of the answers to her questions.

So, Mirio responded to this information by saying “Important stuff.”

With a choking semi-sob that sounded awfully like a cover-up for a chuckle, he heard her turn towards the door and open it.

“Aisaka Sayaka”

“Hm?”

“That’s my name. Aisaka Sayaka”

“Oh, thanks.”

She gave a hum of appreciation, before finally closing the door, and walking back down the hallway.

Mirio, finally relaxing after being tense, managed to drift off to sleep.

————————————————

WAMP WAMP WAMP WAMP

Fuck, not the goddamn alarm.

Mirio crawled out of bed to shut it off, and open his text messages again.

Nejire:
Fuckfuckfuckfuck Yuyu is so pretty FUCK.

Nejire:
What bitch made me so 💫✨attracted to people with short hair✨💫

Nejire:
Because I’m deadass mad, her prettiness should be a crime b i t c h

Nejire:
Anyways-

Nejire:
How has the beach been?

Those were from a day ago, with no messages inbetween. Nejire was probably tired, and forgot to send her daily round of messages. Eh, whatever, he’d return the favor anyway.

MeMoji Man:
It’s exhausting, honestly

The reply took about thirty seconds

Nejire:
Eyyy! You’re not dead! Any part of it that’s so exhausting in particular?

MeMoji Man:
Nejire, please get some sleep.

Nejire:
No❤️

MeMoji Man:
Anyways, kind of all of it.

MeMoji Man:
It just takes a lot of effort to sort everything, and it’s really hot. Really rewarding though!

Nejire:
Damn

Nejire:
Still in mild disbelief that you chose to spend so much time doing work, but have fun I guess.

Nejire:
I’m wrapping up on a joint project with the fashion club.

MeMoji Man:
What? Why assign that with one week left of school? That just doesn’t make sense.

Nejire:
It’s hella fun. I’m just tired. Fun fact: Yuyu is in my pairing. I gotta work while she speaks and I 💫✨just✨💫-

Nejire:
It’s either heaven or hell, I can’t decide.

MeMoji Man:
Woah. What’re you making?

Nejire:
She bought a bunch of cheap button-ups to paint all over, so that we can make a bigger piece of art. But each shirt has to be able to be worn individually and still look good. I love it, but it’s driving me insane.

MeMoji Man:
Wow, update me when you’re finished! I gotta get ready, but tell me more!

Nejire:
K, love you bb❤️

Mirio smiled, in that blissful state between exhaustion and happiness the entire time he got ready that morning. Not even sitting next to the morn- Aisaka during breakfast, he was too in awe of the fact that merpeople were prone to loving fruit.

Not to mention Amajiki had looked so cute when he got excited over the candy.

Maybe Mirio should bring some more next time, so he could see what Amajiki’s favorite fruits were.

There was a thought.

That thought stuck with him as he moved the garbage cans off the sand, before sifting through dirty water with a net, to pull plastic out of the water.

So, he took a shower (god, he smelled awful), changed into a T-shirt and pair of jeans that were clean, and walked to the corner store.

‘Wallace’s Useful Den’ was similar to a store you’d find at the airport, with the local merchandise in one corner, small tubs of assorted nuts and energy drinks in another, and small technology items like charge chords in the last.

Mirio picked up a small tub of mixed melons, thought about getting something else, and then picked up a small container of orange tic tacs.

Weird, he thought, as he walked home.

The walk to the store always felt different, depending on what time you went. Something about the street felt, it made you feel something, subtle at first, but then all-consuming later.

The first time Mirio had gone, it had been determination. Now, it was pure, unadulterated joy. He still didn’t know why, but it felt as though there was a purpose behind it.

Mirio shrugged it off as his good mood, putting the melons in the freezer.

He had a feeling that at this rate, that mood wouldn’t go away any time soon.

Chapter Text

Tamaki loved sleep. Yes, there were nightmares, but for the most part, it was calm, peaceful, and there was nothing and no one to stress you out, just dark, friendly, inviting emptiness. So, it was such a shame he had been born a light sleeper.

He awoke when he felt the water swirling around him, stronger than just the mere current of his sleeping cave.

Fish. They were fish. It was mating season after all, and his cave was dark, so maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised.

The fish overhead flickered. Fluorescent blue, orange, and pink overhead. They were moving quickly, fast enough so you couldn’t identify which color belonged to which fish, but slow enough it didn’t hurt your eyes to look at them.

Tamaki stretched, deciding that he could look at the pretty fish later, before getting up from the moss bed, and slowly swimming his way out of the cave.

The top waters were a reddish-orange, and judging from the warmth, it was sunset.

Everyone else was scuffling around, also waking up.

The fry were playing among each other, laughing and showing each other their favorite shells. Their parents sat in wreaths of kelp, obviously tired, but affectionately looking onward. Stand owners were swimming up to the surface so they could light lanterns, and Tamaki even thought he could see the shop owners daughters, swimming out to the high-populated spots, to hunt fish they could sell later.

Tamaki smiled, enjoying the view from the cliff side cave he had chosen. Usually, his mother preferred that they pick shipwreck sites, or a living space closer to the rest of the pod. But, both she and his father had decided to stay back on the Japanese coast, so Tamaki got to be the one and only decider of his sleeping spot. His parents were getting up in age, and soon they wouldn’t be able to travel at all, so the both of them had decided to stay near Tokyo and help lay the groundwork for other pods.

It had been strange, to travel without them. Usually, the three of them would make jokes and laugh on the current. This time, all the other families had been too focused on protecting each other, so he fended for himself. It hasn’t necessarily been bad, just different. There had been some room for books in his bag, so he brought them along and read while navigating the current.

He had gone on a mind tangent again, hadn’t he? Ah, well, he liked the cave.

There had been three families in the cove when they had arrived, apparently best friends who were trying to perform the non-migration pod method to see if it worked. One of them was a bookseller (common for stay-at-home pods, books took so long to make the craft was hard to transport, in fear that they would break before they were bound properly), so Tamaki could stop by later to see if there was anything interesting to buy. Merperson education was mostly based on preference, not the school that humans had, so Tamaki went through periods where he learned a lot, and then would not learn for the next two moon cycles.

That would be months in human terms, right? He had been looking through all his books about human theory, physiology, and language, because Mirio seemed so fascinated by everything sea-like, Tamaki wanted to understand everything human-like.

The smile grew even wider. Yeah, he would stop by the bookstore later, even if just to see if they had a fantasy book that wouldn’t come close to human behavior at all.

But, overall point was, no school. So, Tamaki swam over to a kelp forest nearby, to take a walk by himself.

Kelp forests had always been beautiful to him. The way the dying sun, blurred due to water was concealed even more by the drifting tall plants was peaceful, in a way few places managed to recreate. Coral reefs were incredible too, but they just didn’t have the same endless, enclosed, safe effect. The bright, fluorescent coral was welcoming, but he would see other mer and the experience would be ruined. Here, he could be five feet away from someone, and not focusing on the sounds around him, wouldn’t even be able to tell, not with the densely packed plants.

Tamaki let the little leaves of the plants brush his hands and gills, feeling intertwined with the true, unfiltered emotion of the plant. In the olden days, plants possessed souls. They could mutter and flow to their hearts content. The garbage influx over time had supposedly drained so much of the spirit’s energy that they went into hibernation, with no specification of when they’d return. Tamaki liked to believe that they would sometimes stir awake, and be friendly towards the mer. There were a couple times where he almost swam directly into rocks but got caught in a branch of coral he had sworn wasn’t there before, or had found the red snapper he had been chasing for an hour right before he was about to give up.

He traced his way through the kelp, a path he had already become familiar with in just five days, before existing back near the temporary town, where he had started. The water had turned dark, moon shining down through the ocean, only beat by the lantern now lit outside of the shops and stands.

But, Tamaki could clearly see the moon now, which meant one thing; it was time to go visit Mirio.

It was strange, how much Mirio had changed him. Maybe it was because the only mer his age he had only ever talked to was Chelsea, who was nice, and was probably the person he was closest with, but after a while, he wished that there were other mer he could- well, not socialize with, but at least know how they behaved. Chelsea was slightly similar to him, not too interactive with others, but Mirio was very different from her! He seemed very outgoing, and could talk forever!

It was very nice talking to him either way, he wasn’t very invasive, and he always had a lot of information about human culture. Hell, maybe he could even write a book one day, about everything Mirio had taught him. That had always been Tamaki’s dream. The thought of spending his days in a workshop creating books before swimming all across the sea to distribute the different copies? That sounded like an incredible dream. But, he couldn’t write those books if he wasn’t paying attention to Mirio. So, he slid onto his usual sand bed, cleared his mind, and waited for the human.

Chapter Text

It didn’t take long for Mirio to show up. He was punctual, as always, Tamaki thought, feeling his ears flick in excitement before quickly covering said ears.

“Hey! How’re you, Amajiki?”, Mirio asked, seemingly concerned about Tamaki’s blushing state.

“Great! I have been great! The water’s just warmer than usual, so my skin’s all flushed!” Tamaki stuttered.

Mirio nodded, sitting down on the sand and pulling out his notebook.

“I, uh, wanted to ask more about the lanterns you guys have!”

Tamaki nodded, leaning forward on the rock so Mirio could have his undivided attention.

“So, you say they can last like, thirteen hours without having to change the wax. How?” Mirio asked, tapping his pen against the pad.

Tamaki smiled, leaning forward on his arms to answer.

“Fire is very reliant on oxygen. Not only are our candles made of clam gel, which burns slower, but the matches we use have different properties. I-I’m not sure what, exactly, but human matches can be too easily soaked or destroyed, so we definitely use something else.”

Mirio scribbled down notes, labeling them something that went along with all of his other mermish information, before his eyebrows knitted in confusion.

“How did you guys even come up with fire? It’s very awesome you managed to do that, but I don’t think that you were on land too often, and, like you said, fire needs oxygen, so how?”

Tamaki thought, because that statement provoked very in-depth topics, and he wasn’t sure whether to answer them or not.

“Merpersons on land is another story entirely, but as for fire, no one really knows. This was before books were even considered worth the effort of making, so there are no known written documents of when it happened. All we have is an old myth.”

Mirio leaned towards Tamaki in curiosity.

“What myth?”

“It dosent translate into any human language perfectly, but it’s close to ‘Merperson’s Solution’. It’s a tale of two lovers who found each other at the beginning of time, back when the sky was even darker than it is now. Due to their social status and groups, they could only meet at night, where they were unable to see each other due to the lack of moonlight. So, the merperson crafted their own version of the human’s portable fire. They were supposedly able to make a business of it, and now it’s become an average item.”

Mirio’s eyes widened in fascination.

“Wow! That’s so cool! I didn’t think mer people had myths or ballads around everyday items like that! You guys are much different than anything I’ve ever thought!”

Oh dear.

Oh no.

Tamaki’s entire face had gone bright blue. He was frozen in a mix of anxiety and shock from the pure cuteness Mirio could display. The last straw was realizing that their faces had subconsciously gotten closer together, and the irony of telling a tale about lovers from the sea and the land.

Tamaki toppled over, arms giving out as he slid from the rock.

“Ah! Are you okay?” Mirio asked, reaching to pull him out of the water.

When Tamaki’s face was above water, he started to laugh. He almost doubled over, not knowing what was so funny. Mirio chuckled along, still concerned but not immune to the laughter’s infectious nature.

“Y-Yeah, I’m alright” the merman responded. “I think I’m just a bit tired, that’s why I’m a bit off. So, I might go home and sleep.”

Mirio visibly relaxed, muscles de-tensing and wrinkles in his face smoothening out.

“Okay! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Tamaki gave a small, calm smile.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

——————————————————

Tamaki swam through the water, quickly switching currents and moving around the bits of shell and water bottles in the water. The moon was much higher in the sky than it was earlier, so the sea bottom was much easier to navigate.

Among the white lit sand, he finally found the town, and entered his cave.

Flopping down on his moss bed, Tamaki sighed and pulled his woven seaweed blankets over him. He wasn’t tired, but the ocean had actually been quite cold, and he wanted to warm up and think.

He had never thought about it like that before, but tonight had made him realize how cool some inventions were. Lanterns actually were quite nice. Maybe after he warmed up he could walk across town and look at all the different ones.

Oh, right, town. The local book store. He could go there too, that would be nice. Tamaki didn’t want to think too hard, curling into the fetal position so that he was as warm and comfortable as possible.

Tamaki wasn’t sure how long he layed there, but at some point he drifted out of consciousness, then woke up with a small bed head and a calm sense of warmth.

He got up from the bowl of his bed, manhandled his hair so it was decent, and looked for his satchel.

Finding it and picking up his satchel, Tamaki checked the contents.

Books, some klæte, and his pen and notebook. That should be enough to go out with, he only needed to look at some books, after all.

Presentable enough, Takami left the hollow of his cave.

The town was more alive than it had been earlier that sundown, with the fish seller’s daughters back from their hunt, leaving the baskets filled with fresh fish and the departure of the sons, it being their turn to find fish. Couples and their children were reading on the seabed, and some had decided to eat a meal.

Tamaki hated actually interacting with most mer, but watching everyone in their environment was peaceful. As long as they didn’t point him out, he loved to see people happy!

This brought him to the bookstore. The outside was quite nice, it looked like wood from an old pier that had been carefully scrubbed, sanded, and tied together with rope, metal, and rocks.

As he walked inside, he could tell that the interior was just as lovely.

There were shelves, made of a slightly lighter wood, filled with books. They were almost overflowing with the kelp pulp pages, but seemed to be just perfectly balanced so that they didn’t.

Little pots of luscious green plants were everywhere; on shelves above the bookcases, hanging semi-suspended from the ceiling, even on the floor of the shop. The largest plant was intertwined with a part of the wall, turning into thick vines that gently reached out. The vines tumbled over padded two rock crevices, where one could read or sit down.

While Tamaki was still observing the store, a man walked out from behind the counter.

He had vibrant blonde hair, yellow eyes, and a golden tail to finish off the golden look. He was decently muscular, with a kind smile on his face.

“Hello! My name is Taishiro Toyomitsu, but please, call me Fat Gum!”

Tamaki nodded. He could tell that he was going to like this mer.

Chapter Text

Mirio layed down, letting out a deep, thorough sigh. God, he was so tired. Work hadn’t even been that hard, his brain just felt like it had been pounded by a meat tenderizer. The talk with Amajiki had been amazing, but, honestly, every night just felt too often. He needed to sleep more, the constant waking up earlys and staying up late for mer purposes was obviously having a negative effect.

He had promised to text Nejire every day, but honestly, all he had the motivation for was to reply to a basic ‘How are you?’.

Maybe the entire ‘Interview Merman’ thing had been an awful idea from the start. Maybe he should’ve just freed Amajiki and continued on with life, never to think about his weird condition or habits again.

Mirio physically cringed.

No. Nonononono. Amajiki had only ever been sweet and understanding, being all nice and listening to him, and damn. That was- ugh. He was tired. He had just been in such a good mood, too. Where was all of this coming from?

Well, he actually should text Nejire, like he had promised he would do.

MeMoji Man:
I live

Nejire:
Woah! Really? You got any photographic evidence?

Mirio smiles, and covered his eyes with a hand before taking a picture.

MeMoji Man:
:ImageAttachment:
We irritating

Nejire:
Damn, when was the last time you brushed your hair? It looks like literal seaweed.

MeMoji Man:
Hey now, my hair is fine, Ms. Bow

Nejire:
I didn’t even mention that sunburn of yours, I’m going easy on you, crouton.

MeMoji Man:
First of all: Not as red as you when YuYu enters the room, so be quiet.

MeMoji Man:
Second of all: Don’t call me crouton.

BlueBow:
I will smack you with one of those sticky hands you could buy at an elementary school book fair and you will dislike it.

MeMoji Man:
Ahh no, a short girl with a sticky hand, you have me shaking in terror

BlueBow:
I have breakfast to eat, oversized gremlin.

Mirio snorted, before plugging his phone into the wall outlet and rolling over. He wasn’t as tired now, more sluggish.

He could lay here for a while, just cozy up under the blankets. The air conditioning was amazing if you had just come in from the outdoors, but felt awful if you were planning on spending more than an hour in the house.

So, he layed there. Apparently, relaxation can do a lot for the mind, so it only took a small while before Mirio’s brain thought of something.

Amajiki had said something about another pod joining his. Where were they? Didn’t pods usually only take two weeks to move, and yet one hasn’t showed up for an entire week. And why were they doing so? He couldn’t remember if Amajiki had said if it was for a particular reason or not, but he was very sure that he hadn’t.

It was nothing more than a passing thought. Or, it should have been. But, as Mirio went into a state of tiredness, it persistently nagged at the corners of his brain.

What was so important to Amajiki’s pod? Why did Mirio even care so much?

But, alas, he was fighting against the Will of his own exhaustion, and he soon gave in, skipping yet another meal by accident.

He woke up again about three am. Well, damn. He had slept through the meeting with Amajiki, because of course he did. Mirio relaxed, letting out determined, short breaths.

He wasn’t being himself, he really needed to chill. He was so angry, for no good reason. Amajiki and Nejire were both amazing, he was frustrated at the circumstances of meeting and interacting, not actually them.

Mirio couldn’t find the energy to get up, so he didn’t. He laid back down, and fell finally got enough rest it be considerate.

Well-rested for one of the first times since he got here, the teenager sent a text to Nejire.

MeMoji Man
Good Morning!

And then hustled, getting ready for the beach in record time.

Aisaka had long since been awake, so there was no need to worry about running into her.

But, that dosent mean that his morning was people-free.

As he walked into the main hall to eat breakfast, he saw a semi-familiar face.

It was that Suzuki guy. Mirio had almost forgotten about their first meeting, simply because he had been so preoccupied with everything else. But, he was cool, why not talk to him?

“Uh, hey!” Mirio said, taking some paper napkins off the counter.

Suzuki, who was reading a mini pocket-booklet, looked up.

“Oh, hey dude! It’s been a while since I’ve seen ya!”

“Yeah! I’ve been pretty busy. Met a science-y friend that I’ve been meeting up with, which has been great, but takes up even more down time.”

The dark-haired teen nodded, closing his book and putting it in a back pocket.

“Yeah, me and Yamamoto have been writing essays in our down time. Part of our trip here was scholarshiped, so he has to write down story prompt-fillers, while I help.”

Mirio’s brow furrowed.

“What are your scholarships for?”

“Oh! Yamamoto is a seriously talented writer, so our school keeps a close eye on him. I’m soccer team captain, so I don’t actually have to write much for my own, but Yamamoto spends a lot of time on his work, and I would feel bad leaving him alone for so long!”

“Yeah, I get that! I half considered not coming, because I didn’t want to leave my best friend behind. But, she does have other things to do, and she was super supportive about me coming here in the first place, so, here we are”

Yamamoto smiled, leaning against a nearby wall.

“She sounds really chill! What else does she d-“

The alarm for everyone to get ready to leave rang, and Yamamoto quickly jumped.

“Ah, sorry dude! I should finish getting ready, but we should definitely talk later!”

Mirio have a nod.

“Yeah, for sure! I would love that!”

They both scurried away, Yamamoto to their room and Mirio to the living room.

Mirio wasn’t sure why his emotions had just flipped a switch like that, but it definitely wasn’t normal.

Eh, whatever. He thought, getting into his line.

He would have time to figure that out.

Chapter Text

Amajiki cracked a nervous smile. He had moved to the back of the shop, attempting his best to look at the titles while he was practically ascending from mild anxiousness.

He had introduced himself to the yellow mer, before going to look at the back of the store, so he wouldn’t feel awkward floating so close to someone.

He was so excited to see someone who looked so enthusiastic about books, but he had chosen to go look at what titles there were, so what if the yellow mer (fat gum, he had said his name was?), thought he was rude, because he thought that Amajiki was ignoring him.

The purple mer pushed that thought down. No, this was a book store, he had been polite, and now he was looking to pay for a product. That was a completely normal thing to do. Stop worrying, Tamaki.

His vision finally managed to shift in, and he proceeded the information blurb engraved into the stone.

It was a fantasy, about swimming birds that allied with hermit crabs to harness ultimate magic.

Thumb massaging into his upper tail, Amajiki tucked the book underneath his arm. Sounded interesting enough, anything related to magic caught his eye.

The mer flicked through cooking titles, books about history, fantasy books that looked too heavily ripped-off of pre-existing novels, and Science-Fiction that emanated emptiness. Until, he found something quite interesting.

It was a thick, large book. Regular bindings weren’t enough, so the regular weaved seaweed strings were re-in-forced with rubber bands, leather, and thinly-cut rope.

On the front rock slab, written, clear as day, said ‘A Deeply Researched Guide to the Average Human’.

He had books similarly titled, but none looked as big as this one. Amajiki looked to see the author.

Vikman Clide. Wow! Amajiki had never actually gotten a hold of one of his books, but he had heard about him! Most mer into the whole ‘people’ topic were! His work was often highly regarded, quoted, and referenced. He was a scientist that specialized in physiology, and commanded his own research team to help run statistics.

This couldn’t be a complete volume of all his work, but it definitely had several dozens of results in it.

Hurriedly, almost as if someone was going to take away the book before Tamaki could buy it, he swum over to the checkout, the small smile perking up each end of his mouth widening, with mild anxiety.

“Hello”. He muttered, placing the two books on the counter.

“Hey! Find something you like?” Fatgum asked, pulling out a sheet of paper to check the prices.

“Yes, I did.” Amajiki responded, before internally slapping himself.

Seriously? Could he string together an actual sentence for once so he didn’t seem rude?

“Nice! Seems like someone’s gonna be busy for the next little while! That’ll be 40 Kraüken.”

Tamaki nodded, handing over the coins before picking up his books and gently avoiding the potted plants.

He swam closer to the water’s surface, looking at the moon. It was about to fall off its peak, on the verge of staring to set. He had to hurry.

Swimming back to the cave, Tamaki carefully set his new books on the floor, before leaving again.

Now swimming even faster, he made his way to the outskirts of the kelp forest, and used his claws to cut off a small piece of the plant. He gently touched the stub which had been just previously been longer, and gave it a soft pet, before continuing back to the small, makeshift village.

You see, there was one giant part of mer culture that Amajiki had not mentioned to Mirio yet. Magic. Merpeople had magic running through their blood.

Mer magic was hard to explain and process, but, it was slightly similar to thaumaturgy. Mer could more easily harness magic, but circles greatly enhanced its overall power. Because they were getting ready for an extremely important mating ritual, (another thing Tamaki had neglected to fully explain to Mirio), they were casting for luck. And, the purple mer had chosen to bring kelp for their next circle meeting.

Sure enough, when he got to the agreed location, most of the pod was there, with their own magic enforcers.

Tamaki stopped his current flotation, and layed next to Chelsea.

“Hey, Tama.” She said, fiddling with fish bones.

“Hello” He replied, giving her a small smile. “Do you feel anxious about the... you know...”

She laughed a little, before nodding. “Yes. I’m excited, but, I’ve never met anyone from the pod. The thought that I’m destined to be with one of them is mildly frightening”.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m not sure if I like the thought of that either.”

They could both talk for much longer, but the sound of the very last mer of the circle arriving hushed them.

As per usual, each mer floated up, offering their own words of luck before beginning to charge the ground. Amajiki even managed to give a small piece before he placed his fingers into the edge of the circle.

After about 30 minutes, finally, the last mer gave her piece, adding in a few lines about how the mates should feel connected, before completing the magic ring.

For a few seconds, every crevice of the drawn circle burned a bright blue, and then the magic dissipated into the ground.

The post-tension group silently swam to their places for the night, attempting to avoid any awkwardness.

Amajiki was about to leave, but Chelsea poked his wrist.

“Hey, do you wanna hang out?” She asked.

Amajiki shrugged.

“Sure, what do you want to do?”

Chelsea thought, before her stomach rumbled, and she laughed.

“Dinner sound good?”

Now that she pointed it out, Amajiki hadn’t eaten all night, and he was pretty hungry.

“Yeah! Hold on, I left my Kraüken at the cave, I’m gonna go get it, alright?”

She nodded, letting him go. When he came back, they both swam into the village center. The stands were about to close, so they quickly decided on mackerel, paying for their food before swimming near the kelp forest.

“So, how’ve you been? We haven’t really talked much recently.”

Amajiki nodded, taking meager bites out of the fish’s lateral line.

“I’ve been great, happy. I’m just trying to enjoy everything here before the other pod arrives, y’know?”

The mermaid nodded, taking a chunk out of a tail.

“Yeah. The whole luck rituals feel weird. I remember when Franzka and Kai became mates and decided to leave, so we performed one for them. It’s crazy that that ritual is for us now.”

Amajiki nodded.

“Yeah! I also don’t really understand the whole ‘I hope the mates feel a connection’ line either”

Chelsea nodded, brows furrowing slightly.

“I’m not sure. I can ask Mrs. Delgada about it, but I think it means that we feel, like, a connection? I think it’s a whole emphasis and care on feelings. I think.”

After that, they mostly shot the breeze, talking about funny stuff they saw the fry do.

Amajiki barely realized that he could see the orange glimmers of the Sun through the water, and that they had made it to his cave.

“Ah, I guess that’s my que to go to sleep. This was lots of fun! Thanks, as always, Chelsea.”

She smiled at him.

“No problem, Tama. Have a wonderful night. Can we go hunting tomorrow?”

Amajiki dwelled on it.

“If we go hunting for lunch, yes. I’ll be busy around breakfast time.”

“Sounds great! Sleep well, my guy!” Chelsea said, doing turns as she swam away. That got a chuckle out of Amajiki, and he looked at the fish, before laying down in his moss bed.

Calm. Peace. Tired.

Chapter Text

Mirio was up late again.

He really shouldn’t be, but he didn’t much care. He had gone back to talking to Nejire more frequently, and it was incredibly comforting.

Just him and his best friend, talking for hours about the dumbest things imaginable, where he could brighten up her day, and Mirio didn’t have to think about anything.

Things between him and Amajiki were still great, and he was proud of himself for finally pulling out of that rude gunk, but he was still in a weird... funk.

He was still happy! And overall pretty pleased, but, there was a weird feeling in the air. If he was mentally alone for too long, he knew he was going to go insane, with just the background knowledge of difference.

Therefore, the answer was to not be left alone with his thoughts.

If that meant being too physically exhausted to think, then so be it.

BlueBow:

It is 2:00pm on a Wednesday and it is already the fourth time I have slipped in paint this week, I’m beginning to think I pissed of the wrong aluminum can.

MeMoji Man:

How? Why? Where is the paint coming from?

BlueBow:
Art project, I am so sick of looking at button-ups.

MeMoji Man:
???????? You were assigned one shirt why do you have the giant-ass paint cans?

BlueBow:
I-
Ksbsjsbdkdbekdbdkdbdjebksb
DONT JUDGE ME

MeMoji Man:
Weak words from a PAINT TOES
Hagahhahaha get wrekt.

PaintToeeMcGee:
Yeah okay my feet may be the color blue but at least I sleep haha get owned.
Jesus Christ, it’s 2:30 for you, go the fuck to bed.

MeMoji Man:
>:(
Fine, goodnight.

PaintToeeMcGee:
🖕🖕😍💗
Goodnight, love you!

Mirio smiled weakly, bags under his eyes pulling the edges of his mouth too taught to feel genuine as he turned his phone off.

His eyes stung, still reflecting bright light, even though they were closed. He felt bubbly, and decently light, but the one thing keeping him just off from actually satisfied was a deep sense of tiredness.

It felt weird not visiting Amajiki every night, but over the past week, they had both agreed that off days seemed best.

Mirio hadn’t actually used those days to rest of course, but it was a nice game of pretend that almost convinced him that he was going easy on himself.

It was weird, after sorting things out, Mirio was glad to be all normal and chipper, but non-Amajiki days the presence just seemed to become... stronger.

He was just about normal on those days, optimistic and patient, but other days something was just wearing him down. It sucked.

Like, right now. He wanted to keep questioning what the hell was going on, but he couldn’t. Mild, ugly, coiled dread and tiredness bored a hole into his brain, leaving him to confused and scattered to continue any path of thought he might have had.

Finally, after his eyes stopped thrumming and his brain stopped incessantly prodding his thoughts, the mercy of bittersweet sleep overtook his body.

——————————————————

Mirio woke up to the sound of his roommates alarm (Again? The bastard really needed to learn to get up the first time), and felt surprisingly... peaceful.

Serenity was practically flowing through his veins, and doubt was non-existent!

Mirio sighed.

It was an Amajiki day.

He sent a good morning text to Nejire, brushed his teeth, and then hauled himself downstairs for another day of questioning his system of feelings.

Sure enough, that’s how the day went.

He would have felt like he was floating, except for the consistent nagging of confusion.

He almost didn’t care, he was used to the feeling of becoming overwhelmingly calm and happy for no reason, but it was almost like his brain was pelting him with this knowledge against his own thought.

Mirio didn’t like to get hung up on things like this, it took up way too much energy, proof being given by showing how tired he was of this cycle.

That’s how he finished the workload, only giving a passing greeting to Suzuki and Yamamoto (those two were still attached at the hip), before heading to the corner store to clear his head.

Sure enough, the smell of expired sunscreen, hot-to-the-touch metal, and the sound of a poor, overworked A/C blocked out his thoughts.

He walked through the aisles, harshly running his hands through his hair.

The pressure on his stimuluses provided a nice, constant white noise for him to think over.

When was the last time he just sat down and listened to music? He needed to check if his favorite artists had uploaded anything these past couple of weeks.

Another smell entered the store, but the enter bell hadn’t jingled, so Mirio chalked it up to his imagination.

What about his favorite ramen shop back home? He was really craving the non-microwaved stuff, Mirio really wanted to eat some that didnt make him feel like he was boiling in a grease vat.

The smell was distinctly ocean-y, but in a non-pleasant way. It smelled like a dead stringray. Not even the beach smelled this strong.

He really missed hugging Nejire. He hadn’t had much contact with the rest of the people here, because they didn’t know each other too well, and Mirio didn’t want to drag Amajiki out of the water for a simple hug. He would really need to tell Nejire that he appreciated the hugs when he came home.

The smell added too much to the balance of pressure, it was becoming a pounding feeling at the nape of his neck, persistently beating, pumping his heart with adrenaline, telling him to leave, leave, lea-

He plucked a water bottle out of the coolers, and walked over to the counter.

“That’ll be $1.50”

“Thank you”

Mirio walked perfectly, gracefully leaving the shop, until he was out of sight of the cashier.

Then he fucking booked it down the street.

It was nearing sundown, he needed to ask Amajiki if he knew what the hell was going on.

——————————————————

Amajiki was there when Mirio arrived, tapping the rocks gently.

Cute, but, not important.

Mirio faked a smile, trying his best to keep his breathing even, besides the fact that his heart was beating in his chest like a drum.

“Hey!”

“Hello, there” Amajiki’s usual cool voice greeted him.

Mirio nodded back, sitting down on the slightly damp sand.

“How have you been?” Mirio asked, forcing the words to sound normal.

“Good! The other pod isn’t here yet, so things are relatively calm”

Damn. Mirio still wanted to know what was up with this whole situation. He flexed his fingers, digits moving irregularly before firmly grasping a shell in the sand. He let out a breath. He had all night to do this, this is fine.

“Oh, nice! So, what have you been doing, then?”

“Mostly reading, or hanging out with this older mer I met. I’ve been considering going hunting, I feel like it would be nice to practice it again.”

“Ah, nice!” Mirio said, moving his fingers so the tension fell in the middle of the shell. It’s fine, Amajiki was being lovely, as always, surely he wouldn’t mind a simple question.

“What about you? You’ve been kind of quiet” Amajiki said, looking up at him through strands of blue-ish purple hair.

Every fiber in his body snapped, tension all-consuming. This was his chance.

“Eh, pretty alright, just a bit... off, y’know?”

Amajiki sat back up, leaning over to look at him. “How so?”

Beads of sweat were starting to gather on his scalp.

“Oh, you know? I guess I’ve just been weirdly suspicious of good things or feelings, and the suspicion wears me down, y’know?”

Amajiki’s brow furrowed as he nodded, and Mirio’s heart sank.

That look in his eyes was genuine, the merman had no clue. He was looking at him far too caringly for this to be faked.

Mirio smiled and nodded when Amajiki started to talk again, but really, all there was was the return of white noise.

If Amajiki didn’t know what was going on... then who did?

Chapter Text

Everything was all-consuming, mind-numbing. Painfully confusing and anxiety-inducing. But, eventually, Mirio’s emotions did catch up with with what he wanted to feel.

The strange, cold, loneliness that would appear out of seemingly nowhere didn’t entirely disappear, but it was subdued, quiet.

Before, it had been like a storm. Drenching, all-consuming, completely shaking up his very essence with melancholic electricity.

But, now, it had switched to a leak in the sink. Mostly avoidable, minority inconvenient, weak. Hell, if he wasn’t listening hard enough, sometimes he couldn’t hear it.

That metaphor implied that water was building up in the cabinet under said sink, but Mirio very carefully decided to overlook that.

A month had passed since he had asked Amajiki about the feeling, and besides Mirio’s reaction to the feelings, not too much had changed.

Only one glaring point was boring into him, and it was, once again, having something to do with Amajiki.

He had come to receive a mating bond with members from another pod, but he had been there at least a month and a half, surely they would’ve arrived by now? And, if not, why miss the heat of mid-summer, which was a giant part of mating rituals. And why would Amajiki’s pod arrive so early?

Mirio inhaled quietly.

He was only working himself up again, stop that!

Sure, the pods were being weird, but, hey, maybe they just swam into a storm, or accidentally got off course! What even would they be doing if they were intentionally late? Mirio was just being dumb and worked up.

——————————————————

Blub. Swish.

Amajiki’s ears flicked up, as at attention as they could be.

His eyes had gone from normal, human-like pupils to slits. Eyes keen and focused.

Swish. Swish.

Amajiki crouched down further, tail stiffening into the muddy sand.

The water glistened and shifted, the light would have gotten in his way if he hadn’t been practicing this for years.

Glub. Swish.

Amajiki pounced. The poor fish barely even had time to react before he had it pinned under his claws.

He really did always feel bad when hunting, he didn’t like killing fish.

But, it was a necessary skill, and he was good at it, so at least the poor thing didn’t suffer too long.

He carefully picked at the flesh, making sure each scrap was removed and then eaten. He put all of the more fragile bones to the side, and then set the thicker ones to roll down a tilt in the sand’s surface.

The more fragile bones could be used for magic, being compact and light, the ideal talisman. Amajiki had been practicing more and more in the past few weeks. This was, after all, a big ritual, so why not try to wish for good luck?

But, the magic was actually quite nice. Amajiki grew up in a very small pod, so the rituals were always few and far between. Hell, he probably had contributed more magic to the last three weeks of rituals than he had his entire life before that.

It was quite fascinating, actually. He had never properly used a loaded talisman in a ritual, so drawing onto backup energy always felt like a higher state of mind, like being hyped up on caffeine whilst having an identity crisis.

He felt powerful, connected to his mermal roots in a way that would have been experienced otherwise.

But, he could tell that it was working... strangely, for some.

Amajiki’s self-issued education had never really revolves around graphing, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t put two dots together.

Mirio had been acting weird lately, for some reason. He wasn’t a different person, still mostly optimistic, cheery, and outgoing, but there was something... off.

The mild questions, awkward laughing, random stiffness, something had to be on his mind.

The mer swallowed the last bit of fish, the sickly sweet meat going down bitter.

Amajiki didn’t know why he felt so obligated to ask what was alright. He quite literally only knew Mirio for twice the amount of time the human had been acting weird, and yet he was getting all distressed about it.

Amajiki took one of the thicker bones on the sand, snapped it in half, and let the parts slide down the slope.

Weird.

——————————————————

Mirio took a long drink from his water. The sun hadn’t set yet, so it was still scorching hot.

He had actually sat down to listen to music, and it was nice to just relax and interpret lyrics. He had missed some new songs a couple of creators he liked had dropped, so he even had new content to delve into.

Of course, he absolutely could not go two seconds without having that peace disturbed, so he wasn’t really shaken when Aisaka walked past him and dropped a note by his foot.

‘Kitchen, Midnight, Tonight’

Chapter Text

Mirio stared at the note for a few seconds. Of course.

He took his earbuds out, brushed the sand off his pants, and went back into the house. He checked the time on his phone. 4:00pm. He had time to mentally prepare.

It was an Amajiki night, which meant that time would be tight, but he could manage that.

In a way, midnight would be kind of nice. Mirio knew that his uneasiness was somehow linked to Aisaka, and Aisaka was probably somehow partially involved with Amajiki. Nejire, Yuyu, Mirio himself? All of them didn’t even know her, yet Mirio couldn’t help but feel the link.

He wanted the old himself back, he wanted to feel simply like himself again, not like some angsty teen trying to take on the whole universe.

Mirio felt at peace for the first time in a while. He felt strangely prepared for the meeting, he didn’t realize that he had waiting for this all along.

It was his turn to cook that night, so he did. He put more effort into the pasta with a light, creamy sauce than he had making any food before that. People noticed too, thanking him for it. Aisaka looked at him from across the kitchen table. He looked at her right back.

He laid in his bed and listened to old pop music, the songs he had heard at elementary school dances and mall trips with his mother. He laughed at some funny social media posts he saw, and closes the app before he scrolled to the part of his feed that would tell him everything problematic about the shows he liked in viscous detail. Instead of having everything he knew that was bad about the show repeated in a condescending voice, he pulled up an episode and watched through it. He cringed at the bad parts, and laughed at the good, before turning off his phone, leaving himself to wallow in the fact he was missing this feeling at his home.

He didn’t wallow for long though, because Suzuki and Yamamoto walked into the room. They were talking about something -Mirio’s music was too loud to hear what it was- and laughing along with what each other said. They looked around the room, trying to check if they were alone. They must have missed Mirio, who had apparently hidden himself in the extra-tall upper bunk bed side supports.

They came to rest at their bunk, both sitting on the bottom bed. Their faces were light, joyful without much exertion. They must have been talking about something lovely, and wistful.

Mirio saw Suzuki’s hand wrap around Yamamoto’s, and the other boy reciprocate. They looked casual, like they did this every day. And they might have. They probably did, now that Mirio thought about it. They had never acted like they were truly just friends, Suzuki’s dark hair too large a contrast against the bright red blush to hide it. They were always around each other, often together for whole days without being alone. It should have been obvious, but Mirio didn’t like to get his hopes up too high.

Mirio wasn’t the only queer boy in Japan. It just often felt like it. Straight couples almost never showed displays of affection in public, let alone queer ones. But, seeing guys like him, even if they weren’t on the dating market, made his heart warm. It made him feel so real, looking at them inch closer and closer together, hands still heavily intertwined.

He was hit with the sudden reminder that they did not know he was there, and how much he would hate if someone spies on him like that. He quietly turned his back to them, before coughing. The faint mumble of talking he could hear around the music stopped, and he could make out the sounds of rustling. It was quiet for a few moments, before they started talking again.

Mirio checked his phone: 8:45. He had a little over three hours to relax, before he met up with Aisaka. He settled into the bed and closed his eyes, knowing the playlist had more than enough songs to cover that time.

The warm dark and nostalgia had slowly rocked Mirio to sleep, and the thing that woke him was a group of boys walking in to go to bed. His playlist had eventually changed from old pop to country rap. Mirio quickly turned it off. He checked his phone again, which read 11:30.

He cleaned up, dressed into non-rumpled clothes, and walked outside of his bunk room. The floor was dark, cold. Felt like it would creak easily under his feet. He knew it wouldn’t, he pitifully eyed the people who oiled the floors during their periods of house cleaning. But sneaking around, getting information like this made him feel much younger. Like a little boy sneaking around couches and shadows, trying to see what his parents watched on the late-night television.

It didn’t last long, just a shimmy across the hall, around a wall corner, and there she was. Aisaka stood there, dark goth getup and all. She hasn’t dressed down, treating this as a serious occasion. And it was, kind-of. Mirio had done something similar, changing out of his sleep-ridden clothes.

“Hello, Mirio.” She said, eyeing him from across the room. She hadn’t taken a seat at the dinner table, so he assumed it wouldn’t be in good faith to take one himself. He stood near the cabinets, blinking at her.

“Hello, Aisaka. What did you want me here for?”

“I know you’ve been meeting with a mer.”

Although Mirio knew that was the most possible outcome, he was still a little shocked. He hadn’t told anyone yet after all, speaking it aloud off the beach felt wrong.

“That is correct.”

“I wasn’t asking.” She narrowed her eyes at him, neutral face crinkling down at the edges. “Do you know of their magic?”

“Yes, I’ve heard a bit about it.” How was this relevant? What did she want to say about it?

“Good. I just- I’ve been cryptic, but I felt the need to tell someone else. To maybe guide them through it. I know I could’ve used that help.”

Mirio’s eyebrows shot up. That was not what he was expecting.

“You’re a mer?”

“No, you don’t have to be to use their magic. Just have to have a bind with them.”

Mirio whipped behind him. Suzuki and Yamamoto stood closer to the dining table, mostly shadowy figures. The only distinguishing features were the edges of their hair where color could be seen filtered through, the glimmer of their eyes, and their voices. Then, the actual message of their words caught up to him.

“You don’t?”

All three shook their heads.

“No, my partner is in the pod arriving here.” Aisaka said, her face twisting up into a smile, and a finger going to play with the ends of her hair. It was a truly unseen sight, to Mirio.

“What about you two?” He twisted to Suzuki and Yamamoto.

“Best friend. Guy got stuck there for years before he found his pod, and by the time he got out, we were too close to really part. He bonded us to give us magic, so that communication was easier.”

Mirio stood still, the chill of the sea air cooling his legs.

Why didn’t Tamaki tell me this?