Work Text
There was no such thing as lazy in the ocean. That was what Red believed. It was too cutthroat and dangerous for any creature to last long without giving it their all.That being said, the occasional workaround was a good way to save energy for more important things. Few creatures in the ocean were near intelligent enough to even consider the idea, but Red was a mer, so he had the blessing and curse of brains on his side.In fact, as a meroctopus, he had more than enough smarts to build a simple trap or two. He’d been using them for a few weeks now to catch fish and bottom-feeders for easy food. Not having to spend much energy hunting meant he had some left over to ward off predators. It made his life safer.And that was important, because meroctopus lived alone. He didn’t have anybody to rely on if he got hurt fighting over territory with another predator.But, because of his use of traps, Red discovered that there was such a thing as a lazy ocean creature. It was another mer; this one, a mermaid.It was odd to see for several reasons. First, it was half skeleton. Red could count the number of times he’d seen a creature that shared that trait with him on his fingers. Second, it was just lying on top of his trap net in the sunny water, picking out the crabs caught in it to munch on.The sight of his food being stolen made Red mad.“Um, excuse you,” he growled, his shadow casting over the little blue mer. It turned around, and the lights in its eye sockets shrunk. A placating smile stretched across its skull. Red could see that it was intimidated, but he thought it could have been more afraid. After all, Red was large even among meroctopuses, and this one was small even for a mermaid. The size difference was approaching four times. If Red got a hold of this thing, it didn’t stand a chance.“That ain’t your trap, pal.”“Sorry. Was it yours?” The little mer took enough distance that at least it wasn’t laying on the net anymore. “I thought it was one humans had abandoned. My bad.”Red grunted. He wanted to be irritated that the tiny blue fish wasn’t trying harder to apologize when he was clearly the superior predator, but the damn thing had an annoyingly soothing voice, and it calmed him down.“Well, can’t do a thing about it now. Ya already ate ‘em.”The skeleton mermaid seemed to realize it’d been forgiven, but it gave an apologetic chuckle anyway.“Thanks for not throwing up a big fuss. My name’s Sans, by the way.”Red grunted again in acknowledgment and went to work setting the trap up again for another use. The mermaid swam a little closer to watch and made a throat-clearing noise. “Uh, what about your name?”“Huh? Oh. Red.”Sans gave him an approving smile, but Red found it irritating. Fine, meroctopuses had better mechanical smarts than social smarts, unlike mermaids. The fuck was Sans rubbing it in for?“What pronouns do you use, Red?” Sans asked with masterful politeness. “I use male pronouns.”“Same,” he muttered, finished with the trap.It appeared his antisocial nature was starting to cause Sans a little trouble with coming up with something else to say. Unfortunately, Red had something on his mind.“You go around stealing from other people’s traps often?”“Well, when I find one,” he shrugged. “Hunting things myself is, eh, effort. I’d rather not.”Red snorted. “Yeah, I can tell.” This midget mermaid was really an unusual sight. Like other skeleton mer, he had a layer of echo-flesh starting at the bottom of his rib cage and stretching out into his tail. The brilliant cyan color was really beautiful to look at (even Red thought so), but you could see Sans’s lazy habits by the way the concentrated magic was bloated a little where his abdomen would be.Blubber in ocean mammals existed to keep them warm in cooler waters, but Sans was just chubby from eating too much and not swimming enough. Never in his life had Red seen an ocean creature with enough leisure to put on excess mass.Without thinking too hard about it, he reached out and poked Sans’s belly. The ecto-flesh squished softly under his phalanges. “Maybe you oughta lay off a little. Something’s gonna make a nice snack outa ya.”Sans blushed and chuckled a little. “I’m faster than I look. M’not too worried.”Was that why he didn’t run when Red showed up? He had confidence in escaping? Finally something Red could respect. Just being pretty wasn’t quite enough to survive down here.“What about you?” Sans asked. “Isn’t it a little dangerous for you to be in water this shallow?”He wasn’t talking about the environment. He was talking about other mer. Meroctopuses were territorial, solitary, and often aggressive. There was a good chance a school of mermaids would decide to just wipe him out if they saw him. But, at the thought, Red just grinned.“I’m stronger than I look,” he said in a cocky tone. “M’not worried.”Sans chuckled and relented when his words were thrown back at him.“Hey, as an apology for stealing your food, how about I show you a good place to catch fish?”Red raised an eyebrow curiously. He was confident this little guppy couldn’t do anything to hurt him, so he gave a nod. “Sure. Is it far?”“‘Bout a thirty minute swim.”“Alright. Lead the way.”Sans wasn’t lying about being a fast swimmer. Even as big as red was and with his impressive burst speed, he had trouble keeping up. He didn’t doubt that Sans could escape him if he really wanted to.The place Sans led him to was an old ship wreck turned coral reef. As expected, there were tons of tiny fish flitting about, and it would be easy to trap them in closed spaces. Red gave an appreciative nod.“Not bad.”Sans grinned and waved over his shoulder. “There’s a real good spot in the middle where they all pass through. I think it’d be the perfect spot for a trap.”The pudgy mermaid flitted through a metal door to the inside of the ship, and Red curiously followed. Or, he attempted to. The human-made vessel was a little... space efficient? His rib cage was about the same width as the door, and it was a really tight squeeze.Sans noticed he wasn’t being followed and doubled back. “And you told me to lay off the snacks,” he teased. “I thought octopuses were good at fitting into tight spaces?”Red growled in response and pulled harder. Sans’s face morphed from amusement to shock as the rusted metal began to slowly warp. Once his ribs were past, his massive ecto-tentacles slid through easily. The hallway was cramped enough that nothing else would be able to swim past him, but Red had a natural fondness for places that were almost too small.“You were sayin’?”Sans laughed in surprise. “You... are really damn strong. Fuck.”“Well, I don’t just sit on my tail all day getting fat off other people’s food,” he grinned back maliciously.Sans shrugged. “Fair point. I am glad you managed to get in. The trip wouldn’t have been worth as much otherwise.”Sans led Red through the narrow halls. Occasionally, their progress was slowed by a narrow doorway that needed to be taught a lesson. Red was getting just a little bit sick of it.“This’d better be good, Sans.”“It is, I promise.”And it was. All the colorful little fish flitting about, careless in their supposed safety, looked like a veritable buffet to Red. He drooled a little.“If you get a good catch, share it with me, huh buddy?”Red scoffed. “Make your own damn traps. S’not that hard.”“I mean, if you’re making them anyway, might as well share, right?”Another scoff. They had just met. Why did this dumb little fish think he was entitled to Red’s catch?“You kiddin’? Look at the size of me, pal. I ain’t got much room to share food.”“That just means one or two little fish won’t make a difference, right?”Red wanted to argue back, but the little blue mer made a good point. He was really damn convincing.“Maybe I’ll think about it.”Sans’s eyelights grew brighter at that. “Seriously? Wow, that never works.”Red shrugged. “I don’t get to socialize much, and you’re decent company. ‘Sides, you’re right. One or two little fish ain’t much to me.” * The next day, Red had set up a new trap in the old shipwreck. He started seeing Sans around more and more, usually catching him raiding his traps. Occasionally, though, the grinning mer would approach him directly to strike up a conversation. Some days, Red was feeling social and would banter back. Other days, he mostly just listened. Sans seemed content to just lay in a sunny spot nearby and nap when their conversations died.“You really think it’s safe to just let your guard down like that?”Sans peeked one eye socket open and smirked. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna bother me with someone as big and scary as you around.” Red grunted in displeasure, and the little mer looked confused. “Uh, does it bother you if I nap?”“No,” he barked gruffly.“Then,” Sans obviously saw that his mood was off, “did what I said offend you?”The question had Red thrown a little off. It... it did bother him. But why? He’d never really considered his own looks, though he had seen his reflection before. His red eyelights and sharp, triangular teeth were pretty scary, and the scrapes and cracks on his bones gave him an aggressive aura. His size definitely added to that effect. He sometimes made use of those to warn off more intelligent ocean creatures, securing territory and privacy.But it somehow bothered him that his only chatting buddy thought he was scary.“A bit,” he huffed.Sans rolled onto his belly in the sand and looked up at Red with sincere eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”Red perked up a bit. “Really? You, uh,” he hesitated, “you don’t think I’m scary?”Sans laughed. “No, I think you’re scary.” He winked, “But I’m not scared of you. You’re a nice guy, Red.”A soft, red, magical blush settled on his cheekbones, and he felt happy, but externally, he huffed. “You just think that ‘cause I feed you.”Sans shrugged. “It helps.”Red pondered something. “Hey, if you’re really so lazy, why don’t you just get a mate? Have ‘em take care of you, hunt for you, all that?” Mermaids did that shit, right? Mate for life? Take care of each other?Sans looked more tired than usual at that question. “There aren’t any other skeleton mer in my school. I get some protection and food from them, but no potential mates.” He chuckled. “Nobody’s gonna put up with my lazy tail and do all that for me if I’m not gonna carry their kids.”Red paused. They were both skeleton mer (though different kinds), and Red was feeding and indirectly protecting Sans.“Hold on, am I your fucking mate?! Are these chat-nap sessions some mermaid mating ritual?”“What?” Sans looked thoroughly amused. “Do you think a mermaid and a meroctopus can produce offspring? You’ve got no reason to put up with me either, Red.”Red was relieved he wasn’t being mated without realizing it. He was also slightly disappointed. Sans was tiny, but he was very pretty, and he made good company. Social, but not overbearing, with a nice voice and good sense of humor.“Eh. I don’t wanna have kids anyway,” he found himself saying. Sans looked outright shocked by that.“Uh, heheh, am I your mate? Considering the context, that sounded like a come-on.”Red flushed, well, red, and stuttered. “T-that’s not—I didn’t mean it l-like that! Just meant that other meroctopuses are violent fuckin’ assholes.”Sans shrugged, “Then I don’t blame you.”A few more weeks went by like this, and Sans apparently couldn’t hold back his curiosity.“Hey, Red, not that I don’t appreciate it, but why are we still doing this?”The question confused Red. “What do you mean?”“I figured you’d be tired of my mooching by now. Why are you still putting up with me?”Red thought about it, and he was silent for several minutes, letting the sun wash over his bright red tentacles resting on the sand. “I guess I like your company?”“Aren’t meroctopuses supposed to be asocial?”Red chuckled. “Do I seem social to you?”Sans thought back to all the times he’d tried to have a conversation with Red only for the big octopus just sit there and stare at him. He considered all the times the idiot couldn’t figure out how to respond and the conversation just died. All the times Sans just napped while Red sat beside him quietly.“No. You fucking suck at it, actually.”Red let out a short growl, offended by the remark, though unable to deny it. He didn’t say anything, and Sans realized it was up to him to continue things again.“So if you don’t socialize, why do you like my company?”Red thought long and hard before opening his mouth. “Dunno. I just like hearing you talk ‘n watching you sleep on the sand. You don’t expect me to be social all the time, and we can just chill together. ‘S nice. ‘S my speed.”Red looked down and saw that Sans was blushing. He put his chin on his fist and tilted his skull slightly in confusion. “Sans? What's wrong? Did I say something weird?”Sans snapped out of it and shook his head. “Um, n-no. You didn’t.” The small mer wrung his skeletal hands and stammered out a question. “H-hey, Red? Can I ask you something?”Red furrowed his brow. “‘Course.”“Would,” Sans hesitated. Red had never seen him this nervous and awkward before. “Would it annoy you if I spent more time with you?”“Nah. You never get in my way when I’m doing stuff. If you’re bored, I don’t mind you tagging along with me wherever.”Sans was blushing brightly again, and Red couldn’t understand why for the life of him.“Wherever, huh? Even if I followed you back to your den?”“‘S long as you don’t trash the place, that’s fine with me.”Sans was silent after that. His face was flushed blue and he buried it in the sand. He didn’t move for so long that Red figured he was taking another nap. He stared openly. Staring was something he did even without thinking about it, but thankfully Sans didn’t seem to mind. Which was good, because Red liked looking at him. His blue scales and faintly glowing ecto-flesh were so pretty, and his white bones were so smooth and delicate-looking. Red even thought the extra weight looked cute on him; a badge he got from being the lazy food-thief Red loved.Wait... loved? Nah, wrong word. Red didn’t know what love was, but this was something else. Friendship? He’d never had a friend. That was probably it. The idea that Red could fall in love with anyone was just silly, so he thoughtlessly brushed it off. * Sans didn’t follow Red to his den like he’d implied he would. Not that night, anyway. But a few days later, he did. He followed Red around all afternoon and perked up in nervous excitement when his eyelights settled on the deep, dark crevasse they were swimming toward.“Hey, Red, is your den down there?”Red grunted in affirmation. “You still gonna follow me?”Sans’s pace slowed down slightly, and he looked a little sad. “Can I?”“‘Course,” Red shrugged carelessly. He actually wanted him to. Sans was always the one sleeping when they were together, but Red wanted to try sleeping with him nearby—somewhere safe, not out in the open.Sans eagerly followed Red down into the crevasse, little ecto-tail flicking. As they went deeper, though, his quick movements started to slow, and his rib cage heaved. The lights in his sockets swelled big and bright, but his expression was falling into panic.“R-red?” he called in a choked voice.“Hm?” Red looked over his shoulder and saw Sans floating in place, gasping for oxygen. “Holy shit! Sans, are you okay?”“Yeah,” he lied. “You still there? I can’t see anything. It’s too dark.”Shit. Red had forgotten mermaids were built mainly for shallow water.“I’m here,” he said, brushing a skeletal hand against Sans’s shoulder to prove it. Sans pressed into his touch, and Red gently curled his fingers. With both hands, he would be able to completely wrap around the other’s rib cage. He was so damn tiny.“You really don’t look so good.”“I’m fine, Red,” he insisted. “The water’s just a little heavy is all.”“Maybe you should go home then. My den’s still a ways down.”“But I want to see it,” he whined cutely. “I’ll admit, it’s hard to breathe here, but I’ll be fine if you carry me down.”Red raised an eyebrow, though he knew Sans couldn’t see it. “You sure you ain’t just lazy?” Sans laughed and Red looked at him seriously. He intentionally made his eyelights brighter so the mermaid could see his face. “You sure you want me to bring you? S’not like you’ll be able to see much in the dark anyway.”“I want to go, Red.”Red shrugged and pulled the chubby little mer into a cradled hold, making sure his descent was slow and smooth. He kept a close eye out for predators and any negative changes in Sans’s appearance. Surprisingly, he did last to Red’s den, though he had a hard time catching his breath. Red continued to carry him so the poor blue fishy wouldn’t pass out from overexerting himself.His den was just a cave in the cliff. The entrance was barely big enough for him, but the inside was more spacious. He’d carved it bigger over time, so there was room for spare food and a bed. Red set Sans on the bed of kelp, and he looked like he’d fall asleep on the spot.Sans let out a faint chuckle. “It’s... kinda cold down here... huh?”“Colder than the shallows, yeah. Are you too cold?”“I could use some warmth,” He admitted.“I can take you back up.”“No,” Sans protested. “Just... hold me. Keep me... warm.”Red hesitated, but wrapped a tentacle around Sans gently. He curled the appendage all around his tiny frame, and Sans sighed at the warmth. Red settled down onto the kelp bed and rested Sans on top of his rib cage. He was wrapped loosely enough that he wouldn’t have any additional trouble breathing.“Red?” Sans’s voice came quietly.“Yeah? You need to go back?”“Nah. I was wondering if you could make your eyelights bright again.”“Why?”“I liked it.”Red blushed and complied. Sans seemed to relax further upon being able to see again.“You’re so gentle, Red,” Sans sighed. “I really like that about you.”“M’not gentle all the time,” he muttered, thinking of his hunting, territory fights, and less-successful social interactions. “Just with you, really.”Sans’s face lit up blue again, a happy grin on his face. He sighed. “I need to go back. I’ll pass out soon, and I don’t think sleeping here would be good for me.”“Okay.” Red shifted and started carrying Sans back up. He felt disappointed, suddenly, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.When they reached the shallows, Sans started to swim on his own again. Before leaving, he turned back around and blushed.“That was nice, Red. You should come to my den next time.”Red could feel himself nervously sweating, but the saltwater washed it away as soon as it formed. “You live with a school, right? I don’t think they’d appreciate someone like me showin’ up.”“I would talk it over with them first to make sure you’d be safe.” He wrung his hands. “But, if you don’t want to see it in the first place, I guess I understand.”Normally, Red would see no fucking point in visiting another monster’s den. It was dangerous, and he just didn’t care. But he found he was curious to see how Sans lived when he wasn’t following Red around.“Talk to them first… then maybe.”Sans’s face brightened, and he gave a bell-like laugh that warmed Red’s soul and cheekbones. He was gone a moment later—the little fish’s speed really was impressive—and Red returned to his den for the night.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Red was beyond nervous, crawling over the endless white sand. Sans in front of him was chittering excitedly, telling him all about the others in his school and how everyone was really nice, but Red was just fucking terrified.Red was going to visit Sans’s den today. Other mermaids would be there. He wasn’t afraid for his safety (even though mermaids had been known to hunt more aggressive mer like him); he was confident in his strength. But the thought of being surrounded by people and being expected to respond to what they said and hold a conversation was terrifying.Red’s tentacles started to slow their pace, and he felt himself sweating again.“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”“What?” Sans turned around quickly and gave Red’s arm an excited tug. He couldn’t move the larger mer, but his enthusiasm was noted. “No, Red, this is a great idea! You’re going to love my school, I promise!”“I don’t think I can handle it,” he said shakily. “I get nervous around people. I can’t handle crowds.”Sans frowned. “There’s only seven of them. I told you that, Red.”“Sans,” Red’s grin was strained, and he was sweating heavily enough now that the little fish could probably see it, “seven is a lot of people. That’s a huge amount of people!” He held his head in his hands and shook it slowly. “This was a bad idea.”He disappeared into his own little world for a minute, but came back when he felt boney fingers on his cheek. Red’s eyelights came back and he saw Sans smiling at him in gentle encouragement.“I really think you’ll like them, Red. They’re all good people. But, if you’re not comfortable, I understand. I won’t force you to do this.”He wanted to say no. Oh, stars, how he wanted to just turn around and isolate himself in his den for the day! But the look on Sans’s face was just so… Red didn’t want to leave him. He didn’t want to disappoint his friend.He took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’ll try,” he said. “But if I need to leave, I’m gonna bolt, okay?” He wrung his hands. “It doesn’t mean I hate you or them if I do that, alright? Just means I need to be alone for a bit.”Sans beamed. “I completely understand. Come on, it’s just a bit further!”Sans’s school shared a strange community of dens; a maze built into the coral reefs, with some rooms for community things and others as private places. Sans enthusiastically brought Red to his room, pulling him along by the arm. When they arrived, he flitted inside and cozied up on a bed of sponges. “What do you think?”It was almost empty. Very plain and boring with no decorations to speak of. It was small, too. Red could already tell the doorway was going to give him a hard time.He loved it.“It’s perfect, Sans,” he grinned. Red liked to keep things simple, and it looked like Sans had the same tastes. The only thing that looked like it had effort put into it was the bed, and it looked real cozy.“Can I come in?”“Uh,” Sans faltered, then smiled brightly, “sure! If, uh, if you can. Please don’t break my door too much.”Red hesitated outside and wrung his hands. “‘S it okay if I break it a little?”Sans gave in and nodded. Red did try to be careful, but some chunks of coral couldn’t stand up to the abuse and broke off as he forced his rib cage through. His tentacles were far more malleable, and slid in with no trouble. All of him at once filled the room quite thoroughly, and he felt something weakly prodding underneath one of his red limbs. Red lifted it and saw Sans trapped underneath.“Shit! Sorry,” he quickly apologized, pulling the tiny mer into his arms. “I didn’t hurt‘cha, did I?”“I’m fine,” Sans smiled, his confidence returning now that he wasn’t being crushed under a mass of ecto-flesh. “Sorry. My room’s a little small for the both of us.”Red quickly shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I like tight places.” He looked down at Sans and hugged him a little tighter. “You feeling okay, Sans? You’ve been blushing a lot lately.”At the vocal notice, Sans’s blush intensified, and he quickly shook his head. “I’m fine, Red!” Then he ducked his chin, “You, uh, probably wouldn’t understand.”Red frowned and hugged tighter again, but he was careful not to hurt the little fish. “‘S that ‘cause it’s a mermaid thing,” his frown deepened, “or ‘cause my skull’s too thick?”The fact that Sans didn’t answer immediately revealed which of the two it was, and that made Red huff in frustration.“You know you gotta tell me if I’m doin’ something wrong, Sans. I’ll stop if I know what it is.”This time, Sans frowned, and the blush faded. “You’re not doing anything wrong, Red. I’m happy.”So it was a happy blush? Well that was a relief. Still, Red didn’t know what could have made Sans happy either.“When we’re done here, will you come meet my friends?” Sans asked delicately. “I warned them not to overwhelm you or anything.”Oh, he could not express how much he didn’t want to meet them, but what came out of his mouth was a weak, “Okay.”So he cradled Sans in the small room for a few dozen more minutes, just enjoying each other’s quiet company. When Sans started to wriggle, Red knew his stalling was at an end.“I’ll go tell them to gather in the main room, then I’ll come get you, okay?”Red nodded and watched Sans swim off. He was glad for the small room giving him a sense of safety while he waited. He honestly flinched when Sans reappeared in the doorway, and the little mer gave him a sympathetic smile.“I’m gonna be right beside you, okay?”Red gave another tight nod and reached out to accept the hand Sans was offering. He forced himself through the narrow door, breaking off a few more coral husk scraps. He desperately wanted to wring his hands, but one of them was occupied, so he just curled and uncurled his phalanges instead.The main room was spacious with wide entrances that would provide Red no trouble, but the stress kept him from entering. He saw seven mermaids gathered in the room, reasonably far from the entrance. There were three that were half goat, two that were half human, one that was half dinosaur, and one that was all fish.Red was never around this many people. If anything, encountering a group this large meant he was under attack. That would have been easier. If he could kill them and flee, he wouldn’t have to agonize over his social anxiety for another second.Sans kept eagerly swimming forward, but was suddenly jerked to a stop. Red wasn’t following past the doorway, and the little mer couldn’t pull him along. He looked over his shoulder and gave a worried but encouraging smile. Red didn’t have the leeway to acknowledge him while he was fighting back a panic attack. “Okay, how about I introduce everyone from here,” he said shyly. “Everyone, this is Red. He’s a little shy, but he’s a nice guy. Red, these are…”He didn’t hear all the names. Or, maybe he did? Red wasn’t sure; he couldn’t focus.Just like Sans, the other mermaids in his school were small compared to Red. The biggest one was a goat mermaid named Asgore, but even he barely reached Red’s chin if you compared their torsos. Red’s eyelights kept flashing back to his long horns and hoping the guy would fight him so he could kill them all and leave. The fish mermaid also looked ready to fight at any moment, while the yellow lizard clung to her arm and shook. “Red? Hey, Red? Are you okay?”He thought he could hear Sans’s voice calling out in worry, but it was too far away. A patting on his face drew him back, though. Red focused his eyelights to see a human mermaid (one of three children in the school), smiling at him with slanted eyes. The kid was smaller than Sans and had a very disarming aura. They were quiet, too. Red felt himself focusing on them as he came back to himself.Frisk. Their name was Frisk, and they used neutral pronouns.Red looked around the room and saw the rest of the school looking at him in concerned relief.“You back, buddy?” Sans asked, squeezing his hand with his tiny digits. “Had me worried there.” “We did not intend to frighten you,” the second largest mermaid said softly. She was… Toriel. Right…“I-if seven is too many people, I-I-I can wait outside,” the yellow lizard stuttered. Alphys; she was Alphys. “I-I’m n-not really g-g-great with crowds or strangers e-either.” Red found himself much calmer now, but it wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge again.“Hey, why don’t you say something, punk! You okay or what?” The fish mer—no, Undyne—shouted at him, and Red broke out into a cold sweat. Sans and Frisk shot her a look, and she cleared her throat. “Sorry. You don’t gotta talk if it’s too hard.”They knew he was pathetic. They didn’t have any expectations of him, socially. Thank the stars.Red released a shuddering sigh and visibly relaxed, he felt a small pressure at his rib cage and saw Sans trying in vain to wrap his arms around him in a hug.“You’re doing great, Red.”Frisk smiled too and gave him a reassuring pat on the head, and Red gently wrapped his arms around his little blue mer. He looked up at the rest of the school and swallowed nervously.“U-um… hi.”Stars, was it pathetic, but everybody beamed at him when he said it. Toriel risked coming closer, but she still gave Red plenty of room.“I have heard from Sans how you have been keeping him company and taking care of him. It is very nice to finally meet you, Red. You are welcome here whenever you like.”“Absolutely,” Asgore beamed, wrapping an arm around Toriel’s waist. “Any friend of Sans is a friend of ours.” “The little punk likes to get into trouble, but he should be safe with a big guy like you around, right?” Undyne let out a barking laughter.Sans’s school had several loud people in it, but several quiet people, too. Alphys and Asriel were even shy. But all of them were friendly. Red didn’t mind watching them all talk, but he got nervous whenever they looked to him for a response. Sans would set his hand on Red’s and wink, answering for him when he knew the answer, and Red would sigh in relief.The sun started to set, and Red fidgeted. “I should go home,” he said softly. “You can stay here if you want,” Sans offered hopefully.“Maybe later,” Red whispered. “I really need to be alone for a bit.” Sans smiled, but even Red could see the sadness in it. “Will you come back? Maybe tomorrow?”Red pondered it. “How about the day after?” He should have calmed down by then.Sans agreed, and Red didn't see him the next day. Presumably, he was giving him some alone time to recover from yesterday’s excitement. He spent his time repairing traps and setting up new ones, and basked in the sun for a while just because it was becoming a habit.The next day, Sans met Red immediately at the exit of his crevasse. They spent some time checking Red’s traps, and Sans got plenty to fill his belly. When the little mer was full, he took a nap on the sunny sand, and Red watched over him protectively. He had missed Sans yesterday more than he’d known. Having him nearby again made his soul feel warm. Friendship felt this good, huh? To think he might never have known.When Sans woke up, they visited one more trap just to make sure Red had enough to eat, and then they made their way to his school’s den. Before he could see it in the distance, Red knew something was wrong, and his body went stiff.“I smell blood,” he said darkly. Sans looked at him, worry settling on his expression. The little fishy took off at what must have been his top speed, and Red discovered that he truly couldn’t keep up. When Red did arrive, his soul caught in his throat, and his survival instincts drowned out the logical side of his brain.There was a big shark. Undyne and Asgore were fighting it back, and Sans and Toriel were leaning over Asriel and Chara who both had prominent bite marks.The smell of blood on the water must have sent the shark into a frenzy. Even with Undyne and Asgore together, it was overpowering them.In a burst of motion, Red lunged at the shark and wrapped it tightly in his tentacles. It wrestled with him and tried to get at an angle where it could bite, but Red was stronger and smarter. He repeatedly stabbed the creature with his beak, forcing poison into its body that made its movements sluggish. Undyne and Asgore saw he was doing well and gratefully took a break from fighting. In less than a minute, the shark had lost the strength to move, and Red wrapped a tentacle around its neck, squeezing until it snapped. His breathing started to return from its frenzied state, and he thought to look at the state of the children. They were alive, thank the stars. Toriel and Sans had used healing magic to seal the wounds before they got too bad.Sans wasn’t hurt. The important thing was that Sans wasn’t hurt.When Sans saw that the shark was dead, he appeared in front of Red faster than the meroctopus could process it. Hugging him and crying into his chest. Red was caught completely off guard, and gave him a timid pat on the back.“U-uh… It’s dead. You’re… okay, right?” Comforting another was so far out of his comfort zone.“Thank you,” Sans sobbed, and Red stiffened again. “Thank you for being here.”Red relaxed a little and held Sans with a bit more confidence. “‘Course.” He pulled the sobbing mer off of him so that they could meet eyes. “I’m gonna stay out here and keep watch. The smell of blood might attract predators. You go inside and check up on everybody.”Sans nodded and, suddenly, delivered a skeleton kiss to Red’s teeth. He was in the den before Red had time to wrap his head around it. When he realized it had been a kiss, he blushed bright red. His soul felt bright and happy despite the situation, and he wondered if guarding Sans’s school well would earn him another one.More sharks did come. Two, in fact. Red used magic to slow their movements so he could fight them both at once, and snapped their necks so as to minimize the blood left in the water. He piled the three sharks together and took a bite out of a smaller one. Sharks weren’t very tasty, but fighting and using magic made him hungry.After maybe an hour, Sans came out of the den.“Everyone is going to be fine,” he said, smiling weakly while the ocean carried off a stray tear. Sans noticed the pile of sharks and gasped. “Stars, Red! Are you okay?!”“M’fine,” he said, cradling Sans in his arms without thinking about it. Seeing the lazy mermaid safe filled Red with pride and satisfaction. He’d protected Sans; protected his den and school. He was strong, and his friend was safe.A surprised whimper alerted Red to the fact that he’d pulled Sans up to his face and started nuzzling him affectionately, low, rumbling purrs rolling out of his chest. The purrs died in his rib cage and Red’s eye sockets went wide. He immediately released Sans from his grip and started sweating.“Fuck, s-sorry! I d-didn’t—” before he could finish, Sans planted another kiss on his teeth.“You did really good, Red,” he praised, and the meroctopus started purring again with satisfaction.Soon, though, his instincts directed him toward panic as he was crowded by four other mer.“Dude, you’re wicked strong! You took down three sharks on your own! Hell, man! Nice going!”“Truly, thank you for protecting us and the children,” Toriel said earnestly.“We might not have managed on our own, I cannot thank you enough for jumping in when you did,” Asgore smiled in shame.Frisk planted little kisses all over his skull as a thanks for saving their siblings.Sans saw Red’s eyelights flicker out and quickly called out to the others. “Whoa, whoa, give him some space, guys!”The others startled and backed up, and Sans put his hands on either side of Red’s skull, guiding the meroctopus to look at him. His warmly glowing eyelights pulled Red out of his panic, and his breathing settled to a normal pace. “You’re okay, Red. Everything’s okay,” Sans said softly.Red swallowed and nodded, looking around at the others who looked thoroughly ashamed of themselves.“M’glad you’re safe,” he muttered.“Thanks to you,” Toriel smiled. “We’re very sorry for crowding you like that. It was unacceptable behavior.”Frisk lowered their head and churned up some sand with their tail. Red offered them a shaky smile. “Don’t worry about it, kid.”One by one, everyone apologized, thanked him again, and went back into the den. Red happily let them have the two sharks he hadn’t eaten from yet. Hunting would be hard for them while they were still tending to the injured, and shark didn’t taste great anyway.The last one was his, though. He took a few more bites out of hunger, and Sans wrung his hands. What, did he want to steal food again? He could just help himself. He should know Red would share his food with him by now.Red tore a piece of flesh off the creature and held it out to Sans, who smiled shyly.“Actually, I wanted to ask if you could stay here tonight.”Red pulled the meat back and put it in his mouth. “You wan’ me to keep wash?” He swallowed the raw magic left after chewing. “Sure.”Sans wrung his hands again and dared to draw closer, wrapping his fingers around one of Red’s ribs. Red jumped, but the touch felt nice. He felt another purr rumbling in his chest.“Actually, I was hoping you’d stay in my room with me tonight.”Red figured Sans was scared after having a predator attack his den, and wanted his company for reassurance. “Okay,” he nodded.Red brought the partially eaten shark into the den with him. Sans let him squeeze into the room first, dragging the shark behind him, and then found a place for himself. There wasn’t any way for the mermaid to get to his bed when the whole room was filled with Red’s tentacles, but he made himself comfortable on those instead. If his relaxed sigh was any indication, it wasn’t a bad place to sleep.Red continued to tear little pieces off the shark and force them down, unwilling to be hungry if he had to fight again in the next several hours. Eventually, Sans held out his hands and made a grasping motion. Red tore off a chunk, expecting him to eat it, but he bathed it in green-colored magic instead and handed it back.Red looked at the meat curiously. It was more translucent than before, and he chewed it curiously.It was delicious. He’d never eaten shark so good.“What the hell? Teach me how to do that!”Sans chuckled and explained the magic, and Red threw his all into emulating it. It was a technique Toriel often used, apparently. Sans didn’t bother with it much because most of what he ate was tasty on its own, and he didn’t like using magic when it wasn’t necessary.As soon as Red got a hang of the technique, he treated every hunk of shark he tore off, eating much more enthusiastically. Sans seemed to be willing to eat if Red was doing all the work, so one in every ten pieces went to him. Soon, the shark was gone, cartilage and all, and they both laid there completely full.Red had been using magic to treat the shark the whole time, so a fair amount of what he took in got spent right away, but Sans looked ready to pass out from the mass of magical energy swimming in his stomach. Red looked down at the little fish tenderly and gave his ecto-belly a loving stroke. His touch drew a half-pained half-pleasured whimper from the mermaid, and Red felt his cheeks light up with his red-colored magic.Today had been worrying for Sans’s school, but it had been a wonderful day for Red. He had protected Sans, fed him, he was keeping him comfortable on his warm ecto-tentacles. The softness Red felt below his phalanges wasn’t a sign of Sans’s school’s care anymore; it was a sign of Red’s care. Sans was safe, and full, and happy, and Red was being a wonderful mate.Red stopped stroking Sans’s ecto-flesh, surprised by his own thoughts. How long had he been thinking of Sans that way? He couldn’t remember, but he realized that he really did feel like that. He was treating Sans like his mate, and… he didn’t want to stop. But did Sans feel the same way? Red wondered if that was what his kiss before had meant, or if he was just grateful to Red for protecting his school.That was another thing: Sans lived in a school. If Red mated with Sans, would he have to become part of the school too? He couldn’t imagine tearing Sans away from his friends. The others were nice, just like Sans said, but it was a lot of people to constantly be around, and Red needed to be alone sometimes.… Red didn’t trust himself to make these kinds of decisions on his own. He would talk to Sans about it later.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Morning came, and thankfully there were no more attacks. Red woke up at the first rays of sunlight and watched Sans sleep fondly, his beautiful, bright blue tail curled up so he was tucked in a little ball.Red found himself reaching down and petting the tiny mermaid’s tail, purring happily at the softness, particularly just below the front of his rib cage.His invasive touches soon woke the other skeleton mer up, and he looked up at Red with a pronounced blue blush on his face. “M-morning?”Some part of Red told him he should stop feeling all over Sans now that he was awake, but he ignored it in favor of satisfying his instincts.“Mornin’,” he purred, pulling the little fish into his arms and continuing to stroke with his free hand. Sans’s blush continued to spread until most of his skull was blue.“Uh, are you feeling okay, Red?”Red paused his strokes, worried that Sans didn’t like his petting, or that mermaids didn’t show affection like this. Was he being weird? Was he making Sans uncomfortable?“I feel good. Didja want me to stop?”Sans blushed and hesitated, but he shook his head in the end. Red purred happily and resumed stroking the length of Sans’s tail. A few minutes passed by peacefully like that, then Sans forced himself to speak.“Hey, uh, Red?” The meroctopus hummed that he was listening. “I don’t know if you know this, but mermaids usually don’t touch each other like this.”The petting stopped again, and Sans mourned its absence. Red looked down at him in worry. “Is it bad?”“No,” Sans shook his head quickly. “It’s just usually something reserved for mates.”Red lifted Sans up and nuzzled their faces together.“I want to be your mate,” he purred.Sans froze stiff and stared at the giant mer in shock. Red noticed the change and pulled him away to make eye contact. Sans could tell from his searching eyelights that Red was starting to panic and shut down socially.“W-why do you want to?” Sans managed a slightly garbled sentence. “I really don’t think I can have children for you, if that’s what you want.”Red pouted. “I don’t care. I like taking care of you.” He brought Sans close to nuzzle him again, and the smaller skeleton’s thoughts were racing. He wanted to be Red’s mate if he could, but he doubted someone like Red knew all that that meant.“Red,” Sans said gently, prompting the bigger mer to stop cuddling again for a minute. “I want to be your mate too.”Red’s eyelights swelled bigger and turned into hearts, but Sans held his arms out to keep him from cuddling again. “Hold on a second! I need to make sure you know what mating means for a mermaid. And I want you to tell me what it means for a meroctopus too.”“Okay.” Red gently set Sans down on his tentacles so they could talk.Sans took a deep breath. “First, mermaids mate for life. You can’t change your mind about this later. Get it?” Red nodded. “Second, you’ll become a member of my school. You’ll live here, share food with everyone, protect everyone… are you okay with that?” Red hesitated, but he nodded.“Would, uh... would it be fine if I had a place to be alone when I need it?”Sans nodded. “Yeah, we could work something out.” “Someplace dark, okay?”Sans gave the nearest ecto-tentacle a reassuring pat. “Yeah, okay, Red.” He let out a relieved breath and looked up at his (hopefully) soon-to-be mate. “What about you, Red?”He saw clear uncertainty in the other’s eyes. “Uh, we don’t really teach each other stuff, y’know? So, I dunno if what my instincts tell me applies to others like me.”“Just tell me what your instincts are telling you, then,” Sans smiled.“I want to stay with you, and keep you safe, and hunt for you. If we can have kids, I wanna help you take care of them. Even if we can’t, I still really, really want to touch you as if we could.”Sans’s soul tightened, and he threw himself into a hug. That was more than he’d hoped to hear from a typically asocial creature.“Great!” he sobbed a little from joy. “That’s great, Red. Please let me be your mate.”Sans hadn’t anticipated just how intensely he would react when he finally had a mate. He had wanted one for so long, but the ocean was so vast, and other mer seemed so far away. Meeting Red was a wonderful stroke of fortune—even if he had thought he’d be killed the first time he saw the giant mer.Red purred happily. All he wanted now was to pet and shower loving touches down on his new mate, but Sans dragged him out to announce the news to the rest of the school. It basically amounted to Red standing there awkwardly while Sans did all the talking for them both. Red had never seen him this energetic before.The others were happy for them both. They apparently had no problem with accepting a meroctopus into their school—not when Sans loved him, and certainly not after he’d fought off three sharks for their sake.Alphys and Red worked together to make a new room where he could have some alone time. It was a little separate from the rest of the den, but not so far that he couldn’t help if something attacked. It was built without any windows or gaps to let the light in, and with two individual rooms inside. One room was larger, so he could spread out, store food, or have guests. The other room was barely big enough for him to fit. Dark, tight spaces made him feel safe, so they made sure his safe space had one.Alphys was a little concerned that they’d made the second room too small and that Red would get stuck inside, but he refused to let her “ruin it” by making it bigger.Sans came over to see Red’s new room for the first time, only to realize it was too dark inside for him to actually see anything.“Hey, Red, would you make your tentacles glow so I can see?” he asked.“Huh? Make ‘em glow?”“Yeah. Just like how you make your eyes glow.” Red attempted it and found that he could. The thick red ecto-tentacles lit up brightly and cast the whole room into soft light.“How’d you know I could do that?”“I just figured, since I can make my tail glow.” Red raised an eyebrow. “You’re just too lazy to do it yourself, huh?”“Yep,” Sans chuckled.Red wrapped him in a brightly glowing tentacle and held him up. “I wanna see.”Sans shrugged and lit his tail for a few seconds. It glowed bright cyan, with some pretty yellow spots down the sides that weren’t usually visible. Red breathed in sharply.“You’re beautiful,” he praised, making Sans’s face light up with his tail. *** Red helped hunt for the school, and he was definitely a big contributor. Usually he caught larger fish and brought them back for Toriel to prepare for the others, then he and Sans would take their meals from Red’s traps. Red was a doting and overprotective mate, and he always made sure Sans was fed before tending to himself. If the traps didn’t have much in them, he just hunted something for himself later.He also treated everything Sans ate with that special green magic, insisting on not just feeding his mate, but feeding him good food. He occasionally hunted down more special foods like oysters and salmon when he was feeling particularly love-struck.Red still couldn’t handle being around more than three people at a time, but he was friends with everyone else in the school. It was an unspoken rule that nobody approached him if he was already with that many. Even still, sometimes he forgot how to talk or what to say, or worse, said something badly. Sans would bail him out when that happened. The little mer’s social adeptness was more than enough for both of them. *** Sans sighed, the warm sand on his front felt good, and the sun on his back felt even better. He could be perfectly relaxed with Red sitting nearby, warding off predators.He had drained the heat from the sand, so he rolled over onto his back, starting the warming cycle all over again. The sound of contented purring nearby made him peek an eye socket open.Red had his eyes fixed on him, like he always did when Sans was sunbathing. Sans didn’t know what had his mate so excited, but he delivered a playful wink and a chuckle.“What’s up, big guy? Like what you see?”Red’s purring grew louder, and Sans’s soul warmed alongside his sun-struck scales. He loved the way his mate looked at him, never hiding the desire in his eyes; always looking proud and satisfied.Sans grinned when his mate gave up resisting and reached down to pet him. He was always so gentle; his touches felt so nice and relaxing. Sans closed his eyes again to drift off, but startled a little when he felt an unexpected squeeze. He opened his eye sockets and peeked down at Red’s long fingers prodding his belly.Sans suspected it had gotten a little bigger since Red intensified his caregiving, but it wasn’t enough that he particularly noticed. Judging by the proud grin on Red’s face, though, he thought he had noticed a change.Sans chuckled. “Yes, Red, I’m not starving. You’re doing a good job keeping me fed.”Red whisked Sans off the floor and held him against his rib cage, where he could feel Red’s purring in his bones. The giant octopus mer laid back in the sand so Sans could still get sun, and enthusiastically petted his mate. Sans laughed when Red accidentally tickled him, and tickled Red back. It soon turned into a tickle match, not that Sans could hope to win against someone with ten limbs.Too soon, though, something interrupted their fun: the sounds of distant voices approaching closer.They noticed at the same time and sat up to look. In the distance, they saw a group of five or so mermaids approaching, armed with magic weapons for hunting. Sans thought they would swim right past and continue looking for some medium sized fish to hunt, but they stopped a short distance from Sans and Red.“Damned savage! Let that innocent mermaid go this instant!”A low growl built up in Red’s rib cage. Enemies. Kill them. Protect Sans. Another voice shouted far louder than the one in Red’s head.“Excuse me?!” Sans got up and swam a bit closer to the hunting party, scowling harsher than Red had ever seen him. “That is my fucking mate, thank you!”The rabbit mermaid at the front looked momentarily shocked, then understanding, but quickly disdain spread across his face. “Why the hell would you mate with a bottom-feeding predator like that?”“Better than a jackass like you!” The little blue mer spat.Red watched the rabbit mer’s fist clench with rage around the body of his trident and immediately put himself between Sans and the hunting party. “Don’t you dare threaten him,” he growled.The rabbit mer flinched but covered it with a scoff. Still, he loosened his hold on his weapon. Sans swam around in front of Red again, and the larger mer held him protectively.“He’s my mate and a member of my school. Go find an actual savage to hunt. Like a shark or something.”The hunting party left, and Sans sighed in relief, glad it didn’t devolve into violence. He didn’t want to see Red killing other mer right in front of him. (Never did he consider that Red would get hurt. He was much too strong.)Once Red felt they were safe again, he brought Sans up to his face to nuzzle. He was happy to see his mate earnestly defend him, and happier that he was still safe and healthy.“I love you too, Red,” Sans laughed, patting his skull. “Let’s go cuddle at home where we can have some privacy, okay?”Red agreed, but he didn’t let go, insisting on swimming Sans back to the den himself and occasionally nuzzling his head. For his part, Sans had no problem with doing less work, so he relaxed in Red’s arms and enjoyed the ride.They went to Red’s private room, and the giant octopus curled up in his tight space. His tentacles wrapped all the way up the walls and ceiling in order to fit, but it left a pocket in the middle big enough for Sans to sit on Red’s chest. Red made his tentacles glow so they were surrounded by soft red light.Sans gave in to the possessive coddling and stretched out his limbs, getting comfortable on Red’s rib cage for a nap. Red purred and stroked the length of Sans’s body, which only made it easier to konk out. Sans didn’t know how much time had passed when he woke up, but it was clear Red had been staring at him intently the whole time. He hadn’t stopped petting, either. “Hey, Red,” Sans yawned, “I think I’m gonna stretch my tail a bit. Can you let me out?” The big goof nodded and twisted his way out of the little room, unfurling himself so Sans was free to move. Outside, the sun was close to setting.“Oh. So that’s why I’m hungry,” Sans chuckled. “It’s almost dinner—” Red zipped out of the room faster than he’d moved all day, “—time.”Sans laughed, figuring the dope went to get him something to eat. While he waited for his mate’s return, Sans had some fun chats with the other mer in his school and caught up with them. In about an hour, Red returned with a swordfish for the school and clams and salmon for Sans. The little mer chuckled. That explains it. He’s in one of those moods today. I thought he was being clingier than usual. There were three main signs that Red was in one of his lovey-dovey moods: he would get quieter, more touchy-feely, and he would go out of his way to get nice food for his mate.Sans had tried to share some of his nice food with the school once, and Red had been heartbroken, so now Red usually brought one or two extras for the others to divvy up.They went to a corner of the community room, where Red sat down and Sans made himself comfortable on the many springy tentacles. He watched in patient amusement as Red prepared all the clams for him to eat and skinned the salmon to boot. Red ate all the skins, shells, and bones, ‘cause he was a fucking garbage disposal, then supplemented his dinner with whatever prey he’d brought in earlier that week and was soon to go bad (because he always over-hunted for their small school). It had to be emphasized, the meat was half-rotted. Even if it was treated with magic, Sans would rather avoid eating it, but Red was a fucking garbage disposal.Even Toriel, who hated when they wasted food, wasn’t entirely happy with Red doing stuff like that. She had suggested he maybe hunt less, but his caretaker instincts wouldn’t let him allow his school to simply “get by”. In the end, the sub-par food didn’t seem to hurt him, so they gave up on that issue.“Hey, Red,” Sans waved his mate over. Red approached with eager curiosity, and Sans held up a piece of tender clam meat he hadn’t eaten yet. He patted his soft ecto-belly and smiled. “I’m stuffed. You can have this last one, okay?”“Okay.” Red was easily convinced as soon as Sans mentioned that he had eaten plenty, so he ate the flavorful meat and grinned, probably proud that this was what his mate was tasting. After dinner, Red’s plan was more cuddling with and petting his full and happy mate. The fact that he was doing this in one of the community rooms was already a sign of huge improvement for him. Chara, one of the mermaid children, a human mer with brilliant red eyes, swam up and held out an empty shell to Red. “Thanks for the clams!” they grinned. “You can have the shell, since I’ve seen you eat them.”While Red crushed the clam shell between his sharp teeth, Sans looked around the room. Asriel was licking the inside of an empty clam shell, and Alphys and Undyne were splitting a salmon. The losers of this lovey-dovey day were Toriel, Asgore, and Frisk (who was moping rather obviously in the corner). As far as Sans saw, they typically played games together, and the winners would get dibs on the next good catch Red brought in.Asriel brought his shell over next, and Red munched on that too. “Can’t you bring enough for everybody?” He asked timidly. “I feel bad when the others don’t get any.”Chara laughed. “Yeah, Sans, share more. You’re getting fat anyway.”“That’s not what I meant, Chara!” Asriel whined, appalled.“I’m just kidding, jeez.” They rolled their eyes. “I actually like playing games to decide it. Winner gets the best food!”Red didn’t say anything. Sans doubted he could say anything. He was probably working too hard trying to keep up with the banter and had no idea when or how he was supposed to respond. Not to mention, he was always quieter on days like this.“Children,” Toriel called from across the room, “Would you mind? I have something I’d like to talk with Red about.”The rule about no more than three people with Red at a time was still in place, so the kids politely scampered off and the large goat mer approached.“Red, dear, I was thinking about making a special meal for Frisk’s birthday. It requires a significant number of snails, and I was hoping you would keep an eye out for them?”“A special dinner for Frisk?” he pondered. “Okay.”“Well, it’s closer to a dessert than a dinner. Everyone will get to try it.” Toriel smiled happily, and Red’s eyes lit up brighter.If everyone was getting some, that included Sans. Red was always willing to try harder if it benefitted Sans. Toriel would have those snails by tomorrow evening at the latest. *** The next evening, the school was getting their first taste of snail pie in months. Toriel only made them for the children’s birthdays, and they certainly were a treat.Everyone gave Frisk some sort of present. Shells, pretty rocks, nice corals… Red got them an oyster, and Sans carved Frisk’s name into it. He cared, even if he was astonishingly lazy.After all the presents were handed out, it was time for the fabled pie, which Red would be trying for the first time. His eyelights sparkled when the concoction touched his magical tongue.“Do you like it, Red?” Toriel smiled. He nodded rapidly, quickly taking a second bite. Sans chuckled and gleefully ate his share, leaning into one of Red’s tentacles after to relax. Something entered Sans’s line of sight, and he blinked at it in confusion. It was Red’s piece of pie with two bites missing. “R-red,” Alphys chastised him, “th-that’s your piece! Y-you should eat it.” “Yeah, Red. That’s for you,” Sans said, gently pushing the offering away.Red grunted in displeasure. “It’s my piece, I can do what I want with it.”Toriel raised a paw to her mouth and chuckled. “That’s very sweet of you, Red. You’re a very caring mate.” A wide smile bloomed across his sharp teeth, but Toriel giggled again. “However, I do not think Sans needs to be eating any more pie.”Sans’s eye sockets opened wide and he rested a hand on his ecto-belly, staring at the goat mer in shock. “Tori, you too?” He gave Red a mock look of exasperation. “Well, I guess that’s that. I’m going on a diet. No more nice clams, or oysters, or salmon, or—” “Wait, wait, now hold on a second!” Chara shot out of their seat, wide-eyed. “I never said anything about you putting on weight, Sans! There’s no need to go that far!”He raised an eyebrow at them. “You did, actually.”“But I was only kidding!” Sans chuckled, but stopped when he heard a high-pitched whine beside him. Red was still holding the piece of pie out to him, wearing an utterly hurt look. “J-jeez, Red, what’s wrong? We were only kidding around, you know? Tori was just teasing me and I was teasing back.” The whining stopped, and Red’s face relaxed a bit. “I still think you should eat your piece of pie, though. It’ll be a long time before the next one.” And Red was frowning again. “Red, come on. I know you liked it. You took two bites!” Sans could see that his attempts at persuasion weren’t working, so he gave in and used his strongest technique. “I’m full anyway.” “You mean it?” Red demanded. “Couldn’t eat another bite,” Sans lied.Red gave in and ate the rest of his slice then, clearly savoring the uniquely rich taste. *** Sans woke up the next morning to find himself submerged in a mass of bright red tentacles. He stirred awake, and an opening formed for him to slip out of. Red eagerly caught him on the way up and nuzzled his head almost aggressively. “Morning Red,” Sans smiled. “I’m surprised you weren’t watching me sleep.” “You looked cold,” he stated, and Sans noticed that they were approaching the winter months.“Really? Well, I guess it is chillier than usual.” Sans stretched and his stomach grumbled. Red dashed out of the room as soon as he heard that sound, obviously off to get something for breakfast. Sans went to spend time with the others while he waited, and Red came back with armfuls of clams and oysters, and a few small, sweet crabs, too. He handed out enough of the catch to the others so that everybody could have one and there would be no complaints, then he cradled Sans with his front tentacles and prepared the food with his hands.“It’s one of those days again, huh?” Sans chuckled. “Alright, I don’t mind being pampered a bit.”Red smiled brightly and lifted Sans up to give him a kiss on the forehead. “That’s good, ‘cause I really wanna pamper you today.”Sans let Red feed him tasty bottom-feeders, comfortably warm in the large mer’s tentacles. He’d brought so many that Sans genuinely got full before he could finish them all, so Red set aside the rest.“C’mon, Red, you should eat those.”“They’re for dinner,” he insisted. “If they’re still leftover after that, then I’ll eat ‘em.”Sans relented to that and submitted himself to a day of petting. Red took him outside for several hours to bask in the sun and stretch his fins a bit, but it was mostly a lazy day full of petting and eating. Red stuffed Sans on good food again for lunch and dinner, but he did keep his promise of eating the leftovers after that. Red really was in a mood, and Sans wondered if he’d be going into heat soon. He couldn’t think of another reason to explain this kind of behavior. Whatever the cause was, though, Sans really did love being cared for so attentively, and he was fine with however Red wanted to dote on him. *** Sans woke up and stretched his limbs in the cool, early winter air. His lower half was entirely wrapped up in Red’s tentacles. Red, surprisingly enough, was still asleep. He must have worn himself out hunting so much over the past couple of days. Sans patted his soft exto-belly and noted that, if nothing else, it was keeping him a little warmer in these cooler months.It was pretty obvious how much Red had been “pampering” him lately. He’d been teased by everyone in the school besides Alphys at least once about it. A little friendly teasing didn’t bother him any. Besides, he was a mer, not some mammal or fish. Any extra weight was just excess magic, ready to be used. If he wanted, he could go waste some magic attacks on the seafloor and slim down, but Sans actually liked having plenty of extra magic in case of an emergency. For example, if one of the kids got hurt again and Toriel didn’t have enough magic to heal them, he could step in for her. That sort of thing. The joy Red expressed when he saw how well his mate was eating wasn’t exactly encouragement to lose weight, either, so Sans continued being lazy and content. “Hey, Red,” Sans hummed, swimming up to his mate’s face and kissing his cheek. “It’s morning. Wake up, sleepy bones.”Red lazily peeked an eye socket open and grumbled. “Mornin’.”He yawned and stretched his arms, then pulled Sans into a hug, pressing the smaller mer against his rib cage while he nuzzled his chin to the top of his head. Red freed one of his hands and sluggishly stroked his mate. He lingered a bit on Sans’s ecto-belly and gave it a gentle pinch, making a satisfied hum in the base of his throat.Red yawned again and stretched a few of his tentacles out into the hall. “Is the sun up?”“Yep.”“Are you hungry?” “I can wait. You seem tired today.”Red groaned, but he didn’t deny it. “Did you not sleep well or something? You’re not getting sick, are you?”“I’m not sick. I just,” he ran his hand over his face and sighed. “I’m just tired. I think I need a me day.”“Really? You lasted a lot longer than I thought you would.”“Yeah, me too.” “Well, I’ll tell the others not to bother you. Just make sure to check in with me in the morning if you’re gonna need more than a day. I want to know you aren’t sick or hurt.”“Okay.”Red hauled himself up and made his way to his private room, and Sans went to say good morning to the others. “Where is Red?” Toriel asked. “He has usually left to hunt by now.”“He’s hit his limit,” Sans explained. “He’s gonna hang out in his room today.”“I guess that leaves the hunting to me and Asgore,” Undyne stated.“Well, you won’t have to work too hard. We still have plenty of extra from Red’s... enthusiastic hunting,” Toriel smiled.For the first time, Sans wondered if Red was intentionally gathering extra food in preparation for days like these. The thought made his soul flutter with pride.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It took three days for Red to come out of his room, and the first thing he did was hug Sans like they’d been apart for a year.“I missed you too, big guy,” Sans chuckled, patting his chest.“I’m sorry. Really fucking sorry,” he said, checking Sans all over for injuries or signs of malnourishment.“More importantly, are you feeling better?”“I feel so much better,” Red grinned.The first thing they did together was go out and check all of Red’s traps, bringing the catch back to the den.At dinner, Undyne saw fit to complain. “You’re a pretty weird guy, you know that, Red?”He looked up from his food and shrunk back nervously. “Uh… why?” “You’re always hunting and mothering Sans at two-hundred percent power! And then you just abandon us—even Sans—for three days to hide in your room? What’s the deal with that?”“I… u-uh,” Red glanced at Sans, as if begging for help. One on one, Red could manage some form of conversation, but when others were watching his nerves got the best of him.“He just needed a break, Undyne,” Sans shrugged.“You may ask Undyne and myself to hunt for you if you’re tired, Red,” Asgore told him. “There’s no need to exhaust yourself.”“N-no, not that. Uh, it’s um… What’s the fucking word? …Shit. Sans?” “Red’s a meroctopus,” Sans said. “He’s not naturally inclined to live in a group. Sometimes the pressure hits him the wrong way and he needs to be alone for a while. That’s the kind of break he needed.” He swallowed the meat of an oyster. “It’s why we built him that dark room in the back. Remember?”“Seriously?” Undyne blinked her yellow eyes. “He never needed it all this time. I kinda thought he was over that.”Sans smiled and nudged one of Red’s tentacles. “Yeah, he’s been doing a really great job adjusting.”Red looked down at Sans and grinned in shy joy. *** Throughout the cold months, Red continued to be just the cuddliest mer in the ocean. Sans would admit he liked it. He didn’t know if Red was just naturally warmer than he expected a skeleton mer to be, or if he was using magic to keep his temperature up, but his massive tentacles were the perfect place to keep warm. In fact, although it shocked Sans and the others in the school, when the two human mer kids started shivering, he offered to let them join. He held them more distantly than he did Sans, but it was still prolonged physical contact. Sans was proud of his mate. As the water warmed, though, Red’s cuddling changed natures slightly. There was more kissing and nuzzling than holding and hugging. Several times, Red whined at even the suggestion of putting Sans down. It was starting to drive the little mer crazy because his body was getting ready to mate for the spring and this teasing was too much. Finally, one morning, Sans pushed Red’s face away from him right after waking up and jabbed a phalange at his face. “Red, I swear, if you don’t quit teasing and mate with me already, I’m going to go nuts!”Red’s eyes widened, as even he could understand what Sans meant.“You’re in heat?” Sans blushed and tried to keep his breathing even. “Yeah. Is yours coming soon or what? The wait is killing me.” Red shook his head, “We don’t get heats. I’m ready to go whenever.”Sans’s eyes went wide and he grinned. “Seriously! Thank the stars! Let’s go already!”The little mer pressed himself up against Red’s chest and purred for the first time since they’d been together, full of need and ready to satisfy it, but Red pulled him back by the shoulders.“Slow down.” Sans could taste Red’s magic thick in the water. He was sweating a lot. “Shouldn’t we eat first? I don’t know how it is for mermaids, but once I start, I’m gonna need at least four hours to finish.”Sans drew in a sharp breath and stared at his mate incredulously. “Four hours?! Why the hell does it take so long?!”Red winced and wrung his hands, looking guilty. “For us, it’s a size thing. I’m big, so it takes a while.” Sans took a breath to steady himself. The fact that sex was an all-day activity was a shock, but it wasn’t something Red could help. It was best to just accept it. Stars, his nerves were going to be mush by the end of this, weren’t they?“If that’s the case, you’re right. We should definitely eat first.” They swam out to gather the trapped prey and delivered them to the den. While Red was preparing Sans’s food, Sans caught Undyne’s attention. “Hey, Undyne, lunch is gonna be on you and Asgore today.”“Yeah?” She glanced at Red. “The big guy looks fine. You just need a break, Red?” “Gonna be busy,” he murmured. “I’m in heat, so Red’s gonna take care of me,” Sans explained, feeling his soul flutter in anticipation. “Until lunch?” Undyne asked. “Damn, Sans. I know you’ve been waiting for a while, but I didn’t think you had that much stamina.” Sans laughed out loud. “You think I can do anything but sleep for that long? Nah, Red says it’s gonna take him at least four hours. I’m gonna leave all the hard stuff to him and just enjoy it.”Undyne blinked, looked at Red who shrunk under her gaze, and looked back at Sans. “I’m sorry. Did you say four hours?” Red’s face turned his namesake, and he nodded, and Undyne let out a low whistle. “Sans, you damn lucky son of a bitch.” A shark-like grin split her face. “Alphys is gonna flip when she hears this.”“When I h-hear what?” the lizard mermaid stuttered.“Red’s about to go fuck Sans for at least four hours!” Undyne told her. “O-oh! Is Sans in heat already?”“Alphys, didn’t you hear what I said? Four hours! Isn’t that nuts?”“W-w-well, n-no. N-not really. Red is a-a meroctopus, a-after all. The amount of time it takes for them to mate i-is entirely dependent on th-the l-length of the h-h-hectocotylus. Red i-is r-rather large, s-so I assumed it would take him a w-while.”Red’s eyebrows shot up. “How the fuck do you know all that?” “U-um, research. I-I’ve studied most o-of the mer species that c-can be found around here.” It seemed pretty clear that Undyne would tell everyone where Sans and Red were, so they retreated to Red’s private room where they wouldn’t be interrupted.The first thing Red did was light up his ecto-flesh so Sans could see, then Sans went in for a kiss. It was excited and breathless, and they were both breathing harder when he pulled back.“I don’t really know how to do this with you,” Red admitted.Sans smiled sympathetically. “Yeah, me neither. I can choose how I present, but can you, Red?”“What, you mean like rod or hole? Yeah, I can pick. But, uh, if somehow this does take, know that I’d lay a lot of eggs, and they’re a handful.”“I was planning to be on the receiving end anyway,” Sans chuckled. “No idea how I’d last four hours otherwise.”Red nodded and pulled his third back tentacle to the front. Sans noticed the few inches at the tip without suckers were firming up. “In that case, this is what I’ll be using.” He looked his mate over uncertainly. “Where should I put it?” Since Red was ready, Sans told his own magic to start and formed his opening. Red spotted it almost immediately and let out a deep purr. “‘S it fine if I hold you n’ stuff?” “Yes, please touch me and talk to me during this,” Sans blushed. “That’ll make it so much better.”Red nodded and started sweating slightly. “I feel,” he said unsurely, “like I’m gonna wanna get kinda rough. I might bite and shit—but I promise not to hurt you.”“As long as you’re gentle. I’ll tell you if I want more.”So, Red picked Sans up in his tentacles and started stroking in and around his rib cage, planting kisses on his face and neck. Sans felt his entrance readying itself for use. It didn’t take too long before something firm and warm pressed up against its edges. There was absolutely no hurry for Red, so he teased the outside for a while longer, until Sans was whining and begging for more. Finally, he pushed the very tip inside, then slowly slid in more.Sans arched his spine and gasped. It felt so much better than he’d imagined! Red pushed in more and Sans cried out in glee. How had he passed so many heats without this? He’d used his fingers or some smooth rocks to get through this in the past, but this felt so much better!Red pushed more of his length into Sans, and the little mer moaned. He felt so full, so complete. Red was still stroking him and teasing him with his suckers, and Sans’s insides were full, and maybe four hours of this wouldn’t be enough. But then Red tried to insert himself more, and Sans gasped in pain. “Ah! Red! You can’t! I’m full already! That hurts!”Red carefully retracted himself and Sans gasped for oxygen. He was still filled with pleasure, and the lingering tingles of pain accented it. Red’s loving strokes made his bones slick with sweat.“You okay?” Red purred, his voice low and gravelly.“That much is perfect,” he gasped. “Is it too big?” he checked. “No, not too big.”“I can make it bigger.”Sans felt his mouth go numb and he barely managed to reply. “Oh, Stars. Red, please.”And the warmth filling Sans began to swell, stretching him until it was almost too much. “Right there, Red! That’s perfect!”Sans’s head sagged. The pleasure was already overwhelming and exhausting him, but he anxiously waited for it to intensify. After a few minutes passed, he had adjusted, though, and Red still wasn’t stroking his inside like he was the outside.“Red? Are you gonna move that around at all or what?”The giant mer stopped kissing Sans’s neck long enough to look puzzled. “What do you mean? Am I supposed to?”“Yeah. It’ll feel good.” “M’kay.” Red started to twist and rotate. He pressed into various places on Sans’s walls and noted which ones made the little mer moan in pleasure. It only took a few minutes after that for Sans to get pushed over the edge. He cried out and the water suddenly smelled like his magic. The lazy mermaid went limp in Red’s arms and tried to catch his breath.“Fuck. Already?” Red murmured, starting to withdraw from his mate. “I’ll finish the rest myself, I guess.”Sans gripped Red’s ribs and kissed his collarbone. “Hold on, big guy. We don’t gotta stop yet.”“But you came,” he pointed out.“Yeah. I can do it more than once, you know?”Red’s eye sockets went wide with that new piece of information. “Seriously? How many times?” Sans smiled at him with half-lidded sockets. “I dunno. Wanna find out?”Red gawked and gave his mate an almost worshipping stare, sheathing himself back inside. An angel; Sans was an angel. Red brought him to the edge over and over, and every time, the lazy little mer showered him with kisses and begged for more. It was ages before Sans finally expressed exhaustion.“F-fuck, Red!” he gasped, climaxing yet again and leaning against his mate’s chest to recover. “H-how close are you?”Red hummed and considered it. “Maybe a third of the way?”Sans groaned. His insides felt raw with pleasure, and every involuntary twitch hurt. He had already expelled enough magic to cancel out his last few meals, but Red wasn’t even close to finishing. How many hours had it been?“Does… it at least feel good for you?” Sans panted.Red nuzzled his head in response. “Feels great, but I’m having more fun watching you lose it.”Sans whimpered and drew in a sudden breath when Red nipped his collarbone with his sharp teeth.“Ya look tired. Just relax and lemme take care of ya, okay Angel?”Sans whined pitifully in response, submitting himself to a complete overload of pleasure. He blacked out once or twice during particularly draining orgasms, and his sense of time completely failed him. He couldn’t even think; there was too much ecstasy in his head.Hours in, Red’s movements started to get rougher. He bit at Sans and dragged his claws down his back. He controlled his strength so he didn’t leave any marks, but the little mer still flinched at the stinging sensation. It mimicked the sharp pleasure-pain of his completely raw insides.Red dragged his claws down the nearest wall, leaving deep grooves in the rough surface. He wanted to shove all of the tip into Sans, but the knowledge that his mate couldn’t take that just barely stopped him. He was close and it was driving him mad. “Sans? Please wake up, Sans. I’m so close. Help me out, Angel.” Sans dragged open his exhausted eye sockets and smiled weakly at his mate. He did his best to squeeze his walls close, and Red groaned in agonized pleasure.“Fill me up, Red,” Sans purred. “My eggs are waiting for you.”Red moaned and grabbed one of Sans’s hands, placing it on his rib cage. “Squeeze like you did before. Hard, okay?” Sans complied, gripping Red’s ribs tightly. He shuddered, and Sans sleepily had an idea. “Hey, mind if I bite back?” “Go for it,” Red grunted. Sans angled his mouth so the sharper teeth at the edges of his mouth were touching Red’s bones. He bit down gently, and Red’s whole body trembled.He gasped. “Stars! Harder, Angel!”Sans bit down harder, and Red cried out for more. The little mer clenched his teeth until he felt a sliver of bone break off, definitely to leave a new scar on Red’s already marred bones. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hurt him more than that, but thankfully it was enough. Sans felt the thing inside of him swell and then—Stars! He was filled with so much concentrated magic, hotter and more electric than any he’d ever felt. Red carefully extracted himself and staggered into his tight place, curling up and holding Sans close to his chest. He conjured his tongue and lapped up any extra magic still leaking out of the little fish, while Sans completely gave in to sleep. When the little mer woke up, his stomach told him it was dinner time.Red crawled out of bed at Sans’s prompting, but he was clearly spent. He offered to hunt anyway, but the others took one look at the both of them and demanded they rest. “Are you okay, Sans, Red?” Asriel asked in innocent concern. “You two look really tired.”“M’fine,” Red muttered, setting himself down in a corner.“Stars, I’m not,” Sans chuckled. “I’m not going to be able to swim for days.” Red let out a warbling purr and licked the top of his head, delivering a tiny amount of green magic through the contact.“I don’t get it. What happened to you guys?” The little goat mer was still confused. “You were gone all day.”“They were just playing a little rough,” Chara smirked. Frisk looked their way and deliberately winked, while Toriel chastised both of the kids.The next day, Sans’s heat was completely spent. The attentive care he’d been given had seen to that. There was no way to know if any of his eggs would be fertilized, but either way, he was in for several days of pampering while Red made up for completely destroying his insides. *** Sans sighed and put a hand over his ecto-belly, and Toriel put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He’d had twenty eggs ready to be fertilized. Fourteen had taken, but all but three had been reabsorbed into his body. Another of those three was shriveling. It seemed very likely that he would lose this entire clutch.He and Red were both feeling a little down about it, but they weren’t expecting to be able to conceive in the first place. Being emotionally prepared made the loss easier to deal with.In a few more days, all the eggs were lost. Red cried that night, like some kind of dam had broken, and kept pouring out apologies.“Sorry. M’sorry. Fuck, Angel, I’m so damn sorry.”“Hey, hey,” Sans put his hands on the sides of Red’s face, “it isn’t your fault. It’s nobody’s fault. We can’t have kids together, but I still love you, alright?”“I know, I’m stupid. M’sorry.”“It’s okay,” he comforted. “We’re okay.” Summer rolled around, and they put the loss behind them. Sans got confirmation that Red’s high temperature wasn’t intentional while he watched the large mer lay around in the shade, sweating buckets. “M’built for colder water,” he confessed, and Sans recalled how chilly it had been down in that crevasse.Due to the heat and how terribly uncomfortable it made Red, they didn’t cuddle as close in the summer months. Instead, they held hands, or Red wrapped one of his tentacles around the base of Sans’s tail, or other stuff like that.The natural predator still kept up with his hunting, but the others made sure he took every couple of days off to just nap and recover from his general heat exhaustion.So, obviously, when fall returned and he wasn’t so completely spent, Red cranked up his caregiver dial to eleven. Due to playing around in the warm water and not being ceaselessly coddled for a season, Sans had slimmed down somewhat. A fact Red seemed personally offended by when he had the presence of mind to realize it. His protective touches gave Sans the distinct feeling that his current figure wouldn’t last much longer.He wasn’t complaining about it; he’d signed up for a mate who would take care of him, and Red took very good care of him.In fact, Red took good care of the whole school. He had firmly adopted himself into the group, and actively contributed to it. Toriel had to scold him multiple times for bringing home too much food that would only go to waste. The big guy looked so damn pitiful when he was being scolded. Red tried to eat the food that was left before it could go bad, but even he couldn’t manage all of it. Alphys and the kids would end up hauling it away as chum. By the time it was getting cool enough that a mermaid would want some extra fur or blubber, Sans was reasonably rounder. He wasn’t the only one who’d gotten bigger, though. Sans didn’t miss the chunks of coral that chipped off of his door while Red squeezed himself inside. Nor did he fail to notice how the space left inside seemed more cramped than it used to. Red hadn’t grown a belly like he had, but he was certainly larger than he used to be.“What gives, Red? Are you not fully grown yet?” Sans asked, making himself comfortable on the expanse of warm tentacles.“H-huh?” He looked down at himself as if he expected to see ink splattered on his bones. Could meroctopuses ink? “Do I look bigger?”Sans chuckled, “Well, my poor doorway sure thinks so. You didn’t notice?”“Wasn’t really payin’ attention.”Sans laughed at his goober of a mate who somehow managed to be attentive and oblivious at the same time. “For real, though, how much bigger are you gonna get? You’re pretty huge already.”“I’m an octopus,” Red shrugged, as if that explained everything. He caught the look Sans was giving him and went into a little more detail. “If I have enough food, I’ll grow. If I don’t, I’ll shrink back down. My body can’t store magic other ways, so it just stays as big as it needs to be to hold it all.” “Well, that’s something,” Sans hummed and flicked his tail casually. “Hey, I don’t want you to starve, but try not to outgrow the den, alright? That’d make things pretty complicated.”Red ducked his head. “Okay. Sorry about your door.”“It’s fine,” Sans waved the thought away. “Hey, tomorrow, let’s explore a little to the north. I thought I saw something shiny over there earlier. Maybe something fell off a human ship.” Sans winked at his mate. “If it’s pretty, I’ll let you keep it.”Red blushed and purred, bending down to hug Sans without disturbing his sleeping position. He gave the little mer a kiss on the forehead and rested a protective tentacle on top of him like a blanket.Sans sighed at the feeling of warmth and safety. He gave his mate’s limbs a gentle pat and drifted off to sleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I’m sure I saw it over this way,” Sans insisted, leading Red north across the sandy plains.“If something shiny fell, somebody else probably took it already,” Red mentioned.Sans sighed. “I know. Let me just look for another minute, okay?”Well, it wasn’t like the fish in Red’s traps were going anywhere.Sans kept searching for whatever he thought he saw. They were about to give up and go back when he suddenly saw it glimmer again. Whatever it was was half-buried in the sand!“I found it!” He called excitedly, swimming down to push the white particulates out of the way. What was revealed were a pair of shiny silver rings. And those rings were chained together and locked around a pair of skeletal wrists.“Holy shit!” Sans exclaimed, quickly swiping away the rest of the sand with a few goes of his tail.It was a land-dweller: his wrists and ankles were bound with shiny metal, and he was unconscious. He was skeletal, like Sans and Red, but without any ecto-biology to help him swim, he appeared to have gotten stuck at the bottom.He must have been alive, since he wasn’t dust yet.They didn’t debate the matter at all before dragging the land-dweller up to the surface for air. They found a small outcropping of rocks to set the person on, and Sans started healing them.They coughed up water and gagged, rolling onto their side and slowly getting to their hands and knees.“Ughhh,” they groaned.“You are so damn lucky,” Red said.“You saved my life,” the skeleton coughed, turning around to see their saviors. When they saw the two mer (or, rather, Red’s giant, scary face), they gasped and fell back onto their rear.“I’m Sans, and this is my mate, Red,” Sans said in a disarming tone. “We both use male pronouns. How about you?”The stranger worked his jaw for a minute in shock, his pointed teeth gnashing. “I am the great and terrible Edge,” he said boisterously. “Male pronouns will do for me as well. Thank you, mer monsters, for rescuing me.”“How did you end up down there in the first place?” Sans asked, nodding pointedly at the restraints the land-dweller was equipped with.Edge huffed. “It matters little, but I work as a guard, and presumably, I was getting close to discovering somebody’s illegal activities. They requested I join them on their ship to investigate something they saw at sea, but that was a lie. All they really intended was to throw me overboard. Now, I’m left without any means of contacting help, no way to return on my own, and these ridiculous devices sealing my magic!”Red silently reached forward and grasped the glowing mechanism between the loops of the restraints. He closed his large, sharp claws around it firmly, and it fizzled. Edge watched the scene with a dumbfounded expression, but since he didn’t protest, Red broke the set around his ankles too.“Well, that’s one problem solved,” he grumbled, rubbing his wrists. “Thank you, mer monster… No. Thank you, Red.”“S’fine.”“Is your home close? Maybe we can help you swim back,” Sans offered.“Close,” Edge chuckled dryly. “I’m afraid not. We’re almost a hundred miles from the shore.”Red glanced at his mate. “Assuming I carry him, we can do that in two hours, yeah?”Sans nodded. “Yeah, it’s doable. We should let the others know where we’re going, though.”Edge openly stared at them in shock. “You’re willing to help me to that extent?”“What would be the point in saving you if we just left you here to die?” Sans reasoned.The land-dweller stood to his full height and pounded his fist to his sternum. “I will never forget this debt, gentle mer monsters. I shall repay it someday.”“Don’t worry about it,” Sans grinned lazily. He patted Red’s arm and gave him a loving smile. “I’ll be right back, Red.”The little blue mer darted off back in the direction of their den and was out of sight within a few breaths. Red felt awkward alone with the stranger and submerged half his face in the water. Edge felt just as awkward and tried not to break under the other’s gaze. The edgy skeleton dealt with shady and dangerous individuals on a regular basis, but Red had the stare of a wild predatory beast—albeit an intelligent one, whether that was better or worse.He struggled for anything to say that would break the tension.“Your mate seems… like a kind person,” Edge mentioned, his spine prickling with worry.Fortunately, the compliment made Red relax a bit and release a short purr, nodding in agreement. Edge felt his confidence grow.“How long have you been together?”“‘Bout a year,” the giant mer mumbled.“You both seem happy.”Red hummed.The conversation was failing fast, but luckily Sans returned.“Sorry for the wait. We ready to go?” The two nodded and Sans looked at the land monster. “How long can you hold your breath?”“Without endangering myself, about four hours,” Edge replied.“Great. Red can swim faster if he doesn’t have to stick to the surface.”Wondering what that meant, Edge took a last deep breath and slid back into the cold water. The feeling of his skull filling with liquid was exceptionally strange. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes. One thing he didn’t expect to see was that Red and Sans were different types of mer. Sans was a mermaid and red was a meroctopus. He’d had no idea the two could mate, but it did explain the extreme size difference he’d noticed. He took the information as an interesting cultural exchange.Red carefully gathered the land monster in his arms. “Tap me if you need to go up.”Edge automatically opened his mouth to respond, but nearly choked when the seawater mingled with his magic. He settled for nodding, and they took off.Edge shut his eye sockets against the rushing water and covered his nasal hole with his hands. The fast-moving current pounded him unpleasantly. He didn’t know how the other skeletons could handle it.Stars, he had to endure two hours of it. Sans made it a little more bearable by distracting him with simple conversation, but it was repetitive and boring when he couldn’t respond.When they reached the shore, Edge gleefully took a breath of fresh air. Clambering onto the docks and seeing the lights of civilization in the distance washed him with relief.“I cannot thank you both enough for this,” Edge said sincerely. “If there is anything I can do to return the favor, please let me know.”Sans tapped his chin and grinned down at his mate, still half-hiding in the water. “It seems like a waste to come all the way here and just go back. I kinda wanna take a look around.”“Why?” Red grunted. “Water’s murky n’ shallow.”“I meant out of the water.”Edge and Red both looked at him like he had lost his mind.“What? I’ve never seen a surface community before. I’m curious.”Red furrowed his brow and looked for Edge’s input. “‘S that safe? For us, I mean.”The land skeleton considered it carefully. “There’s no legal reason you can’t, assuming you don’t break anything, steal anything, or hurt anybody. A few people may desire to capture you to sell illegally, but that won’t be an issue with a guard like myself around. The biggest problem will likely be surface-dwellers wanting to get a good look at the first mer creatures they’ve ever laid eyes on.” He tapped his boot aggressively, arms crossed. “How long can you safely be out of water?”“I took a nap on some rocks once while I was sunbathing,” Sans smiled encouragingly. “Drying out a little won’t hurt us; it just feels weird.”The little mer was already reaching up to pull himself onto the dock. He kicked his tail and shot out of the water enough to get a good purchase, then rolled over into a sitting position.“You can wait here if you don’t wanna come, Red. I don’t think I’ll be able to get very far anyway.”Red blew bubbles under the surface and grumbled, reaching up onto the dock with his tentacles to haul himself up. The wood creaked and groaned dangerously, and Edge cringed when one of the pillars cracked. The giant octopus mer picked up his mate and cradled him in his arms.“I’ll fuckin’ walk,” he complained softly. “Like I’d let you go to the surface alone. You don’t even got legs.”“Thanks, Red,” Sans petted his sternum.“I suppose I will guide you to some of the better tourism locations in town. Hosting my saviors is the least I can do.”Edge led the way down the dock, and Red quickly figured out how to crawl in the open air.“You know, I’m glad you’re carrying me,” Sans mused. “I hate how heavy the surface makes me feel.”“You’re tellin’ me,” Red grunted. He was almost perfectly neutrally buoyant in the ocean, but that was certainly not the case out of the water. If his ecto-limbs weren’t so powerful, he might not have been able to even lift them to walk. However much he weighed here, it was too much.The wooden dock planks thought so too, if their loud groaning was to be believed.Red followed Edge off the docks and onto the road, trying to ignore the uncomfortable scratching of asphalt and concrete against his soft tentacles and instead focus on the excited and curious look in Sans’s eyes. Every now and then, something would catch the little mer’s attention, and he would thrash his tail excitedly in Red’s grip, nearly knocking himself out of his hold in the process. He would then demand they get closer to the thing in question, and Red would comply.The area nearest the docks was all but empty, as the sailors and fishermen had yet to return for the evening, but there were people out and about the closer they got to town. There wasn’t a human or land monster who failed to point at them and say something in an excited tone. Very soon, a crowd started to form around them, and Red stopped in place, ducking his head and growling at them threateningly.Sans patted his mate’s rib cage, trying to calm him down, and Edge took in the situation. Helpless mermaid with an overprotective mate, and a bunch of surface-dwellers crowding them. This was a potential incident if he’d ever seen one.“Back away from the mer creatures, people. Nobody likes to be crowded,” he ordered in his professional guard’s voice.“Can we take pictures?” one man asked. He was holding up his phone and had a big smile plastered across his face.Edge rightly figured that Sans and Red wouldn’t know what pictures were. “Do you mind if they preserve your likeness for later viewing?”“Fine by me,” Sans smiled. Red just grunted, and Sans gave him a reassuring pat.“You may take pictures,” Edge told the crowd. “But be sensible and turn your flash off.”The dull clicks of many camera shutters drew up a small din. Sans looked curiously at the (mostly human) crowd, and Red continued to faintly growl.“Hey, pose for us!” somebody shouted.Sans smirked and rolled over in Red’s arms. He held his tail up and mimed like he was blowing a kiss. Several people cheered and the cameras clicked faster. Edge smirked and shook his head. What a charming little mermaid Sans was.Red didn’t look the least bit comfortable with the situation, but Sans tried to rope him into it anyway. The little mer sat up and reached for his mate’s face, pulling his skull down and planting a kiss on his teeth. Red’s eyelights turned into hearts and there was cheering and whistling from the crowd.“I hope you two know,” Edge folded his arms and smirked, “everybody on the surface will know you’re a couple by the end of the day.”“Good,” Red purred, pulling Sans closer.A few of the land-dwellers offered food from the nearby stalls as thanks for the pictures. Red tasted each of them first to make sure they were really safe, then gave them to Sans. Some kebabs from a stand were the first hot meal either of them had ever had.“It might be worth coming back here again just for this,” Sans said.The little mer wanted to play around some more, but he knew his school would worry if they took much longer. When they announced they were leaving, Edge gave them something he’d stepped away to buy just a moment ago.“This phone will function underwater up to three hundred feet deep. My number is in the contacts. Please let me know when you intend to visit so I can properly host you.”He gave them a quick tutorial on how to use a mobile device and gave them a solar charger to maintain its battery life. Armed with some rather interesting new technology, they returned to the den.The children were full of questions when they heard Sans and Red had gone to the surface. Sans entertained them with descriptions of everything he’d seen and tasted, while Red sent his first text ever. YouThis is Red. We made it back safely. It took him three tries to spell everything correctly. His phalanges were too big for the keys. EdgeGood. Thank you for informing me. There was no WiFi this far out in the ocean, but surprisingly they had pretty good data. Sans discovered the App Store while playing with the phone and downloaded some free mobile games. He liked to play them while the school was settling down for the night, and Red would cuddle him while watching the bright colors. A week later, Red and Sans decided to go back for a visit. The kids, especially Frisk and Chara, wanted to come with them, but Sans said it would be better if they got more familiar with the surface settlement before taking anyone else along.They texted Edge to let him know they were coming and committed to the long swim. Sans didn’t bother climbing onto the dock again. He just waited for Red to get out of the water and pick him up.
Lazy little angel.
“I forgot how much I hated this,” the meroctopus groaned, adjusting to his sudden lack of buoyancy.“It’s never gonna be my preference either,” Sans chuckled.Edge met them at the end of the dock and led them back to the town. Once again, they were swarmed by people wanting to take pictures, but Edge made sure they had plenty of space so Red wouldn’t panic.They got more free stall food from the excited locals (who took an abundance of pictures), and Edge led them to a very nice, homey house with a white picket fence and colorful garden. It didn’t suit his edgy and rough exterior at all.“Is this your den?” Sans asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.“Yes, but my husband won most of our arguments over how to decorate it.” His voice sounded irritated, but there was a pleased smile at the corner of his fangs.“What’s a husband?” Red asked.“Essentially, my mate,” Edge explained. “He’s inside and rather eager to meet you both. Let’s not keep him waiting, shall we?”Instead of stopping at the front door, Edge led them around to the back of the house, where a sliding glass door had been preemptively taken off its track. The resulting entrance was wide enough for Red to pass through without causing property damage.Shortly past the entrance was a kitchenette, where a cheerful skeleton was humming an upbeat tune.“Papyrus,” Edge called, “our guests have arrived.”The cheerful skeleton turned around and smiled brightly. He was softer-looking than Edge, lacking sharp teeth or scars and wearing brighter colors.“Oh! Welcome, new friends! Lunch is almost ready. Please, take a seat at the table!” He had a loud and grating voice, just like Edge did, but it lacked the gravely undertones of the rougher skeleton.While Edge strode over to help his mate finish the meal, Red stood uncertainly in the doorway. Sans patted his arm, gesturing at the chairs placed around the table. Crawling forward hesitantly, Red glanced at the setup and reached out with a couple tentacles, dragging the wooden things out of the way. The giant meroctopus positioned himself squarely in front of the table and set Sans in his lap.Edge and Papyrus carried dishes full of steaming food over to the table, as well as glasses full of clear water.“Well, I suppose that is one way to seat yourselves,” Papyrus smiled. “Please, help yourselves to my world-famous spaghetti! I’m sure it will be like nothing you’ve ever eaten before!”As usual, Red sampled the food first. It was warm, which was a uniquely pleasant sensation. There was a lot of flavor in the dish, and textures unlike anything he’d eaten before, but it wasn’t bad or dangerous by any means.Red licked the tomato sauce off his phalanges. “S’good,” he mumbled, and Sans smiled at him.The little socialite looked at his hosts and saw how they were eating the food. He picked up a little silver instrument and copied them. It required some focus and dexterity to wield the fork, though, so he quickly gave up and used his hands just like Red was.“Hm. Your table manners are a bit lacking,” Papyrus tapped his chin with his free hand. “Shall I teach you how to wield eating utensils? I am quite a good teacher!”Sans chuckled. “Nah. Seems like a pain.”The land skeleton’s gaze shifted wholly to Red, and the mer ducked back. “Uh…”He didn’t manage to say no quickly enough, and Papyrus launched right into a demonstration. He did everything short of holding Red’s hand and pushing the fork into it.“See? It’s rather straightforward, isn’t it?”Red mumbled something that may have been affirmation, but could have been anything. He tried twirling some noodles onto the pronged silver stick (which was much too small in his large hands), then looked at the little bundle of food curiously. After some hesitation, he pointed the opposite end at Sans.The little mer chuckled and ate the food off the end of the fork. Red’s opinion on the utensil immediately changed once he knew it could be used like this. He continued to pass convenient little bundles of food to his mate. Across the table, Edge was averting his eyes from the scene and faintly blushing, and Papyrus was watching with glittering eye sockets and an adorable grin. The giant mer ignored the both of them.Eventually, Sans held his hands up and said he’d had enough, and the meroctopus immediately abandoned the fork. He ate the rest of the food on his plate with his hands and licked the remaining sauce off the bottom of the dish.“Did you like it?” Papyrus asked, glowing. “There’s plenty more if you want it!”Red hummed and nodded. Half a plate of spaghetti for a mer his size? No way was that enough. After requesting his third helping, Edge stood up before his mate could. Smirking, he dropped the entire remaining pot at Red’s tablespace and folded his arms.“Is that more your serving size?”Red nodded and reached his hand into the pot, and Papyrus blew a short breath from his nasal hole.“Eating from the pot is terrible manners, but I can overlook it in this case.”Once the pasta was gone, Red licked the remains from his fingers and reached for his full water glass… only to dump it directly onto his head. Papyrus sucked in a breath and Edge shook his head, still wryly smirking.“Of course,” the rougher skeleton muttered. “Don’t panic, Papyrus; it was only water, and we’re not even over the carpet.”Papyrus folded his arms and held his chin up. “I was not panicking. It was simply unexpected!” He glanced sideways at his mate. “And I’m sure if it had been tea over the carpet, you’d be the first to reach for the cleaning supplies. I won’t let you say you aren’t a neat freak.”Edge huffed. “And you aren’t?”“I am a homemaker!” Papyrus asserted, placing a hand dramatically over his sternum.In the meantime, Sans, who was observing the two with a wry smile, picked up his own glass and “spilled” it over the tiles. “Whoops.” He grinned broadly when both of the land skeletons flinched.For a moment, there was a stretch of silence where only Sans seemed to be holding in laughter, then Edge abruptly stood from his seat, muttering that he would get the paper towels. The little mer broke out into laughter then, and Red and Papyrus smiled slightly under the broken tension.After lunch was done with, the two hosts spent some time showing the mer monsters some of the various things that could be seen on the surface. They took them out to the garden and introduced them to the many sweet-smelling flowers. Back inside, they showed them furniture, textiles, and electronics. Sans became immediately fond of their couch, and Red whined when the little mer chose to roll around there instead of in his arms.“Don't be like that, Red,” the mermaid chuckled, “it’s comfortable.”“I hate it,” Red grumbled.Sans brushed off his mate’s tantrum and played with the TV remote, pressing various buttons, including the power, and frowning when nothing happened. Papyrus had briefly shown him how it worked, but he’d been introducing so many things so quickly that they all kind of blurred together.Red gave a low, half-hearted growl and took the remote from his mate’s hands. “Yer doin’ it wrong,” he muttered. With a few easy clicks (facing the receiver), the cable box and monitor lit up. Some kind of event was showing: many humans and monsters were marching together down a road, dragging colorful streamers and making lots of noise. Additional crowds were railed off to the sides, cheering as the procession passed.Red ignored the odd broadcast and accessed the channel hub.“Whaddya wanna watch?”Sans hummed and read the various show names. “How about that one? Three down.”Red pressed the buttons and swore when he selected the wrong channel. “Thought you said you knew how to do it?” Sans teased, laughing.“I do!” the giant mer growled. “Stupid buttons are too small!”With a bit more care, he managed to select the right channel. It was playing something boring, though, so they gave up and turned the device off. Papyrus immediately noticed their availability and jumped back into host mode.“Would you two like to see more of the town? The great Papyrus would be more than happy to show you around!”Edge, however, snorted knowingly. “You’re going back, aren’t you?”“Yeah, it’s getting kind of late,” Sans said. “We have a long swim back.” He rolled around some more on the couch and lazily flicked his tail. “I wish I had one of these at the den to go back to. This is great.”Red whined again and Sans reached over to stroke his cheek. “Maybe we’ll find one your size, and you can see what I’m talking about, huh big guy?”Red purred in response to his mate’s touch and scooped him off the couch. Edge and Papyrus saw them to the docks, keeping the amateur photographers at a safe distance.Relief settled into every inch of Red’s body when he was back in the water. He had almost gotten used to being on the surface, and now he felt completely weightless. The swim back even sounded like fun in this state.Sans chuckled at Red who refused to have more than half of his head out of the water, and gave a friendly wave to Edge and Papyrus.“Thanks for having us. We’ll visit again sometime.”“Feel free to return anytime, friends!” Papyrus beamed. “The great Papyrus is always willing to show his abundant talents as a host!”“Do remember to give us forewarning so we can host you properly,” Edge supplemented.The two ocean monsters returned home with a number more stories to share with the school’s children.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Winter passed and spring returned. Red and Sans had continued visiting the surface every week or two. It was always pretty fun eating different foods, talking with Edge and Papyrus, and seeing all the neat stuff up there, but life in the ocean continued as it always did. The school’s children were a year closer to adolescence, and Sans could feel his yearly heat returning as it always did.The knowledge was bittersweet.Of course, he was eager to feel that skull-numbing pleasure with Red again, especially considering his mate didn’t get heats and had been waiting patiently all year for him. But knowing he would lose another clutch stirred some primal sadness in him.Everything would be fine. The clutch wouldn’t take; he knew that, and he could prepare himself for it. But, like a good mate, Sans did talk about his worries with Red.“Even though I’m not expecting anything, it still feels like I’m about to lose something. I don’t know. Is that dumb?”Red pulled him into a tight hug and nuzzled the top of his head. “S’not dumb, Angel. Not at all.” Sans felt his soul tighten and curled his fingers around Red’s ribs. “If you’re worried, maybe we swap this time?”It was an interesting proposal, but Sans had a few problems with it.“Dunno if I’ve got the stamina for that, Red, and I don’t wanna leave you alone in the middle of it. Besides, if you lose yours too… are ya gonna be okay afterwards?”Sans knew how overprotective and motherly Red could be. He had broken down in tears when Sans lost his clutch. If it was his own clutch instead, Sans was worried that might seriously affect him.“If I lost my—” Red didn’t have skin, but Sans knew it would have turned white as sand in that moment. The large mer shook his head, eye sockets wide, “I… Fuck, Angel, no. I would not be okay! Are you really fine with doin’ that twice?!”Sans sighed and cupped his mate’s cheek. “I already knew what was going to happen. It hurt, but I’m okay. I’ll be okay a second time too.”Red locked eyes with his mate and then delivered a small kiss to his forehead. “Okay, Angel. I’ll be here for you no matter what, got that? I promise.”Sans blushed and rested his head on Red’s sternum. He traced one of Red’s thick, scarred ribs with his delicate phalanges. “And, just between the two of us, the feeling was worth it.”The meroctopus purred with pride. *** Things went a little more smoothly the second time around. Red still remembered exactly how much his mate could take, and Sans didn’t have to teach him anything basic.That being the case, there was some room in their four-hour window for experimentation. I mean, if they weren’t going to get any children out of this, it might as well be as enjoyable as possible, right?“Ah ah ah,” Sans chided, digging his phalanges into the sides of Red’s hectocotylus. “No moving around, remember?”Red let out a keening whine and dragged his claws down his face, watching Sans move his piece around with hurryless patience. “Fuck, Angel, faster,” he begged. “I can’t take it anymore!”Sans hesitated. “Do you really want me to, Red?”The meroctopus was gasping, but he tilted his head at the question. “Huh? No. I fucking love this teasing.”“I can’t tell when you’re being serious and when you’re just saying shit.” The little mer slowly pushed Red’s piece back between his walls, forcing a moan out of the big guy. “Maybe we should have a code word for when we seriously want to stop.”“L-like what?” Red was pouring sweat.“Um, something you wouldn’t say when you’re pretending to beg me to stop.”“We can’t just say stop?”“You told me to stop half an hour ago when I was biting you, and you didn’t mean it.”“Okay, pause then.”Sans started sliding the thing back out and Red clenched his teeth. “Yeah, pause is good. Only say it if you really want me to stop. I won’t take anything else seriously.”“Okay.” Red reached out down and planted a breathless kiss on Sans’s skull. “So, you mentioned biting.”“Did you wanna switch back to that?”“Can we do both?”Sans pondered. “I mean, I can, but I kinda like this slow teasing stuff; my stamina can handle it.” Sans punctuated his sentence by taking out Red’s piece and slowly dragging his tongue up the tip. His mate shuddered and crushed a fistful of coral into powder.“You really sure you want me to hurt you again?” Sans traced one of Red’s old scars with his fingertip. “You’re pretty banged up already.”“Please, Angel? It feels so good.”“Well, if you’re gonna beg me for it.”Sans teased Red for literal hours. It served as an intermission, sort of; a break from the intense plowing so the little mer wouldn’t be so utterly raw at the end of things. It was kind of fun watching the big guy whine and moan and melt, but Sans’s patience was running out too after drawing it out for so long.“Okay,” Sans backed off from digging his soft blue tongue between Red’s neck vertebrae. “It’s your turn now, big guy.”Red’s rib cage heaved and he hauled himself into an upright position. Stroking Sans’s chin, he murmured, “What do ya want me to do to ya, Angel?”“Well, we did my specialty, the slow and lazy stuff,” He put his hands near his entrance and spread it wider. “How about we do your specialty now?”Red’s specialty, huh? He positioned his tip over the soft opening and gripped his mate by the hips. “D’ya want it to hurt?”“Nah. But I don’t wanna be able to swim after, either.”It might have been fun to tease Sans the way he was teased, but if his mate wanted power, Red would give it to him happily. *** They didn’t go to the surface while Sans was carrying his clutch, but the eggs barely lasted more than a week before the last one shriveled and was reabsorbed into his ecto-flesh. His belly was still round, but there was nothing inside. It was like… he wasn’t good enough to be a mother?Thoughts like that were foolish, and Sans didn’t let them get to him, but they were still there.Red was depressed for a similar reason. He was trying not to break down and cry again, but he came real close several times. The rest of the school was being especially delicate with him, but it was like walking on eggshells. Sans struggled to think of a way to cheer him up.He didn’t have any original ideas, but he had a borrowed one. Sans took a page out of Red’s book and found a couple clams just for him. Finally the big idiot just gave in and cried, and Sans stayed with him, and they ate clams afterwards.“There, that’s better, right?” Sans patted Red’s skull and kissed his cheek. “You shouldn’t bottle things up, you big crybaby.”Red sniffled and pushed a lump of clam meat between his fangs. “I know. But you didn’t cry, and it ain’t about me, so what the hell right do I have to bawl my eyes out?”Sans stole a piece of meat and earned a chuckle out of his mate. “You live in a school now, Red. Everything’s about everyone. Of course you can cry if you need to.”The meroctopus lowered his head, sharp fangs drawn into a faint smile. Sans gave him another gentle kiss on his temple.“Tomorrow, let’s go eat some weird surface food, huh? Have some fun.”“Okay.”“I still love you, Red. I’m not gonna stop.”“Okay. … Me too.” *** Summer on the surface was simultaneously the best and the worst thing. On the one hand, it was so hot Red had burnt his tentacles on the pavement. The blazing sun had him sweating buckets, and the wind and shade weren’t nearly enough to cool him off.They almost gave up on visiting until fall, but luckily they made it to Edge and Papyrus’s house first.Red almost refused to go back to the water after discovering the magic (science, actually) of air conditioning. He did refuse to return to the docks until the sun had set. After Sans healed his burns, he just lied in the middle of the cool tile floor like it was the single best pastime out there.Sans was glad to not be whined at for laying on the couch. He lazed around happily and rested his head on the armrest, peering at his mate, and they just sort of did nothing together.“You two are,” Papyrus hesitated, “easy to host? I don’t even have to do anything! The Great Papyrus is always willing to assist if either of you decide you want to do literally anything besides laze around.”“Nah, just let him rest,” Sans said. “He overheats a lot in the summer. Isn’t supposed to live in such shallow water.”“And what about you?” The unimpressed look on the land skeleton’s face implied he already knew the answer.“I really like this couch.”Summer was a bit easier that year thanks to the blessings of the surface, but it was still a relief when the water began to cool down again. *** Edge tapped the sharp tips of his phalanges on the wooden table, his other hand propping up his cheekbone. He was watching his lovey-dovey guests and calculating the passage of time in his head. It had been a full year since his life had been saved by this mer couple, and they had come for a visit every couple of weeks at the minimum.Something wasn’t adding up, and it kept pricking at his nerves and making him irritable. Edge finally noticed he was scowling when his husband set a hand on his humerus.“Edge, dear,” Papyrus said in an atypically soft voice, “you look… pissed. What are you puzzling over? Perhaps I, the Great Papyrus, can assist you with it?”Edge grunted and put in a small effort to smooth over his expression. He straightened his spine and folded his arms over his chest.“I’m just baffled by how long mermaid pregnancies last,” he asserted. “It has been a full year since I was saved from drowning. That seems unnecessarily demanding on the mother, does it not? Is it because their types are different? It simply escapes me.”Papyrus’s jaw hung open, and Red guwaffed, laughing so hard he had to wipe magic red tears out of his eye sockets.Papyrus moved his hand to Edge’s shoulder, and gave him a look so sympathetic it became condescending. “Edge, sweetheart, I don’t believe Sans is pregnant.”The rough skeleton swiveled his head, eye sockets wide in shock. “What?”Papyrus made an awkward face, and now both mer skeletons across the table were laughing. “He’s just, erm… big-boned?” the homemaker tried.Edge blushed fiercely in embarrassment and immediately became defensive to cover it. “Well how was I supposed to know?! They’re always all over each other! And Red is always so protective!”His complaints devolved into furious grumbling as Papyrus patted him. “I’m so sorry if what my husband said was offensive in any way,” the softer skeleton apologized.“Nah, I don’t care,” Sans shrugged. “And, uh, Red and I can’t have kids anyway. The eggs never take.”Papyrus tilted his head at that. “Eggs? Do mer monsters lay eggs?”It was Sans and Red’s turn to look surprised.“Land monsters don’t?” Red questioned.“No,” Papyrus shook his head. “If Edge and I decided we were ready to have children, we would, erm,” he hesitated, an orange blush spreading across his cheekbones, “put our souls in contact and impregnate one of us that way.”Sans and Red shared a look, and the pudgy mermaid put on a serious face. “Does that work even between different monster types?”“Yes, it does,” their host nodded.Sans felt a tremble underneath him and saw Red’s tentacles shaking. He looked up at the big guy’s face and saw fat tears rolling down his cheeks one after the other.“Oh dear!” Papyrus scrambled to stand up and fetch a box of tissues. “Did I say something wrong? If that’s the case, I’m incredibly sorry!”Sans shook his head and squeezed Red’s hand, prompting the other to pull him into a hug and cry into his shoulder. “He just… thought there was no way we could have kids. And maybe… it’s possible?”Sans didn’t know if it was magic, but he swore the air around Papyrus turned pink, and flowers bloomed around him. His face spread into a wide grin.“I see! Well, it is my absolute pleasure to be the bearer of such excellent news!”“How does it work?” Sans continued to hold his emotions back and question the land monsters. “Do I have to be in heat? How do we pick who carries the eggs?”Edge had finally recovered and joined back into the conversation. “There won’t be any eggs; you will have exactly one child with each conception. It is easier during a heat, but possible as long as you have enough magic to spare.” He waved his hand. “The rest is all intention, and it is mostly instinctual. You should face no real difficulties.”Sans felt Red purring intensely and nuzzling his head. He wasn’t even attempting to hide how desperate he was to make use of this information.“Please? Angel, please? Can we go home? Now?”When Red nipped at Sans’s shoulder, the smaller mer jumped and finally gave in.“Alright, already! Jeez. I wanted to lay on the couch a little after lunch, you know?”“I swear, Angel, if this works, I will get you a waterproof couch and carry it to the den.”He didn’t leave any room for arguing, not that Sans had any inclination to say no.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sans let Red carry him on the way back to the den, and in the meantime, the mermaid used their phone to look up everything he could about how land monsters had children.If mer monsters really could reproduce this way, Sans thought he understood why they had forgotten about it: it was because of the small clutch size. The ocean was a dangerous place, and many children died before they were past infancy. In order to keep their populations from dying out, it was necessary to produce many children at once. Their ecto-biology was equipped to do that, but this land monster ritual was not.According to the internet, they would know immediately if they managed to conceive. When they returned to the den, Red immediately went back out to gather food from his traps and started stockpiling it in his room. Meanwhile, Sans explained what was going on to the others.“Sans! That is wonderful news!” Toriel covered her mouth with a paw and exclaimed.“Indeed, you certainly have our well-wishes,” Asgore beamed.Undyne and Alphys were both blushing at the revelation. The fish mermaid asked him in an unusually timid voice, “Hey, let us know if, uh, if that works, okay?” She looked down and rubbed the back of her head. “Alph and I might give it a shot later.”Red finished his preparations and practically dragged Sans to his room, which made the other adults all chuckle. Once inside, he looked at his mate with a modicum of hesitation.“So who’s gonna carry the kid?”“I think it’s pretty obviously going to be me,” Sans replied. “We don’t know for sure if this will work, and I can take it if it doesn’t. Besides,” he chuckled a little more sadly than he meant to, “after two failed clutches, I deserve a kid, right?”Red nodded to that. “Yeah, you deserve that.” He frowned, “but I want one too, so we do me next, okay?”“Sure, Red.”The act itself was fairly simple. Sans and Red both took out their souls and brought them in contact. While it seemed like “wishing for Sans to get pregnant” would accomplish absolutely nothing, souls responded deeply to a person’s intentions, so a few minutes of that was all it took.It was a simple process. Fulfilling, but not enjoyable the way regular sex was. It was just like… using a special kind of magic together: one they’d always known how to do without realizing they did. And boy was Edge right about it taking a lot of magic.Red was clearly exhausted. He looked at his mate with dark red circles under his eye sockets, “Well? Did it…? Are you…?”Sans glanced down at his ecto-belly. He’d definitely lost a few pounds doing that, and he felt about as tired as Red looked. Besides that, physically, there were no obvious changes, but he looked up at his mate and smiled blissfully.“Yeah.” His soul just knew it had worked.Red laughed with joy and held Sans up, showering kisses all over him and grinning like a cheshire. Suddenly starved for magic, they ate up all the food Red had stored away for them and fell asleep. When they woke up, Red immediately demanded a kid of his own. Sans was pretty spent after yesterday, but he still had some extra padding around his middle. Should be enough magic for one more kid.“Sure, big guy. Why don’t you grab some food for us first? I’m just gonna sleep in a little more.”Red vanished and returned with a fucking bounty of oysters (celebration food for sure), and they put their souls in contact one more time For the first time since two summers ago, Sans had a flat belly. But this time, there was something inside. And something inside of Red, too. *** Red swam into deep, dark water. There was a massive ship down here that he had discovered in the past. Hopefully, the thing he was looking for was still there. Within the belly of the ship was a wooden chest full of gold coins. The meroctopus grabbed as many as he could carry and swam to the surface where Edge and Papyrus lived.They were expecting him, so they met him at the docks.The first thing Edge said when he saw the meroctopus surface was, “What the hell do you mean you want to buy a couch?”Red replied by piling the coins up on the dock. “It means I wanna buy a couch. One that we can have underwater. For Sans.”Edge looked shocked to see actual money in the mer monster’s possession and picked up a coin to examine.“I’m sure they make waterproof couches,” Papyrus mused. “We’ll have to order it. It might take a week or two to arrive. Can we use that money, Edge?”The rougher skeleton looked up and nodded. “Yes. It’s old, but gold is gold. The bank will take it. However, I believe we should purchase the couch with our own electronic currency to expedite the process, and simply deposit this.” He looked down at Red’s face poking halfway out of the water. “Would you like us to return the change?”“You can keep it. Might want ya to buy other things for us in the future.”With the business out of the way, Edge bent down to collect the coins into a bag, and Papyrus beamed down at Red.“Before you left three days ago, you said you would get Sans a couch if you managed to conceive. Since you’re here buying a couch, does that mean you were successful?”“Yeah.”Red didn’t have a lot of words, but his sharp teeth were set in a wide grin, and his cheeks were rosy.“That is such wonderful news! Since Sans stayed at home, I assume he’s carrying the child?”“We’re both gonna have one.”Edge’s head snapped up. “Twice in a row? That must have been an immense magical expenditure. Is the little one alright?”“He’s okay, but he’s tired, and a little too skinny. Imma take care of him.”“You’d better,” Edge snorted, then glanced at Red with narrow eye sockets. “And take care of yourself too. You’re pregnant as well, after all.”“Mm. Yeah, but I feel fine.”Red sunk a little further under the water. “If that’s it, I’m gonna go. Text me when I can come pick up the couch.” *** Red was having pregnancy cravings. Unfortunately, he wanted to eat the kind of half-rotted garbage everyone hated him eating. That, and bones and skins, and sweet surface foods, for some reason.Being pregnant hadn’t gotten in the way of his hunting at all. He was such a big guy that you couldn’t even see the baby bump if you were looking for it.Sans found his baby demanding every ounce of magic he could spare, and it left him exhausted. He made good use of the couch Red got for him and took plenty of naps. Red made sure Sans got outside once each day for a little exercise and some time sleeping in the sun. He also made sure Sans had enough to eat between naps, probably more than enough, actually. The way the meroctopus was doting, you’d think Sans was the only one carrying a child.“Red, dear, please do not push yourself so much,” Toriel tried once to get him to calm down and relax at the den.“For the third fucking time, I feel fine!”Apparently, there was a big difference between pregnant mermaids and meroctopuses. Mermaids lived in a school and could allow themselves to be taken care of. Red was designed to live alone and raise children alone. He felt stronger and more alert than he ever had in his life.And he was a lot more irritable.The number of people Red was allowed to be around at a time was reduced to two. He spent every night in his safe room, with or without Sans, and he ate his meals with some distance from the rest of the school. His instincts were going wild, and everything besides his mate looked like a threat to his baby. Hell—sometimes even Sans looked like a threat, but Red quickly shook himself out of it whenever he found himself thinking like that.Meroctopus mothers had been known to kill their mates to reduce the competition for their children. He would not let himself become an example of that.All in all, when he wasn’t hunting or doting on Sans, Red was safely isolating himself in his dark, lonely room.While the two skeleton mer were out of sorts, Toriel had possession of their phone, and she regularly texted updates to Edge and Papyrus. As the land monsters who taught them how monsters could breed across types, they had a right to know how it was going.They were very understanding when the couple didn’t come up to visit as often. Red shouldn’t be anywhere near humans while he was irritable, and Sans didn’t have the energy. Essentially the only time they stopped by was when one of them was craving surface foods, and they didn’t leave the water. Humans, locals and tourists, were eager to buy food for them and just throw it into the sea. As long as they could take pictures. *** Red sat on the floor next to the couch, purring contentedly while he rubbed Sans’s belly. Two weeks ago, they had seen the infant soul inside glow for the first time. Now, you could faintly see the outline of a tiny mermaid curled up within the ecto-flesh.Red’s baby could be seen too, but only when he made his ecto-flesh glow. They were both so small.While he was stroking with one hand, Red’s other hand was skinning a fish and stripping off the meat for Sans to eat. The little mer looked at the food and grimaced.“Red, I feel sick. I don’t want to eat anything.”The meroctopus just raised an eyebrow and channeled green magic through the phalanges he was stroking with. Sans sighed at the comfortable sensation and his nausea faded, then he accepted some food.“What ya meant to say was, “Red, darling, I feel sick. Please heal me.””Sans chuckled. “I don’t want you to use too much magic on me. Your baby needs it too.”Red gave Sans a little kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be fine, Angel. In case ya didn’t notice, I’m handling this really fucking well,” he coughed slightly, “physically.”Red started skinning another fish. “Anyways, you’re sleepin’ so much ‘cause you don’t have enough energy. Ya gotta eat more, Angel.”“I kinda doubt that’s the problem at this point, but fine.”“Imma take you outside after this, okay?”Sans stretched out on the couch and yawned. “Sure, okay.” *** It had been nearly four months since Red and Sans got each other pregnant. Red had been isolated in his room for almost a week now, only coming out stealthily at night to hunt for food. Sans knew he was coming out because he would wake up each day with a pile of food waiting beside his couch.The meroctopus wasn’t just being antisocial this time. There had been an… incident.Undyne had been messing around in one of the community rooms, loud and enthusiastic as always, and it had grated on Red’s already frayed nerves. They had gotten into a shouting match. Naturally, Undyne didn’t want to get into a fight with an expecting mother, but Red could get really damn crass when he was pissed, and he got her just as riled up as he was.When she stuck her finger in his face to return the favor, he fucking bit it off.Luckily, he spat it out, and Toriel was able to reattach it with green magic, but now that he’d calmed down, he didn’t know how to face her and apologize.Sans felt bad about it. Helping Red diffuse social situations was supposed to be his job, but he hadn’t woken up until the fighting was too far along to stop. He wanted to help Red apologize to Undyne, but the big guy was avoiding everyone after having hurt somebody in the school.He probably just didn’t want to do it again.It wasn’t like he hadn’t put in any effort in his own way. Undyne had woken up one day to a nice fat tuna netted alive and fresh outside her room, and one guess as to who may have left it.Sans sighed and sat himself up on the couch. Taking a few days to cool off was fine, but a week was excessive. He needed to go and let Red know that nobody was holding anything against him.He pushed off the couch and wobbled a little in the water, still feeling tired and a little weak after lazing around so much for months on end. He put a hand protectively over his baby bump and meandered toward Red’s room.The little mer pressed his phalanges into the ecto-flesh and felt the little soul inside pulse in response. It made him smile. As much as it was draining him, his baby was strong and healthy.Sans noted that the ecto-flesh was a little softer than it needed to be if it was just working as a womb. He chuckled and shook his head fondly.
Even you can’t drain my magic as fast as Red can feed me, huh, kid?
Sans reached Red’s room and called out to his mate.“Hey, big guy, it’s me. Can I come in?”There was a half-hearted growl from inside. “You’d better fucking not, Angel.”Sans shrugged and leaned against the outside wall, sliding down onto the loose sand. “Alright, I’ll just rest out here then.”A minute passed and Red’s scarred-up face peeked out. His sharp red eyelights spotted his mate and he scowled. “On the fucking floor, Sans? Are you serious? Get the fuck in here!”Red picked Sans up off the floor and whisked him inside, making a comfortable place for him on his tentacles. Sans gave in to the loving touches and petting that automatically followed and took note of how touch-starved Red was acting.“I came,” he let out a yawn, “to let you know Undyne’s not mad at you anymore.”Red’s petting abruptly stopped, and he folded his arms tight across his chest. It wasn’t an aggressive stance, it just looked like he was trying to keep his himself from touching anything.“Yeah, I don’t buy that. And you really shouldn’t be in here.”“It’s true,” he insisted and winked. “She really liked that fish you got her.”Red lowered his brows. “Sans, I bit her goddamn finger off. There ain’t no apologizing for that, and a fucking fish sure ain’t gonna do it.”“Her finger is fine,” Sans waved. “Your teeth are nice and sharp, so the cut was clean. Tori stuck it back on no problem.”“For real?” Red looked beyond relieved to hear the news.“Yeah, and everybody knows you feel terrible about doing it, so nobody’s mad. I’ll help you apologize to Undyne in person, but it’s totally safe to come out of your room now.”Red’s eyelights glittered hopefully, but he crushed that expression and looked away from Sans’s encouraging smile.“Nope. I’m just gonna stay in here.”“Red,” he pleaded.“No, Sans! I don’t wanna fuckin’ hurt nobody else!” His eyes went wide and he hid his face in his hands. “And now I’m fuckin’ yellin’ at you. Dammit, I’m sorry, Angel.”Sans put a hand on Red’s forearm. “Hey, it’s okay, Red. It’s not your fault if you’re a little moody lately.”Red rubbed at his eye sockets and sighed. “It’s been pretty fucking bad these past couple of days. I seriously don’t think it’s safe for me to go out there.”The little mer let that information sink in and moved his delicate phalanges down to Red’s abdomen. There was a baby bump there now, but he could just barely feel it under the thick ecto-flesh.“Can I look at the baby, Red?”“Yeah, sure.”Red made his tentacles light up, and Sans looked at the dark outline of a tiny meroctopus. In response to Red’s glowing, it lit up its own ecto-flesh a dusty orange color. Both of them looked at that sight in awe.“Never did that before,” Red mentioned.Sans was shocked. “It has its own magic color already.”“Uh, yeah? ‘S that a big deal?”“According to what I read online, that means it’s going to be born soon. But it hasn’t been half as long as they said it would take!”Red’s eyes went wide and he stared down at his belly in shock. Realization dawned on his face. “It’s about how long it would take for me to lay my eggs if I was havin’ any.” He looked suddenly panicked. “But they’re s’posed to grow in the eggs outside of me for another couple of months! This thing ain’t in an egg, Sans!”“Calm down, Red! I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” Sans forced himself to calm down as well. “It already has a magic color. It can survive being born in just four months if it’s fully developed. Everything’s going to be fine.” The fact that Red would be giving birth soon explained his worsened mood swings lately. Sans went and explained everything to the others, and they started preparing as best they knew how. However, when Red went into labor two days later, he refused to let anyone but Sans be present.“Red, I wanna be here, but Alphys and Tori are better at deliveries than I am. They can help you more.”“To fuck with that,” he spat, gripping his mate’s hand until Sans almost cried out in pain. “I don’t need anybody’s fucking help. You just sit there and watch our first perfect fucking baby doll be born.”Red legitimately did the delivery entirely on his own. Aside from the sweat pooling off of him, he made it look goddamn easy. He never once cried out when the contractions hit him. When the baby got the hint and started to swim out, clawing at Red’s walls to find the exit, the giant mer only gritted his teeth.The baby found its way out and started to swim aimlessly, but Red snatched it out of the water and held it close, licking off the sticky liquid magic it was covered in. When he was done cleaning it, the baby went to sleep in his hands.Red and Sans got their first good look at their child.It was a meroctopus like Red, with dusty orange ecto-flesh. It had a surprisingly lanky bone structure, considering its parents were both stocky, but its small eye sockets and flat teeth were so cute.“It’s beautiful,” Sans grinned and chuckled. “You’re really fucking tough Red, doing that on your own.”“That’s just how we do it,” he shrugged, stroking the side of his baby’s face with the back of one of his claws. “It’s so small n’ soft-looking. I think it takes after you, Angel.”They admired their first child in silence for a moment, then Red spoke up again. “I got to carry it, so you should name it.”“You sure, Red?”“Yeah. And I’ll name the ones that come outta you.”“Alright, well, let me think.”While the pregnant mermaid was pondering it, the baby stretched in its sleep, its long tentacles uncurling down to their tiny tips before winding up again.“How about Stretch?”“Heh. Kinda dumb, but I like it.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Toriel held up the waterproof cellphone and let her thumb hover over the screen.“Try to keep him still, Red. I want to send a good picture.”Red was sitting on the floor next to the couch, and Sans was leaning against the armrest beside him. Stretch refused to hold still in his mother’s arms. The presence of someone besides his parents was making him nervous; he kept trying to hide his face behind his tentacles and crawl into Red’s rib cage.Red untangled Stretch’s limbs from his head as delicately as he could, sighing when they wound around his finger instead. “Just take the picture already. You can get a better one when he’s napping.”Toriel chuckled and nodded. “Alright, fine. Smile, everyone.”She pawed the button, and Sans immediately slid into a more comfortable position. “Bring it over, Tori. I wanna see.”“Give me just a moment.” She pulled up the photos app and swam closer, taking a seat next to Sans on the couch.“Heh. Cool.” Sans grinned at the image he saw of himself: dark shadows under his eye sockets, short, round belly, lazy posture. “I look great.”“Lemme see.” Red shoved his face in to take a look and took the chance to nuzzle his mate while he was at it. “Mm, yeah, ya do. Ya look even better in person though.”Red avoided looking at himself in the picture, since he didn’t really like what he saw, but Sans looked as soft and angelic as ever. He was too perfect. Red was the luckiest mer in the ocean to have met him.“I think you both look dashing,” Toriel giggled brightly.They got a reply back almost immediately.
Papyrus
That’s Stretch?! He is so tiny! I cannot imagine Red ever having been that small and cute!
Edge
It doesn’t look like his early birth did any damage. You two look terrible, though. Get some rest.
Papyrus
Edge also agrees that your baby looks adorable. He is just too shy to say so! And you look just fine for a couple of new mothers! (But do please get some rest.) Toriel smiled, then looked a little sad. “Red, will your child stay with us long? Will he want to leave to live on his own?”Red was startled by the question. “Um, I mean, I’m living in a school now, so it’s not impossible for a meroctopus to live like this. I think if he’s raised here, he’ll adapt to it.”“What if he does want to leave?”Red frowned and cradled the now-sleeping Stretch in rough claws that were bigger than his whole body. “Until he’s old enough to mate, I’m not gonna let him. I know how bad it can get out there.”Toriel took in Red and his excessively scarred bones. Someone so big and powerful was this damaged; she wouldn’t take his words of warning lightly. There were no marks to speak of on his ecto-flesh, but Toriel knew that a meroctopus could recover even if a few of their tentacles were torn off. There was simply no telling how much damage he may or may not have sustained down there.She noticed that Sans had fallen asleep beside her and smiled softly. “Goodness gracious. That child really is taking it out of him.”Red looked down at his mate fondly and set their firstborn in his arms. Seeing his two most precious people napping together, his soul felt like it might tear itself in half.“I don’t deserve them,” he whispered, feeling small red tears well up and get carried off on the current.“Oh, my dear,” she reached up and gave the giant mer a fuzzy pat on the shoulder. “That is not true. I cannot think of anyone else who would take such good care of our little lazybones. You do realize by now how good he is at easing others into conversations? We have interacted with other schools in the past. He has met many many potential mates, but you are the only one who truly loved him back. You decided to stay with him and care for him even if you could not have children together. I believe you deserve every good thing that you now have.”Red rubbed his eye sockets and wrestled his emotions back under control. He didn’t trust Stretch not to wander off while he was out hunting and Sans was sleeping, so he scooped the little guy up and dropped him past his clavicle and into his ribcage. The little guy landed on the surface of Red’s warm ecto-flesh and splayed out into the most adorable defenseless napping position ever.“I’m going out. Be back later with food.”Toriel’s eyes went wide and she grabbed Red’s wrist without thinking. “Red, dear, it has only been a day! You should rest more before doing such dangerous things!”He stared down at her and blinked. “Yeah, uh, never gonna happen.”Literally, sharks and mermaids were Red’s worst matchups, and he knew how the last few encounters had turned out. Red wasn’t exactly proud of how rough and scary he looked, but he was proud of his practical ability; the skill and strength he gained in the process of getting as beat-up as he was. What could hurt him in these shallow waters? He was the most dangerous thing up here, and there was nowhere safer for Stretch to be than curled up napping in his ribcage.Besides, he had a very pregnant mate, a school, and a newborn baby to feed. Not to mention his own fat ass. How could he just sit around and “rest”?“I’ll be back soon, Tori.” *** At two weeks old, Stretch discovered his love of small spaces. The empty hole in the stone he’d found to hide in was too small for anyone in the school to swim inside and retrieve him, so it was especially hilarious watching the massive Red claw and bite at the opening.“Stretch, baby doll, I swear, if you don’t come outta there right now, I’m gonna get angry.”Stretch giggled and shot back a playful ‘no,’ then he opened his jaw wide and yawned.“Oh no you don’t! Stretch, don’t you dare fall asleep in there!” Red forced one of his tentacles into the hole. They were truly pliable limbs, and he was able to fit almost all of it inside, stroking the tip of one of Stretch’s tentacles at the back, but he still couldn’t reach.“Baby doll, I’m getting mad!” He heard the faint sound of snoring from within the hole. “You have until the count of three! One! Two!” Red glared furiously. “Three!”Stretch startled awake as his soul was grabbed with blue magic and he was dragged out of the hole by force. He found himself in Red’s claws, looking up at the enraged face of a giant, scarred-up meroctopus. He automatically magicked up a cloud of black ink, which, of course, served no purpose other than to display his terror.“M’not happy, Stretch.”The tiny meroctopus curled in on himself. “M’sorry, mommy.”“You had no idea what could have been in there! You could have gotten hurt! I was really fucking worried when I couldn’t see you!”Sans swam up beside his mate, one hand on his baby bump, the other on Red’s arm. “Hey, that’s enough, okay, Red? He said he was sorry. You’re just scaring him now.”Red growled and handed their baby to Sans. “Both of you watch this, okay?”Stretch clung to his dad and they both watched with nervous curiosity. Red climbed on top of the rock outcropping and wrapped his tentacles around it. In a fucking terrifying show of force, he crushed the whole thing into little chunks. A few eel-like creatures, crabs, starfish, and guppies fled from the remains.“Sea snakes and crabs, huh? There’s a lost limb and some deadly fucking venom for ya.” He fished through the stone chunks and found one with some squishy lumps stuck to one side. “And these are parasite eggs. Do you know how bad getting one of these inside you hurts? I do. Y’ever lose a limb, baby doll? ‘Cause I have. How about snake bites?! Now that nearly killed me!”Red sighed and crawled closer to a shell-shocked Sans and Stretch, and he gave his baby a gentle stroke on the cheek with the tip of his claw.“Look, Stretch, I’m sorry I yelled at you. It’s just that I had to learn a lot of dangerous shit on my own, so when I tell you not to do something, you should listen to me. I know what I’m fucking talking about.”The infant mer, still a little shy of being the size of one of Red’s hands, trembled and rubbed at his eye sockets.“I jus’ wanted to go in da hole,” he sobbed.Red brought his face down low enough to nuzzle the tiny creature. He purred in a deep rumble, and it helped the baby calm down.“I know. I know. S’okay, I get it. You’re right, holes can be comfy, safe places, but they can be dangerous too. Until you can tell the difference, I want you to stay out of them, okay?”Sans hummed and bounced Stretch in his arms. “How about we make you your own personal hole at home, huh, kiddo? Would that make you happy?”Stretch looked up at his dad with sparkling eyelights and nodded.“Alright, good.” Sans stroked his ecto-belly and felt his baby’s soul pulse strongly. He smiled up at his mate with deep shadows under his eye sockets. “I think I’ve had enough moving and excitement for today. Can we go back now?”“Alright, Angel.” The anger and worry previously in Red’s voice was nowhere to be found now. He scooped his mate up into his arms. Sans kept a hold on Stretch, who was starting to doze. Red brought all three of them back to the den and laid his two most precious people down on the couch for a nap. *** Stretch was one month old, and he had grown so much during that time. He was easily triple the size he was when he was born (a little bigger than Red’s hand), and he was growing more independent by the day.Stretch still napped a lot, and he was rarely ever adventurous, so he didn’t require much effort on Sans and Red’s part. He occasionally showed antisocial qualities like Red, but it was mostly in the form of him going somewhere isolated to nap, as opposed to sharing the couch with Sans. He was far better at conversations than his mother, and nowhere near as aggressive.Between that and the natural laziness, Red insisted that Stretch simply took after Sans. And Red loved him for that. He loved their firstborn with all his soul.But for a creature that was expected to lay hundreds of eggs, some instinct inside of him was vehemently opposed to bearing a child singular.He tried to suppress that feeling, but Red could tell he was getting more irritable because of it. He gave in and shook Sans out of a nap, peering at his mate with sharp crimson eyelights.“I want another one.”Sans rubbed his eye sockets and groaned. “What? Another what, Red?”“Another kid.”The little mer raised a brow and set his hand over his baby bump. “It’s on the way, big guy.”“No, I want another one.”Sans hesitated and frowned. “Are you sure? Your mood swings got pretty bad last time.”“I swear I’ll be careful. I won’t go anywhere near anybody else when I’m pissy.”“Can it wait until mine is born?”“I mean, yeah, but I really want it now, Sans. My instincts are going stir crazy ‘cause there aren’t enough people who need me to take care of them! You and Stretch just sleep all day, and the others can handle themselves; I’ve got all this energy and no one to spend it on. I mean, I’m not gonna ask you to give me an entire clutch of eight hundred, but one more is fine, right?”Sans’s child’s soul pulsed, and he stroked the soft ecto-flesh. “Well, you have a point there. And since the overflow from your “instincts” has been going to my waistline, I have enough magic to spare.” Sans sighed and hauled himself into a sitting position. “Alright, fine. I was thinking of losing a few pounds anyway.”So they went to Red’s room and didn’t come out again until the next day.Sans had to admit, it felt nice having a little less weight on his front. His baby was growing a lot bigger than any single egg in a clutch would, and Sans wasn’t a very large mer himself. He couldn’t accommodate much more than this.“You’ll be satisfied after this, right?” Sans checked.“Yeah.”“Alphys and Undyne are going to have one during their next heat. We’ll have more children than adults in the school after that. We really can’t have any more for a while, Red.”“I know.”“I’m just making sure.” *** Stretch was only three months old, but he was already almost as big as the other children in the school. It was about fifty percent a result of his meroctopus biology, and fifty percent Red’s constant doting. What was more surprising to the mermaids in the school was how quickly he matured in a mental sense. Aside from his lazy habits, he typically acted as mature as Chara or Frisk. All four kids had become pretty good friends, actually.“You’re really lucky, Stretch,” Chara complained. “Our mom never spoils us. I bet you could ask Red to get anything for you, even surface stuff.”“But Chara, what about the pies mom makes on our birthdays? You love snail pie!” Asriel reminded them.“I mean, yeah, I do, but compare that to Red, Azzy.”“Mm, well I guess you’re right.”Frisk asked Stretch if Red was a good mother.“Yeah, he is,” the meroctopus smiled. “And you’re probably right. I bet I could ask him for just about anything I want, but I don’t really want anything that badly.” His expression turned dark. “But have you ever seen my mom mad? He’s really scary.”“Yeah, ours too,” Asriel confessed.“He’s been like that a lot lately,” Stretch mentioned. “Dad says it’s because he’s pregnant, and he hides so much because he doesn’t want to be mean to us. I don’t really get it because dad’s pregnant too, and he isn’t mean at all.”“They told me Red’s so mad because he’s a meroctopus,” Chara said. “You guys are different, Stretch, but they usually live all alone in the deep ocean, surrounded by huge, scary predators. In other words, you’re mom’s pissed as hell so he can beat up sharks and shit whenever he needs to to protect his kids.”Stretch folded his arms and stared up at the den’s ceiling. “I guess I can imagine that. Mom looks like a huge, scary predator you’d find in the deep ocean.” He tilted his skull and looked at the red-eyed mermaid for answers. “How did we end up living here if we’re supposed to be down there?”Chara smiled tauntingly. “Because Sansy made your mom fall in love with him~”Stretch sighed out a ‘yeah,’ and changed the subject. “So you started talking about this because you wanted me to ask my mom to go get some sweets from the surface for us, right?”“Milk chocolate or dark chocolate, if you don’t mind,” they grinned.Stretch shrugged. “I guess I could go for some lollipops.”“Oh, uh, I don’t really need anything,” Azriel waved his paws.Frisk watched him and then asked Stretch to ask for a bisicle. They then winked at Azriel and mentioned that they only needed half.Stretch smirked. “Alright, I’ll ask him.” Swimming away, he chuckled, “You guys are hilarious.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Red had gone to the surface to pick up some food Sans was craving and sweets for Stretch and the kids. When he returned from the four-hour round trip, something felt wrong with the water. It tasted a little funny, and Red noticed some fish that were just kind of… sleeping, floating helplessly on the current.Suddenly worried, he hurried inside. The strange taste was stronger here, and he found the members of his school unconscious. All but Asgore, who was barely holding on.“Hey, Asgore, what the hell is going on?!” Red shook him and noticed that his own head felt the slightest bit fuzzy.“Surface-dwellers,” Asgore struggled to make coherent words, “took Sans.”Red’s eyelights burned with rage. “They did what?! What about everyone else? What about Stretch?!”“Toriel... hid the children. They didn’t even look… once they had Sans.” The large goat mermaid gripped Red weakly. “Red, hurry… before you fall asleep too.”“Where did they take Sans?!”Asgore shook his head and fell unconscious, causing Red to shout out profanities. He fled the den before the tainted water could put him under and swam to the surface. He looked in all directions, but there was no sign of a ship. Cursing again, he dove back under and swam as fast as he could.A little under two hours later, he found himself at the docks and hauled himself out of the water. Moving on land wasn’t the easiest thing, but Red found a way to run with the mood he was in. A few humans tried to get closer to offer him food or take his picture, but he snarled and practically ran them over. He was angry enough that he might have just killed them if he wasn’t pressed for time.Red found Edge and Papyrus’s house and banged on the door hard enough that it cracked. He heard angry shouting from inside, but couldn’t and didn’t care to make it out. A very pissed-looking Edge threw open the door and snapped in his face.“Who the hell do you think— Wait, Red?! How dare you—”“They took Sans!”“W-what? Who took Sans?”“Humans! I dunno! When I got back, everyone was drugged asleep and Sans was gone! Help. Me. Find him. NOW! ”Edge’s face went dark and Papyrus peeked around the corner.“Oh, Red is back so soon?”“Honey, we’re going out. Wrap my dinner up for me.”“O-oh. Alright. Is everything fine?”The guardsman snorted and threw a bright red scarf around his shoulders. “Not yet, but it will be.”Edge started trotting down the street as fast as Red could keep up with him. “Why didn’t you call me as soon as you found out?”“I dunno! I don’t have the phone!”“Does Sans have it?”“Maybe? Probably. Yeah, I think he said he was gonna play with some apps while I was out. Why?”“If he has the phone on him, we can track its location to find him.”Edge threw open the door to the guard room and stomped inside, an assistant startled and dropped some papers, and they nearly got their hand impaled by the heels of Edge’s boots trying to pick them back up.Even after magicking up three kids and shrinking somewhat, Red still couldn’t fit inside without damaging the door frame, but he didn’t give a fuck if it got broken. The assistant fled before they could be crushed by the furious meroctopus.Red found Edge messing with a computer. The land skeleton let out a vicious laugh.“Nyeh heh! The device is inactive but still moving. They must have thought it would stop transmitting if they broke it a bit. Good they didn’t throw it overboard.”“Where is he?!”“One hundred seventy miles southwest of here. Take this with you.” Edge handed him his own phone, which was also thoroughly waterproofed. “They will no doubt keep moving as you pursue them. I will track both of your positions and keep you updated. I would take you by ship, but you can swim faster on your own.”Red took the phone gently, fire in his eyes. “Thank you.”“Tell me the name of the ship when you find it. I’ll need to apprehend the crew.”“There won’t be any left,” Red growled, turning back outside.Edge shook his head and pinched the top of his nasal ridge. “I didn’t hear that.” He glared at the assistant cowering in the corner of the room. “Neither did you. Understand?”“Y-yes, sir—C-captain Edge!” When Red caught up to the ship, his fear and fury amplified tenfold. Sans was on that ship. Sans was on that ship! Sans was on that ship! He swam as fast as he could and shot out of the water, catching the sides of the vessel with his suckers and climbing the rest of the way up.A crewman rounded the corner to do his usual duties and spotted Red. His face immediately went pale, and he moved to call for help, but Red was faster. With his first move, he shot out a tentacle and grabbed the puny human’s neck. With his next move, he tightened his grip. The human’s feeble bones snapped like seashells. His body crumpled to the floor, and Red marched on in search of his mate.Not on this side of the boat. Snap. Not this side either. Crunch. Where the fuck was he?!Desperate now, Red didn’t kill the next human he saw. When he grabbed the creature’s neck, he held him close and snarled. “Where the fuck did you take my mate, human?”The man gasped and pointed to a door leading further into the vessel. Red glanced at it, killed the fucker, and pried the locked door off its hinges. Inside, a real boss-looking sailor had Sans’s wrists bound above his head and was examining his mate—for what, Red didn’t care.Before the human could draw his weapon, Red grabbed him and smashed his head into the steel wall, scattering his worthless fucking brains.Unable to wipe the rage off his face, Red just made sure not to look his mate in the eyes. He was glaring at the bindings, and the floorboards, not at Sans. Never at Sans.But fuck, he was still mad.With a deft flick of his claws, Red broke the cloth bindings around Sans’s wrists and pulled the gag out of his mouth. Sans looked at him with eye sockets full of tears, crying for the first time since Red had met him.“Red, oh thank stars.”Sans reached up weakly, and Red pulled him into a gentle carry, stroking the back of his skull reassuringly.“Please take me home,” the little mer sobbed, his delicate phalanges clutching Red’s ribs.“Sure, Angel.” Red tried and failed to keep his voice from coming out as a growl. “I will. Just gimme a minute to clean up here first, alright?”Red set his mate back on the bed gently and exited the room, shoving the discarded steel door back into its place in a way that warped it so it was impossible to open with a human’s strength. With Sans safely secured, Red did his rounds, heartlessly killing every creature he came across. He let himself get worked up for a few of them, being excessively brutal about it.He couldn’t help it. He was so fucking mad, and if he didn’t let it out on somebody, there was a chance it could come back to hurt his Angel. That couldn’t happen.Red didn’t take long, and he was slightly calmer when he returned to Sans’s room. “Angel? It’s me. I’m comin’ in.” He politely called first before tearing away the steel door. Sans was curled up on the bed, sobbing, and he shot his mate a halfhearted glare.“You left me in a room with a dead human.”Red was startled by the complaint, but it was kind of gross when he thought about it. “Sorry, Angel. I shoulda gotten you a clean room to wait in.” He held out a hand. “Hey, I finished up outside. You ready to head home?”Sans nodded and let himself be picked up. Red remembered to quickly text Edge the name of the ship, and then he jumped back into the water.Sans continued to sob quietly most of the way back, and Red found his remaining rage slowly fading. He killed all the fuckers who took his Angel, and Sans was alive and safe.“How did you find me?” Sans murmured.“The drugs hadn’t knocked Asgore out yet when I got back. He’s a big guy, y’know? All he could tell me was that ya were kidnapped, so I went to the surface to get help from Edge. He had the idea to track your phone.”“But they broke it.”“It still worked.”“Huh.” Sans sniffled. “No wonder it took you so long, if you did all that.”“Did they do anything to you, Angel?”“Not yet. I only woke up a few minutes ago, and I guess they were waiting for that.” His expression broke down, and soon he was crying into Red’s ribcage. “I was so scared! I was afraid fighting back with magic would hurt the baby, or that they would hurt the baby. They wanted it, Red! They said they saw the photos people have been posting of us online, and they wanted to sell my baby to some surface-dweller!”Red felt his rage quickly boiling up again and he tried to channel it into his swim speed.“Angel, look at me.” Sans sniffled and raised his chin a fraction. “You’re safe, okay? I’m never gonna let shit like this happen again. So please, keep quiet until we get home? I’m in a real bad mood, and I don’t wanna take it out on you by accident.”Sans looked hurt, but he understood that Red wasn’t the most emotionally stable monster—especially when he was pregnant. So, even though he really needed to share his feelings and seek comfort, he kept quiet.Red brought him home, and the water had cleared out. The others had woken up around half an hour ago and were confused and angry. Red left Sans with them for the whole group to work through their feelings together, and he swam back to his old cave. The cold, dark, and heavy water was good for his nerves. He hated to be away from Sans right after almost losing him, but Red knew he was the biggest threat to his mate’s safety right now. He had to be able to control himself before he could be any help to anybody.Shit, this was all his fault. If the poachers knew Sans was pregnant from photos, they should have also known Red was his mate. They had intentionally waited for him to leave the den for a while before attacking it. He should’ve taken Sans with him! Or, or something!Red would realize once he calmed down that there was nothing he could have done differently. He couldn’t stay with Sans in the den all the time, and Sans couldn’t accompany him on dangerous hunts while he was so far along in his pregnancy. But even if it was unavoidable, Red was still beyond furious.
If anything EVER happens to my Angel again, I’m gonna fucking be there! I’m never gonna let him be alone like that again!
And for an instant, Red thought he felt Sans’s soul calling out to him. It sounded so sad and in-need, and his passions were still stoked, and before he could think about it—“Red?”Red turned his head and saw Sans sitting on his couch, staring in shock.“Angel?” Red looked around and found himself back in the den. “How’d I get back here?”“That’s what I wanna know.” *** Sans woke up early in the morning due to intense abdominal pain. The baby was finally coming.Before he could even call for help, Red was by his side, holding his hand. He apparently still didn’t know how he was doing that, but it was an issue they had shelved until after the babies were born.“Hey, big guy, can you do me a favor? Get Toriel and Alphys for me.”“Yeah. Just hang on, Angel.”Red found the two best midwives in the school and they jumped into action. They started setting up some things in one of the community rooms and told Red to bring Sans there, so he swam back to his mate.“They’re all ready to take care of ya, Angel,” Red cooed. He lifted Sans into his arms carefully and winced when his mate whimpered in pain. “You’re gonna be okay.”He carried the little fish to the room and laid him down on a pile of fresh kelp. Toriel used a small amount of healing magic to take the edge off his pain, but she couldn’t allow his contractions to stop.Red watched helplessly on the sidelines while the two mermaids corrected Sans’s sitting angle, showed him how to breathe, and occasionally administered green magic. It felt awful watching his mate writhe in pain and being unable to help him. But Red refused to leave his side at a time like this.Sans had been spending the past couple of months trying not to think about this very moment. He’d noticed ages ago that his baby was going to be big. Normally, each child in a mermaid clutch should have been about an inch longer than Stretch when he was born, but this child was as big as Stretch at a month old.After a particularly painful contraction, the baby rolled over in Sans’s stomach. Alphys shoved a folded kelp leaf between his teeth so he could bite down safely and muffle his scream. Gasping, he spat it out and looked at Toriel with small, terrified eyelights.“Am I going to be okay?”She smiled warmly and patted the back of his hand. “You will be fine, Sans. We will make sure of it.”Sans couldn’t quite believe her, but he latched onto those words and tried to keep from hyperventilating. The baby was so big, and he was so small, and he already knew what was going to have to happen.“W-we’re going to make a small i-i-incision as soon as the baby starts to t-try to swim o-out,” Alphys told him. “I-it will heal more easily i-if w-w-we control the-the situation.”Sans whimpered and called out for red, begging to hold his hand. Of course, his mate crawled over and didn’t complain no matter how hard Sans squeezed.The baby started to move around again, and Alphys used an extremely sharp shell fragment like a scalpel. It had already been cleaned with green magic, not that ecto-biology was very susceptible to bacterial infections. It was still better to be careful.Because the instrument was so sharp, Sans only felt a hot sensation when she cut his opening wider. The true pain came after that, when the baby pushed and clawed and agitated the wound. Sans screamed into the piece of kelp between his teeth, and it was only Toriel and Alphys pinning him down that kept him from writhing and hurting himself more.After a minute, though, the baby did find its way out. It darted off aimlessly in the water at a surprising speed, but Red’s tentacles were long enough to cut off its path and catch it.Toriel and Alphys had immediately started healing Sans, filling him with enough green magic to make his head feel fuzzy. Red handed over the baby and let his slightly delirious mate hold him.“That was terrible,” Sans chuckled. “You’re cute, but that was just the worst. I don’t think I’m built for this.” His eyelights were lazily fixed in a half-focused state, and he grinned up at his mate. “What are you gonna name him?”Red hummed and stroked their new child’s cheek. He had been full of energy a moment ago, but was now napping peacefully in Sans’s arms. Like his parents, he had a stout bone structure. He had a pretty blue tail, like Sans’s, but the color was more electric. For Sans, it was a big baby, but it was just tiny and round and cute to Red.“Blueberry.”Sans tilted his skull. “You wanna name our kid after a surface food?”“He’s blue, round like a berry, cute enough to eat,” Red shrugged. “It’s more thoughtful than Stretch.”“More embarrassing too,” Sans chuckled, “but it’s your pick. He can always go by a nickname if he doesn’t like it.”Red leaned down and gave his mate a kiss on the forehead. “I’m gonna go take care of somethin’, okay, Angel? Come to my room in a bit if you can, or I’ll come back here when I’m done.”“M’kay.”Sans was too worn-out to question it. He fell asleep a minute after Red left, and Toriel and Alphys took the baby from his arms to clean away any lingering fluids with bits of kelp. They returned the mer child to Sans after that and left so the new mother and child could rest. Two hours later, Sans woke up again to Red gently shaking his shoulder.“Mm, Red? What’s up?”Red kissed Sans on the forehead, and as Sans woke up more, he noticed how tired his mate looked. “Did something happen?”Red nodded and spoke as softly as his rough voice could. “Yeah. You missed it, but that’s fine. I know you’re tired after today. That was real hard on you.”Sans was about to ask again, wondering just what had happened for Red to be acting like this, but he noticed it for himself first. In his hand, Red was cradling a tiny little meroctopus.“Stars, Red! Did you go off and do that all on your own?!”“Shh,” Red stroked Sans’s skull with his free hand. “S’okay. You know I can handle this stuff.”“Red…” Sans knew his mate was tough, but he still felt bad for sleeping when Red was giving birth all alone.“Don’t worry about it, Angel. More importantly, ya still gotta name him.”Sans sighed and accepted that the timing was just bad and it couldn’t have been helped. “Alright. Let me see him.”Red lowered his hand and let Sans see the tiny meroctopus. It had tentacles such a dark shade of blue that they looked almost black, and it had sharp triangular teeth like Red. Aside from that, it looked almost identical to Blueberry.“Besides those teeth and his lower half, he and Blueberry could be twins,” Sans marveled.“They are, ain’t they? They were born on the same day. That’s what twins are, right?”Sans tilted his head, not quite familiar enough with the human concept to rule whether that was right or wrong. Still, the comparison gave him a great idea for a name.“Let’s call him Blackberry.”Red rolled his eyes. “And you were criticizin’ my naming sense. Is it really ‘cause he looks like Blueberry ‘cept with darker magic?”“Nah, I thought about it harder than that,” Sans chuckled. “It’s cause they got the same face, but Blackberry’s is scarier.” He grinned and ran the blunted tip of his finger over Blackberry’s sharp teeth.Red frowned at his mate and at the thought that he’d passed on his scary face to their kid. Sans noticed him sulking and smiled with concern.“Red?”“Sorry for having a scary face,” the giant meroctopus muttered.“Aw, come here, big guy.” Red leaned down and Sans kissed him right on the mouth. “I never said there was anything wrong with that.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After taking a week off to rest and recover from giving birth, Sans finally found that he had energy again. He had forgotten what it felt like to not be tired all the time. Add onto that that it was getting into the nicest part of summer, and he just wanted to go out and swim in the sun.There was no way Red was going to let him go out there alone, even if his mate was now able to defend himself. So, in an effort to not die, he was hiding in the shade of an outcropping of stone. Stretch and Blackberry were about as miserable as he was in the heat, so they were being well-behaved. Blueberry kept trying to swim off after his mother, but Red was hanging onto him.The little nutball had only been alive for a week, and he had already tried to swim out into the open ocean three times. Red only had to let go for a second and he’d be gone. He was almost as fast as Sans, too, so it was a real pain to hunt him down after losing him.The only nice thing about this weather was how happy Sans looked. His bright blue tail flashing in the sun was stunning to watch. Red’s eyelights tracked him contentedly.Next to him, Stretch groaned. “How come the water’s so hot?”“‘Cause it’s summer.”“What the hell is that?”Red shrugged. “It’s a time, I guess? About a fourth of the year is hot like this. It’ll be over in a few months.”“I won’t last. It’s going to kill me.”“Just be glad you’re still so tiny.”Since meroctopuses produced their own body heat, size was actually a disadvantage when it came to regulating their temperature in the warm weather. In cold water, it would be the opposite, but…“Blackberry is tiny,” Stretch argued, wiping away some sweat that the current hadn’t carried off yet. “I’m normal-sized.” At five months old, Stretch was already bigger than any of the other kids, and he was about the same size as Sans. That still put him on the small side—especially for his species—but he definitely wasn’t tiny anymore.“Shaddup. You’re tiny; a babybones.”“Whatever,” Stretch sighed and spread himself out more in an attempt to cool off. “Could really go for some nicecream right now.”Red groaned in agreement and finally called out to Sans. “Hey, Angel, mind turning that pretty tail to the surface?”Sans stopped darting about aimlessly and swam over the Red and the kids. “Sorry, are you boiling?”“Lil’ bit.”“Well, alright. Papyrus has been begging to meet the kids anyway.”They sent a text to the land skeletons that they would be there in about two hours.Blackberry spent the trip safely tucked in Red’s ribcage while Stretch took a nap in his mother’s arms. Blueberry was fast enough to swim on his own, and more than eager to, so they let him do that. Of course, Sans was in charge of chasing after him anytime he strayed too far from the group.He had enthusiasm, but he was still a baby, so Red ended up carrying him through the second half of the journey.“Huh. So that’s what a surface den looks like,” Stretch poked his head out of the water and whistled.Red climbed up onto the docks with the younger kids in tow, and Stretch crawled up after him. His eye sockets went wide as he experienced gravity for the first time. “This is… weird.”“Yeah, I hate it too,” Red muttered, reaching down into the water to pull Sans up. Blueberry was in his other arm, so he managed it one-handed. Not like it was the most impressive feat he’d ever done.“Ya need to eat more, Angel,” Red grumbled.The little mer chuckled. “Worry about that when you can hunt without getting heatstroke. I’ll be fine without being fat for one summer.”Red made a noise of reluctant acceptance and handed Blueberry to Sans, picking up Stretch to carry in his other arm.“Uh, not that I want to, but I can walk, mom.”“Nope.” The ground ahead was hot. Red wasn’t going to let his baby burn himself.Up past the docks were crowds of humans and land monsters who seemed even more eager than usual to give food and take pictures.“Oh my god! They had babies!”“So cute!”Red growled and showed off his fangs to a human who had snuck around behind him to get a picture of Blackberry hiding in his ribcage. The little guy snarled at the camera in a high-pitched, soul-melting way, and Red felt so proud of him.Meanwhile, Stretch, who was usually pretty sociable in the school, pressed himself up against his mother’s ribs and glared suspiciously at the crowds.Sans was happily posing, of course, and Blueberry was copying him with a dazzling smile. He accepted a nicecream from a human woman and almost took a bite of it before he heard Red growling at him. The little mer rolled his eyelights and let his mate taste the food first. He shared it with Blueberry once they knew it was safe, and the baby mermaid’s electric blue eyelights turned into little stars. Several people in the crowd squealed and rapidly took pictures.Red stayed as long as he could stand it for Sans to have his fun, but the people were pissing him off and the asphalt was burning his tentacles, so they moved on to the land skeletons’ house. They went around the back and found a note taped to the door. Welcome, friends!Edge is held up at work, and I am scheduled for some volunteer duties in town today. I am sorry we aren’t here to welcome you, but we will be back within the hour! The door is unlocked, please make yourselves at home!- Papyrus Red set everyone but Blackberry down in the grass and carefully removed the glass doors from their tracks, leaning them against the side of the house. When everybody was inside, he reinstalled them to keep the cold air from escaping.Stretch splayed out in the middle of the floor. “I’m alive!”Red could concur. He laid himself out on the kitchen tiles and sighed, and Sans dragged himself across the floor to get to work healing Red’s burns. When he was done, Red scooped him up and nuzzled his head.“You’re an angel, Angel.”“So I’ve been told,” he laughed.There was a dull crashing sound as Blueberry dragged a pile of books off of a coffee table. The doting parents smiled fondly as he bounced and dragged himself across the floor to look at every little thing.“At least we don’t have to worry about him running off up here,” Red chuckled. He felt Blackberry slowly scaling his ribs and pulled him out with blue magic, setting him loose on the floor to chase after his brother. He tripped almost immediately over his own tangled mess of legs, and the three older mer got a good laugh out of it. In a while, Stretch and Red had cooled down enough to be pleasant company, and they heard the sound of the front door unlocking, along with two high-pitched voices whispering loudly.“We’re home!” Papyrus called down the hallway.“Welcome back,” Sans called back.Red grinned, seeing Blueberry accidentally smack Blackberry with his tail, and the tiny meroctapus posturing and hissing at him. “Watch where you step. There’s kids on the floor in here.”Papyrus peeked his head around the corner, scanning the floor and “whispering” excitedly. “Oh, I have been so looking forward to meeting them!” He spotted Stretch spread out on the floor and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Oh my goodness! Stretch?! You’ve gotten so big!”“Uh, I don’t think we’ve met before,” the oldest child returned.“Well, no. But I have a picture of you the day after you were born. Stars, you can already speak like an adult!”Stretch chuckled, recognizing the overly friendly and enthusiastic way of speaking from text messages and stories. “So you must be Papyrus.”“Indeed I am! It is so very good to finally meet you. Where are your brothers?”“Just follow wherever mom’s staring and you’ll see ‘em,” he shrugged.“Where’s Edge?” Sans asked. “I heard him come in with you.”“Oh, he went upstairs to change out of his guard uniform. He’ll be down soon.”Sans smiled wryly. “Doesn’t he, like, live in that thing? Why’s he taking it off?”“He thought the spikes might hurt the babies.”Papyrus went into the living room and got down on his knees to play with the baby berries. Edge stomped down the stairs a minute later, wearing a black T-shirt and skinny jeans. He was still wearing heels, but this was a different pair, less likely to impale anyone he might step on.“Where’s your uniform, Edge?” Sans teased.The rougher skeleton blushed and folded his arms. “It needed to be washed! Why do you care?”Sans silently laughed, and Red nuzzled him affectionately.“Oh yeah, you’re much more of an Edge,” Stretch chuckled.“What does that have to do with— Stretch?!”“Hey.”Edge stared in shock for a moment, took a deep breath, and then pinched his nasal ridge. “Fine,” he spat. “Sure! Why not!”“If you were hoping to play with some babies, they’re over there with your mate,” Stretch grinned and pointed.The guard captain blushed and gritted his teeth then stomped over to the living room.The two mer parents watched in amusement as Papyrus handed a squirming Blackberry over to a very uncertain Edge.“Be careful how you hold him, dear. He likes to bite.”Edge grimaced and prodded at the baby’s sharp fangs. “I’m not surprised.”“Well, it made him laugh, so I don’t mind.”Obviously, the tiny ocean terror tried to take a chunk out of the claw poking at him, but Edge didn’t flinch and just glared harshly at him. Slowly, Blackberry released Edge’s finger from his jaws and curled himself into a little ball of tentacles.“Pretty smart considering he can’t even talk yet,” Edge praised flatly, raising a brow.He set the little meroctopus on the ground, only for him to immediately flee for his mother. Red chuckled and accepted the little guy into his claws, lightly stroking his back to help him calm down.“That’s what ya get for picking a fight with someone bigger than you. Ya don’t gotta be scared of Edge, though. He’s safe.”Blackberry was still shivering, so Red purred for him, and he quickly relaxed. Sans also cuddled tighter against Red’s ribs and started to nod off.In the middle of making Blueberry laugh with a game of peekaboo, Papyrus looked up and asked if they would be staying for dinner. He really needn’t have asked. Red just got into the air conditioning, he wouldn’t be willing to carry everyone back until the sun set… or if Sans asked him to.The softer land skeleton started to get busy in the kitchen, leaving Edge to awkwardly try to keep Blueberry entertained.“How many servings should I make? How many of the kids are still nursing?”Sans looked up and tilted his head. “What’s nursing?”“Oh, you know,” Papyrus waved his hand in a circle. “It’s the word for children drinking their mother’s magic until they’re old enough to break down solid foods.”Red looked mildly horrified. “What kinda kid can’t chew their own food?”“That’s not something we do,” Sans shook his head.“Oh. I suppose I shouldn’t really be surprised at this point. I’ll just take a guess at the portions!”Papyrus made a big batch of spaghetti for dinner; it was easy to cook in large quantities and easy for children to eat. Red reluctantly let Sans and Stretch sit in their own chairs so he could hold the babies and make sure they didn’t just play with the strange new food. His soul was definitely going to explode at this rate. Blueberry was grinning with a face covered in sauce, and Blackberry was concentrating hard on chewing noodles so big compared to him that he could only eat one at a time. The sight made Red’s chest positively ache .Stretch eyed his mom and brothers while twirling noodles on his fork. Taking a bite, he pointed the empty utensil at them and raised an eyebrow at his dad. “He called me a babybones this morning. Can you believe it?”Sans chuckled and nodded his head.“At least he seems to be enjoying himself,” Edge huffed.“You need to come up here more often,” Papyrus chided them. “I’ll be cross if they’re all grown the next time I see them!”“Sorry about that, Papyrus. At least it’s summer now, I don’t think you’d have an easy time convincing Red to stay away.”Sans finished his food and took Blueberry out of Red’s lap to clean him off. The giant mer made a grunt in complaint, but he needed to eat too.“More importantly,” Sans continued, “when are you two planning on having a kid?”Papyrus’s smile faltered slightly, and Edge stared daggers at his plate.“In the fall,” the soft land skeleton said, “when most of the tourists have left and things have quieted down a bit. We gave up on trying to match our heat cycles with work and the weather.”The little mer leaned in and rested his chin on his hand, grinning. “So who’s gonna be the mom?”Edge continued to glare at his plate, and Papyrus elbowed him in the ribs. He growled, “Me, what of it?!”“Nothin’. Just curious.”“Just being an ass, you mean.”“Edge, language! There are children here!”Stretch peered lazily at the soft land skeleton, “Shit, fuck, piss, dick, tits, bastard, motherfucker, damn, cocksucker, asshole.”Papyrus made a bewildered face of betrayal, his jaw hanging slack. He turned a glare that almost managed to look harsh at Red, who automatically met him with a much more menacing stare.“The fuck’re you lookin’ at?”“NYEH!” *** Despite having been thoroughly vexed, the evening went rather well in Papyrus’s opinion. The mer monster family left once the sun had gone down. Edge cleaned the kitchen while Papyrus tidied up the living room, and soon the house was back they way they liked it.Edge was obviously still cross about something even after they’d transitioned to reading and puzzlemaking to wind down for the night.“You’re going to tear that page if you glare at it any harder. What’s the matter, dear?”“They were naturals,” he grumbled. “Even with three kids at once, they made it look easy.”The truth was, kids were a sensitive topic for the land skeletons. As kind and caring as Papyrus was, the idea of holding another life in his hands like that terrified him. He had gone for some time thinking his refusal to bear children would upset Edge and thinking they would probably just adopt a child in need someday. Edge avoided the topic like a dumpster on fire just like he did, so they never properly talked about it.But when they saw a picture of baby Stretch for the first time, something in Edge finally snapped. That night, Papyrus found out that his mate desperately wanted to be a mother, and had for some time. It was just that too many things were standing in his way.For one, there was his job. Edge was a career monster, and it was hard to take an extended amount of time off when nobody else was good enough to replace you. At the same time, his work was much too dangerous to do while pregnant.And then there was also his fear that he wouldn’t be any good at it. Edge knew how he was. Gentle and motherly were not words he would use to describe himself. He couldn’t even blame his appearance for it. Hell, look at Red! If a face like that could get a baby to fall asleep in his arms, then Edge really didn’t have any excuse for terrifying Red’s baby with just a look.Papyrus wrapped an arm around his husband and leaned into him. “You have nothing to worry about, dear. If there’s one thing you can handle better than any other monster I know, it’s responsibility.”Edge rolled his eyelights. “I’m not particularly worried about raising the child. How hard could that be? I just don’t want them to hate me by the end of it.”“They won’t hate you, Edge.”“Oh, come on.” Edge held his husband’s chin and made them face each other. “We’re going to be good cop bad cop parents, and I’m always going to be the bad cop.”Papyrus couldn’t really deny that, but, “I still think everything is going to be fine!”Edge sighed and released his hold. “You’re too pure sometimes, but thank you for your optimism. All we can do is wish for the best, I suppose.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Stretch swam behind Red, gazing out at the darkness with more tension than he’d ever been forced to feel. The cold, heavy water felt nice, but he just couldn’t relax. It was stressful. Stretch hated things like that.“Mom, can we just go home? I feel like I’m being watched down here. I don’t like it.”“You are being watched,” Red called back in a low voice. “You’re food down here, baby doll. Only reason nothin’s comin’ after ya is ‘cause I’m here.”“Nice to have confirmation on that. Look, I’d really rather be home taking a nap right now.”“Sorry, Stretch, but I gotta teach you some stuff; it’d be too damn irresponsible not to, but I hope you never need to know it. Swim a little closer to me.”Stretch swam up to his mother’s side, and Red began to impart his hard-earned wisdom.“Rule number one: unless you’re tryin’ to lure something in, don’t stop moving and don’t swim in circles. Always move forward.” Stretch hugged his chest and gave a nervous nod. “Talking is fine; a lot of things communicate with sounds, but not many track creatures by the noise they make; it echoes too much. Still, probably not a good idea to throw up a fuss. Do you remember how to make a bone attack?”Stretch nodded and summoned a long white bone to hold in his hands. Red nodded in approval, took it, and snapped it so the end was sharp. He passed it back gently into his child’s hands.“Until you’re a lot bigger, you’re gonna want a weapon to protect yourself. Now, do ya think I’d give a fuck if you stabbed me in the ribs or the tentacles? Would that stop me if I was tryin’ to eat ya?”Stretch shook his head. At Red’s size, he’d just tank an attack like that, and Stretch would be dead before getting the chance to make another one.“Right. Same goes for everything else down here. They’re all too big to be hurt by that, so always aim for the weak points. Gills and eyes for fleshy things, neck and skull for skeletons. And if you’re up against another meroctopus, stay away from their lower half.”“Why would I have to fight another meroctopus?”“Because life sucks and you come from a species that’s mostly assholes. You might not have to fight if you meet one, but always be ready to.” Red thought a bit. “Actually, the same goes for any mermaids you meet.”“What, mermaids are assholes too? My life is a lie.”“They’re not assholes,” Red grumbled. “Mermaids are all social and friendly and all that shit, but we have a real bad reputation. They might just attack you even if you didn’t do anything wrong.”“Well, that’s just lovely.”Red apparently arrived at wherever he wanted to be and stopped swimming. “Alright, m’gonna keep this short since too much new stuff’ll tire ya out. Next thing for today: don’t make your tentacles glow down here. Things’ll see how small you are and come up for a bite. Watch.”Red lit up his own ecto-flesh, but he restrained the light and shape to match Stretch’s size. Before long, the glow reflected off a mouth coming up from below. It was a considerably large mouth, actually, but not big enough to swallow Red whole. He wrapped around the creature’s muzzle and stabbed it several times with his beak. With each bite, the creature slowed more and more until it couldn’t move.Upon further examination, it was some kind of toothed whale for sure, but not any kind Red knew the name of. It had grey skin and a large body. It must have been double Red’s mass, and it was frankly terrifying that things that huge existed in this darkness.“Last lesson: our venom is really fucking good, so use it.” He wrapped around the creature’s neck and snapped it, killing it instantly. “But it only stops things from moving, so make sure you finish the job. Let’s bring this back before something tries to steal it.” *** They returned to the den, and Toriel scolded Red for bringing too much food home again. Undyne and the mer kids were freaking out about the fact that he killed a literal whale on his own. Their shouting was just shouting to Red, though, and it only made him more anxious. On the bright side, his obvious discomfort prompted Toriel to cut off her lecture early.“Just be more careful next time.”Sans came out of the den with the babies in tow. He let them go to explore the biggest kill they’d ever seen and held Red’s hand to help him relax.Blueberry giggled while swimming laps around the dead whale, but Blackberry returned after examining the whole thing once. He patted his mom’s tentacles and got a free ride to Red’s hands.“Big fishy!” Blackberry pointed, his electric blue eyelights shaped like stars.“That’s a whale,” Red told him.“Taste good?”“Yeah, tastes pretty good. Better than shark, at least.”Unfortunately, though the mermaids liked fattier fish like tuna, whales still had a little too much blubber, and the skin was too thick to enjoy as well. If Red wasn’t a living garbage disposal, Toriel would have had the kids just carry all that away as chum. Instead, it meant that Red was going to be eating mostly trash again for a while. Toriel was quite cross with him, and she would have scolded him even more if he wasn’t so sensitive.As a side note, Stretch liked to eat trash sometimes, but Blackberry refused to, so it was more about personal tastes than any racial disposition.Red felt kind of bad for dumping a whole whale on Toriel without warning, so he helped with the prep work, cutting it into small enough chunks to bring inside. Asgore and Undyne were lending a hand with the cooking, since pregnancy was making Alphys too queasy to be up and about much.Undyne confronted Red as soon as dinner was over.“Hey, dude. I got a favor to ask you.”The finger incident had thoroughly taught Undyne to watch her volume when she was chatting with Red. She was using a soft tone and giving him a good amount of space, but Red still found himself starting to sweat in the presence of one of the school members he didn’t hang out with as much.“Uh… w-what?”“I feel like I’m getting out of shape since you took over hunting. I was hoping maybe you and me could spar sometimes so I don’t lose my touch.”Red tucked his chin. “What’s spar mean?”“You, know. It’s like fighting, except we won’t actually try to hurt each other.”What the hell did that even mean? Why would you attack someone if you didn’t want to hurt them? Red hadn’t been in a single fight that didn’t end in someone dying. It sounded bizarre.“... I’ll think about it.”“Yeah, sure. No rush, dude. Just let me know.”She left the room and Sans patted his mate. “You alright, big guy?”He nodded slowly and pulled the lazy mermaid into a hug. “Yeah.”Red played with the babies until it got dark, then hid in his room for the rest of the night. He loved his kids and his mate, but if he never got any alone time he would seriously snap. Between sunset and sunrise, they were Sans’s kids exclusively. *** Sans swam over to join Red in the shade and nudged him. The kids, minus Stretch, were playing tag on the sandy plains. It was obviously unfair since Blueberry was the fastest but barely understood the rules, and Blackberry was still too small to compete.“I think your kid’s about ready to bite Azzy again,” Sans teased.“Mm.”“He bit me last night ‘cause I wouldn’t let him go sleep with you. It’s sweet that he worries about his mom, but those teeth hurt.”“You want me to heal it?”Sans chuckled, “Nah, I already took care of it.” He held up his pointer finger to display a faint scar around the tip. “He sure does bite a lot, though. Did you used to be like that?”Red laughed dryly. “Thanks for phrasing it like I don’t still bite.” He shook off the memory of removing one of Undyne’s fingers and grinned wryly. “But yeah, I did. What else are you supposed to do with teeth like these?”Sans laughed and swam up to give his mate a kiss. “I can think of one or two things.”Red smiled and gave Sans a little peck in return, but he didn’t flirt back much or purr like Sans was expecting.“Hey, you feeling alright? You seem a little tired.”“Sorry.”“You can take more alone time if you need it, you know?”“I… don’t wanna leave the kids.”“You’ll just use that weird magic to pop in if they need you, right?” Sans pondered his own words. “How does that work anyway?”“I told ya, I don’t really get it. It just happens when I feel one of your souls calling for me.”“You can’t at least describe how your magic moves?”“Nah. It just kinda goes wherever it wants. I don’t really get a say outside of ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”Sans hummed. “Well anyway, I’ll watch the kids, so don’t worry and just go rest. And you can take a few days, you know? We have plenty of food lately.”Red whined uncertainly, but Sans insisted he would be fine, so Red left to take some much-needed alone time. *** Asgore had picked up a hobby.With Red in their school, he almost never needed to go out and hunt anymore, and guarding was only his job when Red was away. He was, essentially, retired. Which was suitable, considering his age. Fate had united him and Toriel late in life. It was a miracle they had one final mating season in them to have Asriel. He was such a precious child, too.Asgore chuckled and looked back at what his hands were doing. With gentle care, he arranged chunks of stone into a neat, circular mound. They were the remains of a stone outcropping Red had crushed a while back. The stones were nice and porous. Asgore thought they might make a good garden. He could plant corals, sponges, and polyps here, and maybe the garden would attract some small fish.The large goat mermaid hummed while he worked, occasionally looking up at the children playing. It really warmed his heart seeing them all get along. He looked back and put a few more stones where they looked nice, dusting off his hands and shaking any sand loose from his fur. This was enough for one day.Asgore looked at the children again, swimming in the warm water and playing some kind of game. He glanced at the usual shaded spot where Red would watch them from, and was surprised that only Sans and Stretch were there. The old mermaid swam over and offered a pleasant greeting.“Hello Sans, Stretch. It is a nice day outside, isn’t it?”Stretch just groaned, “It’s still hot.”Sans chuckled. “I got my fill of it earlier this morning. Kinda ready for a nap now, but I’m watching the kids.”“I noticed. Where has Red gone? He usually never takes his eyes off your youngest.”“He’s reaching the end of his rope. I sent him off to rest.”“I see.” Asgore looked fondly at the children once again. They were so lively. “Do you mind if I join you?”“You kid ding me? Have a seat.”“Why, thank you.”The large goat mermaid settled himself on the sand, and very soon both lazy mer were sleeping next to him. He was in charge of watching the children now, apparently. Asgore chuckled.“Ow! Blackberry, let go!”Asgore sighed and got up to remove a very angry baby meroctopus from his son’s finger.“Now, what do you say, Blackberry?”“Sorry I bited Azzy…”“And you, Azriel?”“I’m sorry I kept tagging you over and over. It wasn’t to be mean, you know? I just can’t catch anybody else.”“That was very good, boys,” Asgore smiled brightly. “You may go rejoin the game now, if you’d like to.”The large mer returned to his shaded spot in the sand, and Sans spoke up. So he had been awake after all.“Sorry about Blackberry. Is Azzy’s finger okay?”“Yes, it’s just fine. I’m sure your child did not intend to hurt Asriel, he just wanted him to know he was unhappy. I didn’t even have to use any healing magic.”“That’s good. In that case, I’m gonna take a nap.” *** The mer skeletons had an errand to run on the surface. It was long overdue, and postponed even further with Red hiding himself away for half a week… Plus one more day because he was really cuddly when he finally came out again.Their errand was to buy a few more cell phones for use underwater. Sharing one between Sans and Red was fine when they only used it to contact their friends on land, but if they wanted to check in with each other, it didn’t work out so well. Today, they planned to get four more: one for Red, one for Stretch, one for Toriel, and one for Alphys. The phone they already had would belong to Sans.They called up Edge first to ask if Red needed to go get more gold, but the coins he’d brought the first time had sold for a lot more than their material value. Some humans apparently really liked old stuff. They had more than enough surface money to work with for a while.Blueberry had no idea what was going on, but he insisted on coming with, and Blackberry was going through a clingy phase and didn’t like being away from Red for long. The twins coming along was unavoidable.Stretch didn’t particularly want to come, but they were dragging him along so he could pick his own phone if there were different options. None of the others could walk on land, so he somehow got saddled with keeping track of Toriel and Alphys’s requests too.He just sighed and accepted that he would have to work a little.When they arrived, Papyrus and Edge were shocked by Blackberry’s ability to speak. He was still tiny, but considerably bigger than before; about the size of Red’s hand already.“Mermonsters grow up so fast,” Papyrus said with a sad smile. He picked up a burbling Blueberry and tilted his head. “Or not?”“It’s only Red’s species that grow that fast,” Sans said.“Come to think of it, how old are you two?” The land skeleton asked.“Three, right?” Sans looked to Red.“Nah, since the timing’s different, it should be that you’re one and I’m two.”“Maybe. Either way, we’re both parents.”Papyrus just looked at them with boggling eye sockets, he had no idea at all what he should say to that. Even Edge was at a loss for words—for a second.“ Three years old?! You still are infants, you shouldn’t be making more !”He yelled loud enough to make Stretch flinch back. Red practically pressed himself up against the wall, hugging Sans tightly to his chest. The smaller skeleton still had the presence of mind to hear what had been said.“Did we say years? We don’t keep track of age that way; it’s a pain.”That immediately threw a cold bucket of water onto Edge’s nerves. It was impressive how quickly he could switch from explosive indignation to rational thought.“In that case… hm. You were counting by the number of children you have?”“Something like that?” Sans shrugged. “Kids are kids, adults are people old enough to reproduce, parents are kind of ranked by how many clutches they’ve raised, and grandparents are those whose kids have had kids. In theory, the higher you are in those rankings, the more authority you have in your school.”“He had to explain it all to me too,” Red told them.“Really? And how do meroctopuses measure age,” Edge asked.“Either you’re old enough to have kids, or you’re not.”Edge snorted, in a curt show of acknowledgment. “And how old are you both in years?”“Dunno.”“No fuckin’ idea.”The conversation wasn’t going anywhere, so Papyrus intervened and suggested they leave for their scheduled errand.The local phone store had a prime location along the main road through town, and it did good business, but as was typical of phone stores, it was a very small shop. All it had was a single-wide door and a one long, narrow room with walls lined with products.Even if Red could have gotten through the door, he probably shouldn’t. There were too many expensive things to be broken and a lot of tentacles to keep track of.“I kinda hate surface dens,” Red mumbled, reluctantly handing Sans over to Edge. Since his arm was freed up, each of the twins got one to themselves.“We’ll keep the door open so you can listen in,” Sans said, giving his mate a parting pat on the arm. “It won’t take too long.”“You’re more slippery than you look,” Edge grumbled, readjusting the mermaid in his arms a few times.Red gave him a look that said, ‘You’d better not drop him.’Sans just chuckled and wrapped his arms around Edge’s neck to make his rapid descent less likely. “Stretch, could you get the door?”The attendant inside had been watching their group curiously for a while and was ready to administer service when they came in.“How can I help you today?”“We need some new phones,” Sans said. “Four of them, all waterproof.”“Well, you’ve got a few options. Did you have a particular brand or model in mind?”Sans held up the phone he already had and showed it to the worker. “This one’s worked pretty well for us.”“Alright. You can find our designs for this model along the third section there.”They left to look at the phones. Stretch picked one made of pink metal for Alphys and the most basic design for Toriel. All she’d said was that she didn’t want anything too complicated, and Alphys had asked for something cute while blushing and hiding her face. Stretch didn’t particularly care what he got, so he just picked one that wouldn’t get mixed up with the three they already had picked out.Sans scanned the wall looking for a phone for Red. He knew he’d found it when he saw one model that was decidedly bigger than the others.“This should be good, since he was complaining before that the buttons were too small.” He leaned over and plucked it off the shelf, then looked down at Stretch. “Did you find everything?”“Yep.”“We just need more solar chargers and we can check out.”Stretch found some little packages labeled “solar phone chargers” and grabbed four off the shelf. He couldn’t carry everything in his hands, so he held a few in his tentacles. They set everything on the counter and the human rung the items up. Edge handed Sans to Stretch for a minute so he could dig out his wallet. The father and son were about the same size, so the most Stretch could do was keep the mermaid from sitting on the floor by holding him under the arms.There was a whine from outside, and they peeked over at Red poking his head through the doorway. It was a look that said ‘I can hold him better. Lemme hold him. I wanna hold him.’By the time Edge finished paying and turned around, Red had stretched one of his tentacles almost to his feet trying to reach for Sans. He marveled for a minute how long they were when they weren’t curled up, but it was short by about a foot. Edge took Sans from Stretch, moved closer to the exit, and held the skeletal mermaid out.“You’re being silly, you know? We were on our way out anyway.”Red ignored him, took Sans back, and nuzzled the top of his head. He was like a dog they’d left tied up outside.Once he was satisfied, Red looked down at Edge. “Is it okay if we relax at your place for a little before going back?”It was still the middle of summer. The water was too hot for Red and Stretch. (Blackberry would learn to hate it as he got bigger.)“Fine. It’s a long travel for you. We would be bad hosts if we didn’t feed you at least once.”They returned to the land skeletons’ house, and Sans was worried to see somewhat serious burns on Red’s tentacles. Leaving him out on the hot pavement had done more damage than he’d expected. He hadn’t complained about it once or shown any sign that it hurt, and that worried Sans.”“It’s fine. I knew you’d heal me, Angel. That made it hurt less.”Sans sighed and shook his head. “That’s sweet, Red, but I’d rather you didn’t get hurt in the first place.” Even though he said that, he knew Red would have moved into the shade if there was any, and he couldn’t fit into any of the nearby shops. “You were right about not letting Stretch walk on the asphalt.”“I know.”After Red was healed, he set Sans on the couch and they both took a nap. Papyrus and Edge were in charge of looking after the kids, but then Papyrus said he was going to start working on dinner, and Edge was left alone with two infants.Blueberry was easy. He just crawled along the carpet and examined everything in detail. Blackberry, on the other hand, kept trying to go back to Red and interrupt his nap. Edge had never seen the giant sleep before, but he had seen the red circles under his eye sockets. He figured the guy needed some rest, so he forcefully kept the grumpy baby octopus away. The child tried to throw a temper tantrum, but Edge covered his mouth so he wouldn’t make noise and wake up his parents. When his hand was bitten in response, he only narrowed his eyes.“Well this is familiar. Could you release my hand, child? This is pathetic.”The baby relaxed his jaws and started crying, but Edge glared harder.“None of that either. Your parents are trying to sleep, and you’re being inconsiderate.”The commanding tone in Edge’s voice was one that most people naturally moved to follow, and indeed, Blackberry stopped crying. A hint of a smile touched Edge’ fangs.“Alright, I’ve decided. I shall use you for practice.”“Practice?” Blackberry tilted his skull.“Yes. Practice makes perfect, after all. I will train with you before having my own child, and then I will know for certain if I have what it takes to raise one. Which, of course, I do. I simply need to unearth that talent through hard work and effort!”“Edge, would you help me for a moment? I could use an extra pair of hands.” At the sound of Papyrus’s voice, Edge set Blackberry on the carpet, stood up, and smirked devilishly down at the tiny creature. “Your first task is this, don’t move from that spot until I come back. Understand?”“Why?”“Because I said so, and I am your superior. You will be punished appropriately if you choose to be insubordinate.”Blackberry didn’t know what all of that meant yet, but he curled up into a little ball and stayed put until Edge came back.“It’s good that you can obey simple orders,” he smirked. “Next, let’s try to break you of that biting habit.”Edge continued to train Blackberry more like he would a subordinate or a dog, but those were the closest experiences he had to raising children. At dinner, Edge offered to help babysit the kids more often, if Sans or Red ever needed someone on the surface who would. It was a generous offer, especially in this season when Red couldn’t move around too much or risk overheating. So, it became the norm for Edge to look after the twins while the grownups and Stretch were enjoying the AC.Red didn't nap every time. He was usually too anxious to sleep outside of his den. It wasn’t like Edge was unsupervised, but Red didn’t really see anything wrong with what he was doing. It was just like Toriel, but extra, and she was considered a good child-rearer, right? Better than Red, since everyone said he doted too much, and better than Sans who was too lazy.Papyrus chided Edge for being too harsh whenever he was around, but he backed off when Red didn’t have a problem with it. It was the parent’s decision, not his, right?Of course, if Edge had so much as hinted at hurting his baby, Red would have unleashed hell upon him.Sans also had a few concerns when he heard about Edge’s methods.“I dunno. I haven’t really seen it, but he sounds pretty strict. Are you sure it’s fine, Red?”“Yeah. I mean, my childhood was way worse, and I turned out pretty okay. He’ll be fine.”Just to cover all of his bases, Sans asked Blackberry what he thought too. He said that he hated being scolded, but he loved it when he did well and Edge complimented him; Edge didn’t give out compliments easily, so it meant more. Apparently, his passions had been stoked and he wanted to meet Edge’s expectations.Since the important people were all fine with it, Sans and Papyrus just kept their mouths shut.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Blackberry was three months old. Just like Stretch, he had matured quickly. He was nearly the size of the other children, and highly intelligent. He never inherited Sans or Stretch’s social skills, but he was still sociable. It honestly wasn’t a very good combination.“Come on, Blackberry,” Azzy whined. “Tag one of the others for a change!”The meroctopus kid crossed his arms and smirked with his sharp teeth. “It isn’t very fun, is it? You used to do this to me all the time, cousin. It’s only natural that your poor behavior would come back to bite you!”“I only tagged you because I couldn’t catch anybody else! You’re fast enough to tag Frisk and Chara, so quit picking on me. I don’t like it.”“If you don’t like it, then get bigger and stronger, practice more so that I can’t catch you. Honestly, your whining is insufferable. Better yet, since you are so awful at this, play a different game! It doesn’t have to be tag. You can’t willingly participate in a game you don’t have the ability for and then whine and moan when your performance is as abysmal as expected.”Little tears gathered in the goat mer’s eyes, but he blinked them away. “You used to cry and whine too! You even bit me! You don’t get to tell me that it’s not okay!”“We’re different,” Blackberry glared. “I practiced and improved. I raced with Blueberry for hours daily to get faster. You’re just a weakling who refuses to apply himself.”Asriel actually bared his teeth, which was something the mild-tempered child never did. “Err! You’re so mean! I… I’m not going to play with you anymore! In fact, you don’t need to be my friend anymore!”Blackberry’s electric blue eyelights flashed, and his face twisted with rage. “How dare you! You think I’m not worthy of being your friend?! Well, you just wait! I’m going to train every day, and someday I’ll be as big and strong as mom, and then I will be the best hunter in the school. I will be the best protector! And you will feel humiliated because you will be the only one who thought you were too good to be my friend!”Blackberry swam away from the group in a huff, leaving to race Blueberry as training. Frisk, Chara, and Stretch cautiously approached Asriel who was sniffling now, and Frisk gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.“That guy sure is full of himself,” Chara murmured. Frisk shot them a look. “What? It’s true!”“Hey, sorry about my little bro, Azzy,” Stretch offered. “He’s still working on his, uh, that. Clearly it isn’t coming along so well.”Stretch was eight months old now, and he was the biggest of the children by a head and a half.Asriel wiped his eyes on his forearm and shook his head. “I know he doesn’t really mean it, but the way he talks just gets me so mad!” He hung his head. “I’m sorry, Stretch. I’m the older one; I should be the bigger person at times like these. I should go find him and apologize.”“Nah. Let him blow off a little steam first. You can apologize when he comes home for dinner.” *** It had only been three months since Blueberry was born, and he wasn’t a meroctopus like his brothers. He grew at a slower pace mentally and physically, but he could still tell when his twin was in a bad mood.The baby mermaid flicked his tail a few times to get his brother’s attention.“What do you want?!”Blueberry hugged Blackberry, and both of them slowed to a stop. The growling in Blackberry’s throat faded away, then he huffed. “You don’t even know why I’m mad. It could have been my fault for all you know!” Blueberry purred and kept hugging, and Blackberry finally gave in and awkwardly hugged back. “Thanks, I guess.”Something whizzed by. Blackberry had time to move, but not much. He managed to keep his skull from getting pierced by tipping it back, but his left eye socket got scratched. Dust came out in a puff and became seafoam in the water, and the fresh wound started leaking violet magic.Before the child could even process that he had just been attacked, Red had already teleported over to defend him. He had dragged Sans along with him, but left his side the moment he saw hostile mermaids and sensed magic attacks, instinctively putting himself between the enemy and his family.The hunting group, understandably, was terrified to see a giant meroctopus appear out of nowhere. Several of them threw magic spears and tridents, and Red went out of his way to catch or deflect all of them so they wouldn’t land in somebody behind him. He followed up instantly by making to grab one of their skulls with his claws.Before he could land the blow, Sans swam in front of him, arms out in a T position.“Everybody just hold on!”Red flared his tentacles, stopping dead in his tracks, and quickly wrapped up Sans so he wouldn’t get hit by a volley of magic weapons that hadn’t been de-summoned in time.“You’re fuckin’ dead!” the giant meroctopus snarled.“Red, please,” Sans gave him a pat and was released from his safety prison of writhing red limbs. “Just what is going on here?”The sound of muffled sniffling caught Sans’s attention, and he turned around to see Blackberry crying, one eye socket closed and bleeding purple magic from a very obvious crack. Sans’s eyelights disappeared. He swam over slowly and put a hand around his baby’s shoulders, pulling the child’s head to rest on his sternum while he applied healing magic to the wound.“It’s okay, kiddo, daddy’s here. Mommy’s here too. You’re safe. You’re both safe.”The attacking mermaids were confused and highly hesitant at this point. They shot wary glances back and forth between Sans and the children and Red, who was growling and still very much acting as a physical barrier between the two groups.“Wait a minute,” a voice called from one end of the hunting party. “Isn’t that Sans? Hey, Sans! What the hell is going on?”Sans looked up slowly with empty eye sockets. He finished healing Blackberry and swam toward the hunting party while the twins swam to Red for safety. Red let Sans take point, but he was still watching very cautiously, close enough to intervene if anything happened.“That’s funny, I was wondering the same thing. See, somebody gave my youngest baby a scar. Know anything about that?”“That can’t be yours,” another mermaid in the group said. “It belongs to that thing over there, right?”Red bristled, “The fuck didja call me?”“He is mine. My mate and I have had three beautiful children together. Why did you attack him?”“It looked like it was attacking a baby mermaid,” yet another aggressor said. This one at least sounded a little guilty. “How could we have known?”Sans ignored them and glared, “Which one of you hurt my kid?”A few of the mermaids pointed at another. Sans swam up to Red and whispered something to him. The meroctopus nodded and approached the hunting group, causing them to immediately go on guard.“Angel says I ain’t allowed to kill ya,” he grinned a shark-toothed grin and summoned a sharp bone, “but he also says ‘fuck you’.” He swiped up, and the attacker cried and reeled back, a new scar over their left eye.A few mermaids in the pod moved to retaliate, but Red gave them the glare of death and they hesitated. He took the kids and his mate and started swimming towards the den.“This can’t happen again,” Sans said softly. “I’m going to talk to Asgore and Toriel. Maybe we can call an ocean council before the season’s over.”“The fuck’s an ocean council?”“I guess it’s been a few years since we’ve had one.” Sans settled more into Red’s arms and petted a snuggly Blueberry. “It’s a meeting between all the schools within two days’ travel. It’s a pain, so we only have them when we need to talk about something important. There was one years ago when Asgore and Tori decided to make their own school. I think that was the most recent one. The kids were still babies back then.”“S’awhile ago, then. Why’re we gonna call one?”“To tell everybody about you and our kids so you won’t get attacked. This whole ‘kill-on-sight’ policy has to stop.”Blackberry, who had been quietly staring out into the ocean since he’d stopped crying, finally spoke up. “Why is there a policy like that in the first place?”Red’s expression froze, and he looked away, and Sans sighed and tried to think of a good way to explain it to a child. Blackberry got impatient and pressed the issue.“They said it was because I’m a meroctopus, right? What’s wrong with that?!”Red grunted, and Sans reached out to pet Blackberry’s skull. “There’s nothing wrong with it, kiddo.”Blackberry pushed his hand away and folded his arms, muttering, “If there was nothing wrong, they wouldn’t have attacked in the first place.”“It’s ‘cause they’re scared of us,” Red grumbled. “You get angry, sweetheart. Makes you wanna hurt people, right? So why don’tcha?”“Because that’s bad behavior? And because I care about him!”Red didn’t acknowledge the slip, but he did think it was odd. Sans immediately figured out that Blackberry and Asriel must have gotten into another argument.“What if ya thought it was normal? N’ what if ya didn’t care about who you were hurtin’?”Blackberry frowned, and Red fixed his crimson eyelights on him.“Most of our kind grew up in a real dangerous place, sweetheart, and they act like it. Mermaids have been attacked by people like us before, so they get scared whenever they see us. We’re stronger than them, after all. If they let us get close enough to ask if we’re gonna kill ‘em, they’re already in range to get their necks snapped.”“But… that’s…” the little mer monster started shaking, “How dare they! Comparing us to savages?! I am a dignified meroctopus! One of the best assets our school has! I won’t stand for this kind of blatant disrespect!”Red spared one hand to calm down the mess of writhing tentacles his child had turned into.“Yer a damn babybones, shut up.” He sighed, “I’m lettin’ ya spend too much time with yer uncle Edge.”They arrived back at the den, and Asriel was the first to meet them. He started apologizing to Blackberry for acting immaturely, but panicked when he saw the meroctopus child was injured.“Blackberry! Y-you’re eye!”He looked away and tsked. “It’s nothing.”“Nothing?! We need to heal it right away!”“Easy, kiddo,” Sans escaped a reluctant Red’s arms and held the goat monster’s shoulder to calm him down. “I already healed it. See? It’s not bleeding or dusting or anything.”Asriel took a moment to collect himself. While it was true using healing magic on wounds usually left scars behind, such a deep scar implied a serious wound. Indeed, though Blackberry had managed to avoid the worst of the damage, the spear had cut completely through his bone. He was lucky he could still see with both eyes.“So,” Sans continued, “any idea where your mom and dad are? We need to have a chat.” *** They called an ocean council. Toriel, Sans, Red, and the skeletons’ three children were going to attend. Toriel was their slowest swimmer as long as Red carried the kids, but not by much, so it was half a day’s journey for them.Sans had been trying to figure out how to teleport now that he’d experienced it once with Red, but it was a high-energy activity, and he couldn’t practice often. He had managed to move small distances, though—of his own volition. So, in some respects, he was already better at it than Red. Someday, he wanted to use that magic to make trips like this easier.Red was actually kind of impressed when he saw the venu. It was a colosseum-like structure grown from coral, with actual stone supports in some places. The outside was covered in sea plants and surrounded by colorful fish, but the inside had been cleared out to make room for people to sit comfortably. The were three rows of seats for listeners and a space in the middle for speakers. Everyone in attendance apparently had an equal vote on everything the council suggested.There were a lot of people already there. Red and Stretch couldn’t help but hesitate while the others swam ahead. Their absence was expected and quickly noticed, and the others doubled back.“It is alright,” Toriel said in encouragement. “We will not let others get too close.”“We’ll be in the middle most of the time,” Sans added, “with plenty of space. You won’t have to be near the crowd for long.”The lazy mermaid took Red’s hand to gently pull him forward, and Red dragged an unwilling Stretch along with him.The presence of three meroctopuses in the colosseum quickly drew attention, and not in a good way. Many people had their weapons summoned already, and Red felt a deep growl starting to build in his chest.The disorder was stomped out by a loud sound. Everyone looked up to a balcony built several feet up the coral wall. A goat mermaid was hovering there. She had a golden bejeweled crown on her head and a summoned trident in her hand which she had just slammed against the stone platform beneath her. She looked rather similar to Toriel, but that was probably because they were both feminine goat mermaids.“Fighting in the council room is against the rules. Everyone, calm down and desummon your weapons immediately.” This person clearly had some authority, as all the mermaids in attendance obeyed her. She then fixed her eyes on Toriel.“It is also against the rules for people outside of the schools to attend. Lady Toriel, I presume these meroctopuses are members of your school?”“Yes, Lady Regalia, they are.”There was some concerned muttering from the stands, but Regalia just nodded her head. “Then everything is in accordance with the rules and this council may proceed.”All of the mermaids in attendance took their seats, and Toriel led the way to an unoccupied section. To save on space, Red kept his mate and three kids on his lap. Toriel let him have the aisle seat so there was as much room as possible between him and any strangers.Once all the movement had settled down, Regalia hit her trident to the floor again.“This ocean council will now commence. The issue up for discussion is meroctopus policy, raised by Lady Toriel’s school. Will the involved parties please move to the center.”Even though they’d just sat down, they got up and moved to the center.“Please present a brief introduction of today’s issue.”Toriel clasped her hands in front of her tail and took a deep breath. “Due to our current kill-on-sight policy regarding meroctopuses, a child of my school was unjustly attacked and injured. We would like to avoid a repeat incident.”Toriel met eyes with Regalia who nodded and thumped her staff again. “The discussion is now open to all in attendance.”There was a great deal of discord and murmuring, but out of the group, one person raise their hand and spoke up loudly. “I would like to make a statement. The logistics of meroctopuses living together with mermaids concerns me. I’d like to know under what circumstances your school came to its current state.”Regalia immediately countered him. “Your concern is noted but your inquiry is irrelevant to the current discussion. Please save it for after the council has adjourned.”The mermaid frowned but put their hand back down and kept quiet. Another spoke over the din a beat later.“If this is all of them, we can just remember what they look like and not attack them again.”“No, what if one appears that looks similar and somebody approaches and gets hurt?”“They have three already, who’s to say they won’t just get more?”“Put a ribbon on them!”Red, Stretch, and Blackberry all frowned at that last shout. While it would make it easier to tell them apart, it was degrading.After a few more minutes of people bouncing ideas and concerns back and forth and several people expressing concerns about there being meroctopuses living among them, Regalia thumped her trident again and pointed out into the seats.“You there, Shyren, you’ve had your hand up for a while. Is there something you’d like to contribute?”All eyes turned to the diminutive mermaid, making her duck down into her seat. Very softly, she offered, “Can’t we just run when we see them, instead of fight?”That sparked another wave of discussion. Obviously, it was still rude to Red and the other meroctopuses, but it prevented the kids from getting attacked again and alleviated many of the mermaids’ fears.The talk still continued for a while, and eventually it was brought to a vote between three popular solutions. First, to tie ribbons to the meroctopuses that lived in schools. Second, to change the current policy from kill-on-sight to flee-on-sight. Third, to establish some secret code they could use to determine friend from foe.Due to the consuming fear of most of those in attendance, it was decided that the first and third options were too easily replicated. If one forgot that meroctopuses were intelligent hunters, they’d be in for a bad time. If Toriel and the others could have picked, they would have preferred to have a signal, but at least Red and his kids wouldn’t be forced to wear ribbons everywhere they went.At least the children would be safer within a two day swim of the den. That was a start, and their reason for calling this council.“Motion two has passed with seventy percent of the total votes,” Regalia announced. “This ocean council is now adjourned, and the results are final. Please exit in an orderly fashion.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Red and Stretch were visibly relieved to be leaving that room full of strangers. They let out almost synchronized sighs, and Blackberry looked at his mother strangely.“I don’t understand. You’re far stronger than them. What’s so intimidating about a room full of weaklings?”Red just chuckled tiredly and shrugged. “I dunno. I just can’t deal with it.”They moved out into the open water, ready to start swimming back to the den, but a swarm of mermaids was gathered there. As soon as they were in view, their gazes snapped to Red and his kids. Red felt shivers travel up his spine, and his magic started tensing for a fight. Stretch had already panicked, snatched up Blackberry, and hidden behind Toriel at the back of the group before any words were exchanged.“What are you doing?!” the grumpy child demanded. He went to bite at Stretch’s hand so he would be let go, but thought better of it when he saw the tense look on his brother’s face. “Stretch! Release me this instant! They don’t have any weapons conjured; you’re panicking for no reason!”Stretch frowned and almost let Blackberry go, but his eyelights fell on his little brother’s scar, and he held him tighter instead.“After the adults have sorted things out,” he said tightly.Meanwhile, Sans swam in front of Red and gave the group a curious grin.“Heya, folks. What’s going on over here?”Rather than words, what he received were many wary stares directed at the meroctopuses in the group and Red in particular.Red was clearly uncomfortable, which made Sans frown. Toriel went a step farther and became genuinely angry.“If you have nothing to say, please swim aside so we can go home. We have all had a long and tiring journey, and this is not helping.”Nobody moved, but some of the eyes did shift to Toriel.“Someday,” one of them said softly, “that thing is totally going to kill you all.”Blackberry’s face twisted, and Stretch risked being bitten to slap a hand over his mouth.“That’s not a very funny joke, buddy.” Sans gave the group a sweeping look. “Every one of you who think you know what Red is, you’re wrong. You don’t know him like we do.”“He’s a meroctopus.”“He’s my mate, and he gave up everything to be with me. None you have any right to criticize him.”There were gasps, wide eyes, and surprised murmurs. Several people in the group took a closer look at the kids.“No way… we can have kids with those things?”“If I got grabbed, I wouldn’t even be able to resist…”“Do you think they do that? Before they eat us?” I’d never do that to Angel! That accusation was Red’s limit, and he wished he could curse them out, but his voice refused to work in front of so many people.“It doesn’t work like that,” Sans said calmly. “It has to be consensual. Don’t go spreading weird rumors.”Blueberry wasn’t being restrained or anything. Nobody thought he was in any danger with these people. Since Red was just getting more and more nervous, the baby swam over to comfort him.When Red didn’t even react to that, Sans grew genuinely worried. He shot Toriel a look and she spoke up loudly.“Alright, that is more than enough. Red has been very patient with you, but crowds bother him. Please move out of the way this instant.”Most of the group gave up and swam away, but a few stayed behind looking sheepish.“Um, if it’s okay, we had some actual questions.”Sans was pleasantly surprised. “Really? Well, I guess a few minutes would be—” He was stopped when Red grabbed his shoulder.“I… I can’t anymore. I think I’m gonna puke, Angel.”“Go take a break. I’ll handle things here.”Red darted off as soon as he had permission. The kids would be fine with Sans and Toriel, right? They had to be because Red couldn’t stand another second under the eyes of strangers.How long had that council actually lasted? Red was so stressed out that his sense of time was distorted. It felt like it could have been a few minutes or a few hours, and he would believe either. He’d felt like he was going to pass out several times during it, but he couldn’t. His instincts had been screaming threats of death at him if he dared to fall asleep in front of dozens of unfamiliar mermaids. Now, his mission was to find someplace dark and secluded—anywhere he could fit would do.On the way, his magic turned over violently, and he threw up a cloud of red magic. He couldn’t have placed the taste before trying various surface foods, but now he knew his magic tasted like cherries. Flavor aside, though, expelling magic that way was not a pleasant experience. It had been a long time since he was stressed enough to do that. Sans usually calmed him down before it got that bad.Using the feel of the water currents to guide him, Red found a small cavern in the rock and curled up inside. He took several deep breaths and reassured himself that he was alone and safe. It didn’t take too long for him to start to collect himself.Red exhaled and opened his eye sockets, looking down at his hands. The strong and sharp claws were trembling, as if he needed any other signs that he needed to get away for a bit.Sometimes he wondered why he could fight and kill without a single twitch in his soul, but just talking to another person terrified him. It had never really gotten easier after all this time.After experiencing all of his recent anxiety and finally being able to calm down, Red ended up falling asleep. Meanwhile, on Sans’s end, the mermaids watched Red leaving with concern.“Is he okay?”“He’s just not very good with people,” Sans shrugged. “Usually two or three people plus me and the kids is all he can handle at once.”The mermaids nodded, and Sans gave them an encouraging smile.“So, you had questions?”“Yeah, uh, first, how did you end up living with meroctopuses?”Sans glanced at Stretch, still hiding behind Toriel and restraining Blackberry—the little guy’s patience was running thin, not that he ever had much of it.“It was just Red at first. Those three are our kids.”“They really are?”“Yeah. Monsters can mate between types if they touch their souls together and wish for it. You can only have one kid at a time though.”Sans wouldn’t have shared that information with the rude people from earlier, but these folks seemed alright. It was revolutionary information that Sans wanted to share. It would help so many mermonsters.“So how did Red end up living with you?”“We met when he caught me stealing food from him.”They stared at Sans like he was some kind of daredevil paragon, and he chuckled.“I thought it was a human trap. I wouldn’t have knowingly stolen food from a meroctopus.”“But he turned out to be nice?”“Well, he didn’t kill me on the spot. I really thought I was going to die, so I tried to make it up to him by showing him some good spots to put traps. Once we were talking and stuff, he didn’t seem so bad. I asked if I could mooch off of him again sometime as a joke, and he actually said yes. I think he was lonely. So, we started hanging out together and eventually ended up mates.”“How long have you been together?”“Let me think… about three matings cycles?”“What’s it like living with them? Maybe the little ones completely adopted our culture, but I think it’d be hard for that red one.”“He was was pretty big, too. Does that ever get inconvenient?”“Hm. Well, there are some differences. No matter what, they still aren’t mermaids. They like their alone time, so they each have their own room at our den. Stretch and Blackberry like socializing, but they don’t need it like we do. As for Red… I mean, we have some pretty big mermaid types in our school, so our den is decently sized. It hasn’t been much of a problem yet. But something to note is that they don’t ever stop growing.”“You mean he’s going to get even bigger? That’s crazy.”“It depends on how much they eat. If Red didn’t eat enough, he would actually start shrinking.”“Does he help your school hunt?”“He does all of the hunting these days,” Toriel huffed. “And he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of moderation. We have too much food.”Sans chuckled. “Yeah, he hunts. He also protects the den when he’s home.”“Is he as strong as the rumors say?”“Depends on what rumors you heard.” Sans smirked. “But since I’ve known him, he’s never even gotten injured—and I’ve seen him fight three sharks back to back, a whale, and an entire ship full of humans.”Sans never bragged about himself, but every now and then it felt nice to brag about his mate.A mermaid’s smile twitched at his claims. “Unbeatable then? That’s pretty much what I heard.”“He had a lot of old injuries though?”Sans gave them a half-smile, “He got most of those when he was little. They’re, uh, on their own pretty much from the start. The deep ocean is a lot more dangerous too.”A mermaid fidgeted. “I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I’ve gotta ask: Do they eat mermaids?”Sans frowned. “Definitely not the kids. I haven’t asked Red about it, but he hasn’t ever since coming to live with us.”“What’s the biggest cultural clash you’ve had?”Now that was an interesting question. Sans had to think on it for a minute.“Hm, lets see. Maybe when I found out that meroctopuses don’t have heats… No, it was what came right after that.”“After that?”Sans blushed but otherwise kept himself together.“Mating lasts a long time if you do it the normal way.”“Oh…”“There were other smaller things too. I had to explain a lot to him in the beginning.”“So he didn’t know a lot when you first met him?”“Well, I wouldn’t say that. If it’s about survival, Red knows more than anybody else I can think of.”One of the mermaids shot Sans an awkward half-smile, “I only wish we could ask about this stuff directly.”“Maybe I should check on him.” Sans said. “Make sure he found a good place and is calming down.”Toriel said she would handle things, and Sans left. Then Blackberry immediately freed himself from Stretch. He swam in front of the mermaids and folded his arms in front of his chest, smiling in a cocky way.“You’re in luck, miscreants, there’s a model young meroctopus right in front of you! Ask me anything.”The mermaids looked at each other and at Toriel, and she shrugged with a smile. She would reign Blackberry in if he got out of line.The first question he got was, “But you’re only half meroctopus, right?”Blackberry frowned, “What do you mean?”“Well, one of your parents is a mermaid, and you were raised with mermaids. Can we really get a meroctopus perspective from you?”Blackberry scowled, and the mermaids were surprised how much malice a child could pack into one look.“If I’m not sufficient for that, fine. I can still give you the perspective of a “half” meroctopus.”The mermaids shared some uncomfortable looks, but it wasn't like they'd run out of questions. One shrugged and took the bossy child up on his offer.“Alright. What’s it like having a little brother who's a mermaid?”“Little brother? I’ll have you know we’re twins, and strictly speaking, I’m two hours younger. I just develop faster because I’m magnificent.”“What’s a twin?”Blackberry held his chin. “If I must explain: when mates have exactly two children on the same day, those children are called twins. I suppose it’s fair you don’t know it. It is mainly a human concept.”“You sound like you may have interacted with a human before.”“My parents and siblings and I regularly visit the surface. My family is good friends with a couple of land monsters named Edge and Papyrus. Uncle Edge in particular is a respectable man of authority.”“But how do you get around on land? There isn't any water up there, right?”Blackberry spoke slowly, pointedly, as if he didn’t expect the mermaids to understand if he was too quick or mumbly.“I. Have. Legs.”They looked embarrassed. It was a rather glaring oversight on their part.“Well, what about the mermaids who go with you?”“Mother carries them. Next question.” Sans and Red had mated and even touched souls, so if the mermaid focused, he could locate his mate within a short distance. He followed the trail and was a little worried when he smelled some of Red’s magic on the current. He remembered Red saying something about feeling nauseous. Hopefully, the magic was from that and he hadn’t gotten himself hurt somehow. Sans found Red curled into a ball in a small cave and swam down to lay on his chest. He petted the top of Red’s head until he woke up.For Red, seeing Sans’s face after a nap was the best way to wake up. There was no question of whether or not he was in any danger.“Mn. Hey, Angel.” His hands started stroking Sans’s sleek blue tail automatically.“Hey, big guy.” Sans grinned, “Did you have a nice nap?”Red seemed to remember where he was and what he had been doing thanks to that question. Immediately, his anxiety started to return. Sweat beaded up on his skull and he fidgeted.“F-fuck. How long was I gone?”“Not long. I just thought I should come check on you. Toriel is handling the kids and those curious people.”Red leaned his head back on the cave wall and let out a breath. “Okay.”“Hey, you did a really great job today.”“I didn’t do anything though.”“Just having you there with us helped a lot. They couldn't ignore what we were saying. And I know just being there was really hard for you, but you did great.”“Mm… I don’t ever want to have to do that again.”“Hopefully you won’t have to.”They shared a minute or two of companionable silence. Sans hadn't come to retrieve Red, just to make sure he was settling down alright. They were in no hurry.But thanks to those people earlier, Sans had some curiosity leaking into his soul. Now, he and Red were alone. It was a good time to ask about it.“Red? I have a question.”“Shoot, angel.”“Did you ever eat mermaids?”Red gave him a shocked look. “What?”“Some people asked about it today. It made me a little curious. If you did, it’s in the past. I wouldn’t judge you for it. But I do want to know.”“No. I never did.”“Really?”“Yeah. I thought about it the first time I killed some, but something about eating someone who was just thinking a minute ago felt wrong. I’d kill ‘em if they poked around in my territory or if I felt threatened, but I never hunted them for food.”“Huh. Are all meroctopuses like that? Mermaids pretty much all think you guys eat us.”“Like I said before, I can’t talk for anybody but me. I got no idea what the others do.”“Huh. So I’m guessing you never ate a meroctopus either?”“Nope. Same reason.”“Humans and land monsters?”“Nope.”Sans laid his head down on Red's sternum. The council meeting had been long, and a nap sounded good. He yawned, "Too bad the council's over. That would have been a good thing to mention."Red stroked his mate's back until the little mermaid fell asleep. He no longer felt tired himself and was content to watch Sans rest. After an appropriate amount of time had passed, Red carried his still-sleeping Angel back to Toriel and the kids, and they finally swam back to the den.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
***Nine-Month Time-Skip*** “Hey, look here.”Sans held Red’s cheeks between his small hands and took a close look at the shark-like teeth, specifically the one gold tooth. Red made a confused sound, but he kept still.“I saw you picking at this earlier,” Sans said, gently pressing on the implant. It seemed a little smaller than the others around it, and it wiggled a little. Red averted his eyelights.“It’s loose. Does it hurt?”Red mumbled, “Not really.”Sans frowned. A loose tooth would obviously hurt; Red was just using his high pain tolerance to pretend it didn’t. It was also a given that the false tooth would eventually fall out as Red grew bigger without it. Red more than anyone should know how important teeth were.“Why don’t you want to get it fixed?”Red started sweating a lot, but he kept his mouth shut. Sans raised an eyebrow. What could make his usually responsible mate act so childishly? He didn’t usually do this with Red, since he was surprisingly fragile, but Sans used his stern voice.“Red.”Immediately, he curled in his tentacles and whined because he knew he was in trouble.“Don’t be mad, Angel. That bitch is crazy; I don’t wanna see her again.”“Are you talking about whoever fixed your tooth the first time? Who is she?”“She’s the best healer-for-hire in the deep ocean, but a total fuckin’ sadist. I’d rather lose a tooth than deal with her again.”So that was it. Sans let out a breath.“Why don’t we have someone else fix it then?”Red brightened up. “Can you or Tori do it?”“I can’t.” Sans said. “We’ll check with Tori, and maybe Alphys. If they can’t do it, people on the surface probably can.”Red looked uncomfortable, and Sans gave him an encouraging pat.“We’re getting it fixed either way. Which would be better for you: seeing this deep ocean healer or a surface dentist?”Red took a shaky breath, “The surface.”“Okay,” Sans smiled. “I’ll go have a chat with Tori and Alph, and if they can’t fix your tooth, I’ll make an appointment on the surface.” Normally, Sans would take a nap when he was waiting around for something, but currently, his bed was trembling a little too much for him to get comfortable. The little blue mermaid gave Red encouraging pets and words, trying to help him calm down, but the big guy seemed to have a bad impression of dentists.Edge and Papyrus were babysitting the kids so Red wouldn’t have anything else to worry about during his appointment.A nurse stepped halfway into the waiting room and consulted his clipboard. “Red?”At Sans’s prompting, Red crawled over to the nurse.“Just the patient please.”Sans shook his head. “He needs… emotional support.”The nurse looked down at the clipboard again, then up at Red’s gold tooth.“Oh. You’re the ones who called the other day. Okay, you can come watch.”Sans had discussed various things with the dentist's office beforehand. He wanted to make sure he could stay with Red for reassurance, that they knew how to service skeletons, and that Red could actually get into the building. This place treated a lot of monsters, and many of them were big. All the rooms had tall double doors that Red could easily fit through. The actual room the nurse led them to was a little full once Red was inside it, but it was enough.Once Red had awkwardly crawled on top of the little patient bed, the nurse started setting up his equipment. He took a few x-ray pictures to check for cavities, then let Red pick from a selection of toothpaste. The cleaning felt good. Red would have relaxed and enjoyed it more if he wasn’t so afraid of what was coming next.When the dentist arrived, Red pulled a few tentacles out of the way so he could reach the little computer in the corner and look over Red’s patient details.“So you’re my gold tooth replacement. Alright. Looks like you don't have any cavities. Nurse, go get the numbing agent.” The nurse strolled out of the room, and the dentist wheeled his chair closer to Red, who once again moved his many limbs out of the way.The doctor showed Red a black cylinder with a display screen on the far end.“We’re going to use special glue so the new tooth doesn’t wiggle around. To make sure we use something strong enough, would you bite down on this for me? Just slowly increase the pressure, okay?” Monsters all had very different bite strengths, and the best glue was expensive, so this process was a necessity.Red nodded and opened his mouth slightly. The doctor inserted the highly-specialized gadget and nodded as the numbers gradually went up. The gizmo started flashing “ERROR,” and the doctor shook his head. “Alright, that’s unexpected. You’ve got some jaws on you, huh? We’ll just use the strongest glue we have and hope that holds. If not, come back and we’ll fix it for free.”The nurse returned with the anesthetic, which they applied directly to the bone around Red’s gold tooth. Every now and then, they prodded the area and asked if he could feel it. After ten minutes or so, the doctor started frowning.“Normally we’d switch to injections now, but…”Sans hummed and thought out loud, “Maybe because Red has his own poison that numbs and paralyzes people, it won’t work on him?”The doctor glanced at Sans. “What about sleeping gas. Would that work?”“I think so, if you used enough.”Red recalled the time Sans got kidnapped and shook his head. “No, no sleeping gas.”“But how are we supposed to do the surgery?”“Just go ahead. I can handle pain.”The doctor gave his nurse a look, and he left to get a form from the office. “To do this without numbing the pain, we’ll need your signature.”Red nodded and carefully pinched the little pen in his claws. He had quickly learned to read after meeting Edge in order to communicate via text, but he’d never written anything by hand before. His writing was sloppy but legible. The most painful part of the procedure was getting the old tooth removed. They did what they could to loosen the bone around it, but ultimately it came down to whacking it with a tiny hammer until it popped free.The new tooth wasn’t solid gold, but a gold-plated implant. It was a monster-made material that would connect with the user’s magic to grow with them. These things were usually used for children who lost a tooth, since many monsters only got one set throughout their lives.When everything was done, the doctor handed Red a mirror.“Does everything feel okay? It isn’t loose or pinching anywhere?”Red shook his head, and Sans smiled.“It looks good, Red. You did a good job.”Red purred because he’d been complimented.They paid at the front desk and left to go meet up with the kids. On the way out, Red pocketed a lollipop and ignored the receptionist's chuckle. *** Blueberry was famous. He was only a year old, but he was the darling of the camera. Red and Sans had become a famous couple ever since they first started coming to the surface, and their kids were extremely popular on the internet. Of the five of them, Blueberry had the biggest following. He was smaller than Sans, energetic and cheerful, and just being a baby mermaid gave him a huge boost.Not only that, but he was fraternal twins with a meroctopus. Some humans just ate that up for some reason.Stretch was taking Blueberry for a walk on the surface. Edge was in the middle of giving Blackberry land combat training, so it was a little too tense at the house to relax.After the first six months, the meroctopus kids’ absurd rate of growth slowed down considerably. They grew in relation to how much they ate, after all; it took a lot more food to noticeably increase their size past a certain point. Stretch was now about as big as Alphys, and Blackberry was a little bigger than Sans. Blueberry was still only an infant, so Stretch could easily carry him around places.Stretch was now almost a year and a half old, but he was still a shy person at his core. He was better at hiding it than he was before, though, unlike his mother. The lollipop rolling between his teeth helped a lot with his anxiety. It was distracting and sweet. Too bad sugar seemed to make Red's anxiety worse.Blueberry was completely different from those two. His mood seemed to improve the more eyes were on him. He knew almost as many poses as he did words, and there were tourists in town who had come exclusively to take pictures with him. He even offered to pose for people who didn’t ask him to.“You wan’ pic’ure?”A woman knelt down and took her phone out.“Aw~ Sure, little guy. How old are you?”“I dunno.”“He’s one,” Stretch said.“Are you his big brother?”“Yeah. You must be new. Everybody around here knows us already.”“I just came here for the beaches,” the woman smiled. She took a picture of herself and the kids, then waved and said goodbye.Distraction after distraction made any walk without Red an all-day activity, and Stretch was only putting up with it for one reason.He pushed open a door, releasing a pleasant chime and a blast of cool air. The scent of fresh pastries and frosting was thick in the air.“Ahuhu~ I was wondering if I’d see you today, dearie.”Stretch offered a friendly smile to the woman behind the counter. She was a spider monster with six arms and purple skin. Stretch liked her, and she made great sweets.“Hey, Miss Muffet.”“What can I get you today, Stretch dearie?”Stretch took his lollipop out of his mouth. “More of these, and hm… a cream puff please.”Stretch would have gotten something for his brothers, but Blackberry had adopted Edge and Papyrus’s health nut policies, and Blueberry wasn’t allowed to have sugar. He got hyper like Red did.“We have a new flavor for the lollipops,” Muffet hummed. “Would you like to try it?”“Sure. What flavor is it?”“Honey.”Stretch shrugged. “Never had it, but I’ll give it a try.”Stretch paid with a credit card. Edge had finally insisted on opening a separate account for Sans and Red, and Stretch had his own card for emergencies. And for visits to Muffet’s bakery. His mom said it was fine.Muffet packaged everything extremely quickly, tied a neat little bow at the top of the box, and rang Stretch out all at the same time.“You have a nice day, Stretch,” Muffet smiled.Stretch nodded, “Thanks, you too.”“Bye bye, muffin!” Blueberry beamed.“Bye, dearie~”Now Stretch had to get them both home for lunch. He’d eat the cream puff for dessert. *** Edge mimed yawning as he summoned walls of red bones with perfect precision and timing. Blackberry assaulted him with blows from summoned bones, but Edge’s guard was perfect.“Have you been listening to a word I said all year?” Edge taunted. “It really is like fighting an infant.”Blackberry gritted his teeth and raised a tentacle up into the air, slamming it down as hard as he could. Finally, he managed to break through a wall of bones. After that, he pulled back immediately. Hitting Edge was not part of the exercise.In fact, there would be considerable consequences if he did accidentally hit the land skeleton, considering he was seven months pregnant.A womb made of red ectoflesh had formed to carry the child to term. Edge didn't have any preexisting biology there to accomodate, though, so it didn't stick out at all. He was still rocking his usual crop top, tight jeans, and high heels. Edge had taken time off from his dangerous job to safely have his baby, but he hadn’t given up on Blackberry’s training. He had taught him precision and finesse with his magic attacks, just like Edge’s own style. However, if Blackberry was going to grow up like Red (and had a mess of massive tentacles instead of legs), he wasn’t suited for Edge’s physical combat style. Especially not on land. So instead, Edge taught him to use the advantages of his species. Thus Blackberry's physical combat leaned heavily toward power and throwing his weight around.Obviously, he should use that to break through the land skeleton’s defense; he would never out-finesse his teacher with magic attacks. It hadn't been perfect, but Edge was satisfied with his performance. The student and master wore matching smirks at the end of their mock battle.Papyrus leaned out the sliding glass doors, “Alright, boys, that’s enough of that. It’s time for lunch.”Perfect timing. Edge followed his husband inside and looked around. “Where are Stretch and Blueberry?”“They went for a walk,” Papyrus said. “Stretch promised to be back for lunch.”Not a moment later, the front door swung open.“We’re back,” Stretch called."Right on time," Papyrus smiled. As they were finishing the dishes, Papyrus brightened up. “I got a text from your parents, kids. Red’s visit to the dentist went well. They’re ready to be picked up.”Edge wiped his teeth and folded his napkin. “I suppose I’d better go get them then.” He went to grab the keys off the key hook, but Papyrus snatched them away. “I’ll be picking up Sans and Red. You stay home and rest, dear. Keep an eye on the kids.”Edge flushed and frowned, “Stars’ sake, Papyrus, I can drive a car. I’m not an invalid.” He reached out to take the keys back.Papyrus held the keys out of reach and narrowed his eye sockets. “I let you do training with Blackberry. I think I’ve been plenty lenient today.”Edge folded his arms and looked away. “Be careful with my truck,” he grumbled.Papyrus smiled triumphantly, “Of course!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sans and the others weren’t able to be there when Edge was giving birth. He’d gone to some place called a hospital, and non-family wasn’t allowed in the room. They had to wait two days until Edge and the baby could come home.Their baby came wrapped in a little green bundle. He was tiny—not baby meroctopus tiny, but smaller than Blueberry when he was born.“He’s cute,” Stretch complimented, smiling when the baby skeleton grabbed his finger. Rus was sharper than Papyrus, but softer than Edge. His little fangs were adorable. “What’s his name?”“Papyrus,” Edge said proudly.“You named him Papyrus?” Sans tilted his head. “Won’t that get confusing?”“We’re going to call him Rus for simplicity’s sake,” Papyrus smiled awkwardly. “Edge insisted on using that name.”Baby Rus started fidgeting, and it looked like he was about to cry.“He’s hungry,” Red said.Edge fixed him with a look of shock. He knew because he was the child’s mother and their souls had been close for a very long time. To some extent, Edge could still feel the changes in Rus’s soul.Perhaps after three children, you just developed a feel for these things.“Indeed. I’ll be going upstairs to take care of that.”“You gonna do that nursing thing?” Sans asked.“Yes, and it’s private.”“Alright,” the mermaid backed off easily. He was used to people needing private time. “It’s getting kinda late anyway. We were thinking about heading back.”“It’s a shame we got back from the hospital so late,” Papyrus said. “I would have at least liked to serve you dinner.”Blackberry waved down his concern. “We got to meet your child, so the trip wasn’t a waste. As a side note, I used the last of your ground beef.”Edge’s training has branched into culinary skills on more than one occasion, so Blackberry was the best of the mer by far when it came to cooking surface foods.Everyone but Blueberry at least knew how to use the stove, but Sans and Stretch were mediocre at best, and the fire made Red nervous.“I’ll add it to the list,” Papyrus smiled. The ocean monsters returned to their den, where another infant was waiting for them.Chara and Frisk were taking turns playing with Alphys and Undyne’s child. Stretch swam over to join them while the others scattered to do other things.“How was Edge’s baby?” the rosy-cheeked kid asked.Stretch shrugged. “Healthy and cute.”“Not cuter than MK, though, right?” Chara held up the armless yellow dinosaur mermaid by his round head, and he giggled. Frisk tickled his belly, and he playfully swatted at her hands.“All babies are cute. Don’t ask me to compare them.” He opened up a new lollipop and rolled it around between his teeth, “At least his name made sense though.”“What was his name?”“They named him Papyrus after his dad, but they’re gonna call him Rus so it doesn’t confuse anyone.”“Yeah, that makes sense,” Chara nodded. “At least more sense than naming your kid after some fictional cat girl’s mech suit.”After getting her own phone, Alphys had discovered something called “anime,” and now she and Undyne were obsessed with it.“They had good intentions, probably.” Stretch mumbled. Frisk shrugged.Alphys had made quite a scene defending the name. “B-b-because when all their mech suits are-are coming together to form the U-ultimate Cutie X, Mew Mew’s mech, MK, becomes the torso, and its arms retract. S-s-so, it’s like MK is always ready to come together with friends! S-since he doesn’t have a-arms just like Mew Mew’s MK! See!”The response she got had been a unanimous “if you say so” stare. Except for Undyne. She thought the name was kickass.There were a lot of children around lately, so there was a temporary ban on having any more. They needed enough adults to be able to properly raise them, after all. These precious, previously impossible children.Well, Red was satisfied for now; Alphys and Undyne were satisfied for now; nobody was really in a rush. Having a break was fine. ***Three-Years Later*** Stretch was content to laze around at the den or on the surface, and Blueberry often insisted on the latter. He needed someone to chauffeur him around on land and always would, but he really liked being everybody’s favorite.Sometimes Stretch was too lazy to carry him, though, and Blueberry would swim laps around the coast to pass the time. He sometimes managed to convince Red to play tag with him. Red had gotten more control over his ability to teleport, so he and Sans were the only ones who could keep up with Blueberry now. It was just a matter of time until that kid was the fastest thing in the ocean.Blackberry had graduated from Edge’s training at only four years old. The land skeleton had even assured him he would hire him to work as a guard if he were old enough.The bossy little meroctopus had also been learning ocean combat and survival skills from Red. Considering his current level of competency and Red’s own ability to teleport when his family needed him, it was reasonably safe for Blackberry to go to the deep ocean on his own. And the kid was proud and insane enough to do it.While everyone else was relaxing, having fun, etc., Blackberry had taken it upon himself to make a mental map of the deep ocean nearest to the den. He wanted to know, realistically, what kind of threats they might have to deal with. And, if possible, he wanted to make contact with a few of the other mer monster types that lived down there. Mermaids dominated the shallows in this region of the world, and meroctopuses were the only creatures that had ever come up from the deep, so Blackberry and the others were greatly surprised when Red told them there were mer types they’d never heard of down there.Blackberry wasn’t naive enough to expect a peaceful encounter with these creatures, but he was prepared to venture down anyway.On that note, it was shocking just how deep the ocean went. Blackberry had been swimming down at a sharp angle for hours now. It was at the point where he was starting to feel the cold and the pressure as unpleasant. He reached an outcropping of cold black rock and considered turning around for the day. Before that, though, a short rest would be a good idea, and the stone surface seemed safe when he examined it.When Blackberry put his weight on the rock, he thought he felt a slight shift. Before he could process what that might mean, a sharp pain compelled him to gasp and push off into the water. Seven of eight legs came with him. The last was caught like a vice in a trap made of fishing line and animal bones.Blackberry quickly applied healing magic to his stump of a leg to stop the violet magic pouring out. His soul was racing. To think there were traps around here so advanced that even he couldn’t spot them! The rusted blades that had severed one of his limbs were clearly made for killing, too. Whoever set this up, they weren’t fooling around.He was on guard now, and that was good because the one trap he’d triggered set of a series of others, all just as deadly. He dodged the ones he could, but he was too big to slip past most of them. The ones he couldn’t evade, he broke with magical weapons and his tentacles. All of his motions were fluid; no time or energy wasted. Edge’s training had likely saved his life today. Finally, after escaping with nothing but a few gashes and a missing tentacle, all the traps in the area were exhausted.Blackberry sucked in a breath and, “Who is responsible for this?! Come out this instant!”There was no response, naturally. But Edge and Red both had a fascination with traps, and they had warned him that there’s no way the owner wouldn’t notice if so many went off in a row. Chain traps like these were for protecting a den, not for catching prey, and the owner would be nearby. Just because he couldn’t see anybody didn’t mean nobody was watching him.Using the training he’d received from both of them, Blackberry waited until the split instance when he could feel killing intent and summoned bones all around to protect his vitals. Once he felt something connect, he knew the direction of his attacker. He immediately summoned another circle to contain them.“Your stealth skills are impressive. There wasn’t a single change in the current up until the moment you swung your weapon.”Edge had taught him how to shape the bones into an effective cage. He did so so he could see his attacker. What he saw stopped all the words he’d been ready to say.It was a mershark—something Blackberry had never seen before but had heard of from Red—and a skeleton just like Blackberry, with a dingy red tail. That wasn’t what was startling. He was bigger than blackberry, with dangerous, jagged teeth and strangely brittle-looking, graying bones. One eyelight seemed to be dead, and the other was an overblown, blood-red ring. There was a massive hole in his skull.Blackberry didn’t know how this person was alive, let alone how they could set up such a praise-worthy ambush.The wounded mershark had on a manic grin, and it got wider when he saw Blackberry go speechless.“Whazza matter, kid? Ya look like ya seen a ghost.” Blackberry continued to stare at the hole in the stranger’s skull, and it made him let out a dry chuckle. “Wow, s’ dead t’night, huh. No life in dis crowd.”“You’re… cracking jokes in your state?”The stranger shrugged. “Felt like crackin’ somethin’ ‘sides my head t‘night.”“I’ve captured you! Act a little more dispirited!”“Nah. M’ in a good mood.”“Why?!”“‘Cause ya captur’d me. Coulda killed me. Didn’t. Figure m’ good.”Blackberry scoffed. “I won’t lower myself to killing a captured enemy, but I will bring you to justice.”“Fer what?”“You intended to kill me!”The mershark smiled even wider—almost enough to split his skull.“Welcome ta da deep ocean. Where’ve you been?”The mershark swung his arm, and Blackberry saw that the weapon he’d been using all this time wasn’t magical. It was a chipped and rusted axe from the surface. To Blackberry’s shock, that pathetic blade smashed through his bone cage like it was dead coral, but he knew why when he felt the killing intent coming off the mershark in waves. It was strong enough that he wouldn’t need magic to compete with Blackberry. If he used magic on top of that…Blackberry was already wounded. His pride was on the line, but so was his life.“Mom!”Blackberry had experienced the pain of losing a tentacle. There was no way Red hadn’t teleported to aid him. He was just hiding for some reason Black didn’t understand.But at his baby’s call, Red revealed himself. Immediately, the mershark was pushed to the losing side of the conflict.“Heh. S’ playtime over?”“Figured ya noticed,” Red growled, and the mershark grinned insanely.Now that Blackberry was a step away from the combat, he had the time to reason through a few things. Red had probably been waiting either to give Blackberry a chance to prove himself, or to follow the mershark back to his den and destroy any school he might or might not have. Blackberry could absolutely picture his mother doing that as revenge for removing one of his children’s limbs.And the mershark thought the same thing, which is why he didn’t run back home when he had the chance.That realization startled Blackberry. If that was the case, then there must actually be something back at this mershark’s den worth protecting.“Don’t kill him, mother! I have questions for him.”Red growled, but nodded, and the mershark smiled wider. “Heheh. Givin’ me hope’s pretty cruel, kid.”It took Red a minute, which testified to the mershark’s strength, but he did manage to capture him. There was no escaping from Red’s tentacles.“Ask yer questions, sweetheart.”“Gladly.” Blackberry got close enough to be intimidating without being in any possible danger. “Who are you protecting?”The mershark’s smile didn’t twitch. “Jus’ kill me already. Wha’s takin’ so long?”Blueberry persisted. “Will they be alright without you? Can they still survive on their own after we kill you?”The mershark’s smile started to falter, and Blackberry’s grew wider.“Depending on what reasons you had, I may be willing to overlook this less-than-pleasant encounter.”The mershark frowned. “Fuckin’ kill me already.”His stubborness made Blackberry mad. “I consider myself a fair and just mer, but you’re trying my patience.”Red decided to back his baby up a little. “Do ya think I won’t find ‘em if ya keep quiet? Ya don’t seem like the naive type.”The mershark’s frown deepened, and he started to thrash in Red’s grip, even giving him a good and deep gash with his razor-sharp claws. He laughed dryly when the giant meroctopus didn’t even flinch.“Heheh. Fuck.” The mershark turned his one eyelight to Blackberry. “Ya promise ta let us go if I tell ya?”“I’m a monster of my word.”The mershark reached up and dug his claws into his dead eye socket, grinning a manic grin. He took a minute to collect his words.“... ‘S my bro. He’s starvin’. Can’t hunt. I can’t neither.” He released his eye socket to tap near where his skull was broken open. “Can’t go too far or I forget how ta get back. Had ta hide da place good 'nuf dat other mersharks can't find it. All we got’s traps. Ain’t so picky wha’ falls into ‘em.”Blackberry’s face contorted. “You were planning to eat me?”“Take a look around. Ya see anythin’ else we can eat?”Blackberry looked at Red with wide eye sockets, silently asking for… something to help this situation make more sense. What he saw on his mother’s face was a combination of disgust, understanding, and pity.Blackberry firmly reminded himself that he wasn’t in the shallows.Out of the corner of his vision, he spotted the tentacle he’d lost to the mershark’s trap. He swam over to retrieve it and looked at it sourly.“Well I suppose I can’t use this anymore. Giving it to you is better than letting it go to waste.”The mershark’s already bloated eyelight swelled to nearly fill his entire socket.“You fer real? Yer lettin’ me keep dat?”Blackberry nodded and grimaced. “The thought of someone eating it sickens me, but yes.”Red felt a distinct change in the mershark’s body. All the hostility had gone, so he released him slowly. The deep ocean creature swam forward carefully to accept the severed limb. When Blackberry really did give it up freely, he smiled. It was creepy and insane like always, but softer than before.“Yer alright. Bet Crooks’d like ya. He likes e’ryone though.”“I’d like to make a deal.” The meroctopus kid said firmly.The mershark held the severed tentacle close to himself and backed off. “Ya can’t have it back. S’ mine now.”“It has nothing to do with that. I’m proposing to deliver you food in exchange for visiting your den and meeting your brother.”Two sets of eye sockets turned to Blackberry in shock.“Uh, sweetheart,” Red trailed off, unsure what to even say.“Am I correct to assume you’ll stop eating people if you have enough food?” The child pressed.“Anythin’ edible’s fine.” The mershark looked to be in a bit of a daze, but his expression hardened a moment later. “Food first, then ya can meet ‘im.”“Then we have a deal.” The mershark looked at the food Red was toting with him, eyelight wide and trembling.“I killed them myself,” Blackberry said proudly, placing his hands on his hips and smirking.The mershark’s eyelight returned to its normal bloated size, and he seemed pretty steady.“M’ Axe,” he finally introduced himself.“Call me Black, and this is my mother, Red.”Red grunted.“Dis way.”Axe led the way to his den. It was very well hidden, but not small; Red and Axe were close to the same size, with Axe being just a little smaller.The inside was incredibly dark. Even meroctopuses like Red and Blackberry couldn’t see more than a few feet. There were bones and scales littered around on the floor near the entrance, but it got cleaner the farther in they went. Still, there was no plant life down here, so there was nothing but hard stones wherever one looked. Maybe some sand here or there.“Watch out,” Axe mentioned, “s’ a trap here.”Blackberry shot him an incredulous look, “Inside your den?”Axe chuckled but didn’t bother to explain.The cave continued as a small labyrinth. Without Axe to guide them through it, it would have been hard to navigate. There were likely more traps scattered about as well. Finally they reached a room, where a very long and lanky figure was sweeping some sand into a small pile.“Hey, bro,” Axe called softly.Another skeleton mershark turned around. Gangly would probably be a good way to describe him. He was very long and much too thin for his length. It was only in torso length, but he was the first sentient creature Blackberry had ever seen who was larger than Red.“Oh, Axe, welcome home.” Crooks had a grating but quiet, high-pitched voice, and he spoke with a noticeable lisp. He tilted his head. “Do we have guests?”“Yep. Made some friends.”Crooks swam closer with his hands clasped together. “Really, brother? Oh, that’s such good news! My name is Crooks. May I know yours?”Blackberry barely heard what Crooks was saying; he was too busy staring in shock. Now that the mershark was closer, Blackberry could see that his bones were grayish and looked extremely brittle. He looked even more gaunt up close. His eye sockets were small and sunken, and his teeth… If Blackberry thought Axe’s teeth were jagged and crooked, this was on a whole different level. Crooks’ teeth were all either much too long or much too short. Not a single one was straight, and many of them curled in strange directions. They overlapped each other, crossed, grew in front of or behind already-existing teeth… Blackberry understood why Crooks had a lisp; it was a miracle he could speak clearly at all with a mouth like that.And what was worse, the tips of several teeth were cracked and stained with red magic, as if they’d been broken off and filed down before, just to grow back even worse. It looked extremely painful—and here was the person with that mouth, putting on his best approximation of a smile.Crooks tilted his head, and Blackberry snapped out of his trance. “I’m Blackberry, but you may call me Black. This is my mother, Red. You're… Crooks?”Blackberry had the sudden and horrifying thought that this poor creature might have been named after his horrible teeth.“Yes! It’s so good to have guests over. Nobody ever comes down here.”Axe chuckled. “What’re ya sayin’, bro? We’ve had plenty of people fer dinner.”Crooks shot his brother a stern look and glanced back at the meroctopuses anxiously. “Yes, well…” His small and faint eyelights landed on Blackberry’s half-regrown tentacle. “Oh dear. Did my brother…?”Blackberry waved his hand dismissively. “Call it a donation. Speaking of which.”Red set the fat tunas Blackberry had caught in front of him, and Crooks’ dull, blood orange tail flicked in excitement.“Oh my! Could it be… you brought that for us?”Blackberry nodded, and Crooks beamed, though it was quite painful to look at.“We will gratefully accept! Will you stay for dinner, friends?”Blackberry shook his head. “Don’t mind us. You need that food much more.”“No, no, I insist! There is plenty to share.”Blackberry scowled. “No there is not! You and your brother are clearly malnourished. Just obediently eat what’s given to you.”Crooks frowned sadly and wrung his hands. “First my brother and now you. You did the work to catch it, so please let me prepare it in exchange.”Blackberry folded his arms and huffed. “Do as you please.”Crooks smiled again. He began butchering the fish with expert precision, though Axe lent him a hand here and there where a little more force was needed. There was absolutely no waste left over when Crooks was done.And then he treated the meat with magic. Red was surprised to see that, considering he hadn’t learned that technique until he left the deep ocean. Something about the way Crooks did it was different though. The meat almost glittered when he was done.“Please, help yourselves,” the gangly mer smiled.After Axe ate a small bite, Red tried a little to make sure it was safe for Blackberry.It was the most amazing thing he’d ever tasted.“Holy fuck,” he muttered.“Do… do you like it?” Crooks wrung his hands nervously, and Red could only nod.Blackberry ate some and gasped. He could hardly believe what he’d just tasted. This malformed mershark must have been the best cook in the whole ocean.“Outstanding. This is absolutely delicious.”Crooks set a hand on his sternum and sighed. “Oh thank goodness. I’m glad you liked it.”“Now you, bro,” Axe said sternly.“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m not even hungry—”“Eat.”Crooks flinched at his brother’s scolding, and Axe grinned dangerously. “If ya won’t eat, I won’t eat either.”“It… it was worth a try.”Blackberry had to look away. He couldn’t stand how painful Crooks’ chewing looked. After the starving mersharks had eaten their fill, Blackberry asked the number one question on his mind.“Why don’t you move up to shallower waters? There’s more food up there.”Axe rolled his bloated eyelight in its socket. “Dere was a reason, but…”“The school fell apart. Remember, brother?”Axe tugged on his dead eye socket and shook his head.Crooks sighed and gave the meroctopuses a soft smile. “There was a major falling out in our school after a long time without finding much food. Axe protected me and got that head injury because of it.”Blackberry glanced at Axe, but his expression made it clear he didn’t remember any of this.Crooks continued, “Mersharks hunt in packs in case we stumble onto a powerful meroctopus, but we don't really get along very well. Even so, without numbers on our side, life down here is a struggle. There was already a food shortage even before things fell apart.”“Then go higher,” Blackberry said. “I’ve seen how your brother fights. Mermaids shouldn’t be difficult to deal with.”“Can’t,” Axe said. “Water’s too thin. S’ hard ta breathe.”Red noticed a series of slits along the mersharks’ tails.“You have gills?”Axe blinked slowly. “Yeah?”“Can ya make more?”Crooks templed his phalanges. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”“Ectobiology can change, right? Maybe ya could grow more gills if ya tried, and then ya could handle the shallow water.”It was a long way back to the shallows; Red and Blackberry were running out of time for their visit, but they left their new acquaintances with that little idea to chew on.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
What was supposed to be an ordinary morning at the den turned into something different when people started filtering out of their rooms. The first people to start swimming around were the kids. All the mermaid children shared a room and usually ended up sleeping in a pile, so when Blueberry decided it was time to start the day, the rest were sort of forced to wake up with him.Giggling and ready to fit in some playtime before it was time for their chores, they swam into the biggest community room.And then the rest of the school was woken up by the sound of children screaming.Red arrived first, followed almost immediately by Sans and Toriel. Undyne and Asgore arrived with weapons already summoned. Alphys hung back from the action with the two meroctopus kids, although Blackberry soon pushed past her to see what was going on.He straightened up in shock. There were two unforgettable faces in front of him.Axe and Crooks had turned up inside of the den without a single person noticing. Their stealth skills were unbelievable.Naturally, the sudden appearance of two mangled mersharks had people on edge. Undyne looked about ready to fight them off, and plenty of others clearly wanted to run.Axe ignored all of them and locked eyes with Red.“Ya were right ‘bout makin’ more gills.”“Please pardon us for coming in unannounced,” Crooks smiled sheepishly. “You were all sleeping peacefully, and we didn’t want to wake you.”Undyne pointed a harpoon at the intruders.“Red, do you know these punks?”Axe glared at the weapon. “Better quit dat, snack. I ain’t had breakfast yet.”Undyne barred her shark-like teeth. “Oh yeah? You wanna go, punk?!”Axe’s jagged teeth smiled wider, but Crooks interjected.“Brother, we are guests here! We will not eat our hosts.”“Wha’s a few more bites, really?”“Brother, I don’t think your jokes are appreciated here.”“A few more bites?! Is that what happened to Blackberry?!”“Enough of this,” Black sighed. “You are antagonizing each other for no reason. I allowed them to eat my severed tentacle, Undyne. It wasn’t any use to me anymore, and the trap Axe used to take it was truly praiseworthy. We have already established that they will not eat sentient beings as long as they are satiated, so let’s have breakfast before going any further.”And so there was a very awkward breakfast including three different mer species. Despite being starving, Axe ate slowly while keeping an eye on all the others. He stopped entirely whenever Crooks stopped eating, forcing the gangly mer to chew through the pain.After dinner, Toriel started.“So… I am Toriel, co-founder of this school. What were your names?”“Oh! I’m Crooks, and this is my brother Axe. Thank you for breakfast. It was delicious.”“Yes, well, it is a pleasure to meet you both. You seem to know Red and Blackberry.”“Indeed we do. Blackberry fed us when we desperately needed it, and Red gave us advice that helped us leave the deep ocean. I,” he hesitated and glanced sheepishly at the two. “I would consider them friends, but I’m not sure how they feel. We just came here because we didn’t know anywhere else to go in the shallows.”“Anywhere else dat wouldn’t attack us,” Axe added darkly.“How did you find us?” Blackberry genuinely wanted to know.“Followed yer smell,” Axe said.“All the way from the deep ocean?” Red was impressed. He thought he had a good sense of smell.“We are, in a certain sense, sharks,” Crooks smiled meekly. “Which is good, because it’s very bright up here and it’s made my eyesight even worse.”“Do you have trouble seeing, Crooks?” Toriel asked softly.He ducked his head and twiddled his thumbs. “I was born with… a number of defects.”Toriel felt sympathy well up like it did anytime she saw someone troubled.“I cannot promise anything, but I could try healing magic if you’d like.”“Don’t bother,” Axe somehow glared even with his sockets wide open. “Crooks’s da best damn healer in da ocean.”“I’ve tried his cooking, and I’m inclined to believe that statement,” Blackberry nodded.“It isn’t like I doubt your abilities, Miss Toriel,” Crooks said softly, “but healing won’t work. This is my natural state; it’s what the magic would return me to.”“Maybe a surface doctor could do something,” Sans offered.“They have gills, Angel. I dunno if they can go to the surface.”Sans raised his eyebrows and noted the many slits on Axe and Crooks’ tails.“Can you two breathe air?”“Never tried,” Axe shrugged. “Dis’s da farthest up we ever been.”The conversation reached a natural lull, and Undyne immediately steered it back to somewhere dangerous. “So you guys eat people?”“Well,” Crooks wrung his hands. “From time to time.”“They were starving, Undyne.” Blackberry glared half-heartedly. “They had no choice.”“Actually, even ’fore dat, our school ate people,” Axe threw in for no goddamn reason. “Mersharks’re naturally people-eaters.”“Really not helping your case, pal,” the fish mermaid glared.Axe stared back without flinching. “Da school fell apart when dey tried ta eat Crooks. Lotta people died fer dat. Da head bitch was a fish too. Ya kinda remind me of her.”“Is that a threat, punk?!”Axe tapped the side of his skull, a little below the large hole. “She gave me dis. Really fucked things up fer me, but m’ gettin’ some memories back thanks ta yer stupid face.”“That is a terrible wound.” Toriel quickly tried to steer the conversation anywhere besides where it was going. “But I assume your brother has already done all that could be done?”Axe’s eyelight shifted to her, and he gave a slow nod. “Yeah. I’d definitely be dead without ‘im.”“He was unconscious for days. Scared me half to death,” Crooks said softly. Crooks kept chatting with the meroctopuses’ school for several minutes. That was good; he needed more people to talk to. People who would remember what he said.Axe let him enjoy himself and started surveying the school. There weren’t many people in it, and they were all very diverse. Most of them were mermaids, though. Mermaids weren’t quick to get violent, and they preferred talking to fighting. The meroctopuses in this school were pretty much domesticated. Nobody here wanted to eat Crooks.A grin stretched Axe’s face, and it caught Undyne’s attention.“If you’ve said your thanks to Blackberry and Red, you can leave now.”Crooks had been opening up and enjoying some pleasant conversation, but his body language became sad and defensive.Toriel frowned.“Do not be rude to our guests, Undyne. They came a long way, I am sure they would like to rest a little.”“Right,” she barked a laugh. “I’ll back off, and then you’re gonna invite them to stay the night. Tori, they eat people . You think I’d be okay with this?”Axe fixed his sight on the fish, the only person so far who was openly against their presence. Should he try to say something to improve her opinion? Threaten her? Kill her? That would probably backfire.“I’m so sorry.” Crooks sounded and looked disheartened. “We’re imposing on you aren’t we?” He stood up and wrung his chipped hands. “We can leave.”Undyne looked like she felt a little bad about it, but she wasn’t backing down. The others looked ready to accept it since Crooks himself said they would go.“No,” Axe stared out at the school. “We ain’t healthy. We can’t do dat swim twice in one day.” He focused his gaze on Undyne. “Ya gonna make us wander in unfamiliar waters? Ya know what’ll happen if someone tries ta fight us. Dat’ll be on you.”Crooks flushed pink and raised his voice a little. “Axe! Enough of that! We’ve overstayed our welcome. I don’t want to be remembered as a bad guest.”Undyne all but ignored crooks. Her yellow eyes narrowed at Axe, matching his dangerous stare.“Bastard. One night under my guard. Would that satisfy you, you freak?”Axe chuckled darkly. “Nope. We wanna live here.”A vein bulged in the fish mermaid’s neck, and she gritted her teeth. “Excuse me?”Crooks was just panicking now, looking helplessly between his brother and Undyne, unable to stop either of the stubborn mer.“M’ one thing, but ya’d be crazy ta turn Crooks away. He has da best healin’ magic in da ocean. ‘E’d be an asset.”“You’re really goddamn pushy, you know that?”Undyne started leaning into an attack posture, so Blackberry cut her off.“You will most likely lose if you fight him,” he warned. “He bested me even without using his magic.”“Maybe,” Undyne glared directly at the mershark, “But I get the feeling that this guy is that type; if you give him an inch he’ll take a mile. So I’m not backing off.”“We got one night?” Axe confirmed.“And then you’re gone,” Undyne nodded.Axe grinned wide. “I’ll use dat time ta change yer mind.”Undyne matched his smile. “Good luck, punk.” Throughout the course of the day, the mershark brothers were perfectly helpful and well-behaved. Obviously, Axe was trying to earn a spot for him and his brother in their school, but Crooks was just normally like that.Speaking of the lanky dentist’s nightmare, he helped cook lunch and dinner, redefining what everyone thought good food was. Toriel asked him to teach her his technique, but she wasn’t able to replicate it. Despite looking big and awkward, Crooks had an inconceivable level of control over his magic. His technique required nearly unreachable levels of precision.As for Axe, he found the pile of traps Red and Blackberry were repairing in their spare time. Years of use and struggling prey had worn them down. But they were both busy mer, so very little progress had been made in a while.Axe didn’t need to be taught how these particular traps worked. He just saw and understood, then he fixed them all in about two hours.He napped after that. Undyne attempted to sneak up on him once, hoping to prank him with some leeches in exchange for him getting on her nerves earlier.He woke up the second she entered the room.“Didn’t take ya fer da clingy type.”“Dammit! You win this one, freak.”When it was about time for everyone to go to sleep, Axe went to Toriel to appeal again to join their school.“We ain’t useless,” he told her. “And we’re used ta livin’ in a school. We won’t cause trouble. Won’t even eat nobody.”“I understand,” Toriel nodded, frowning sympathetically, “but we make all of our decisions as a group. As long as Undyne can’t accept you two, I mustn’t force her to endure it.”For mersharks, every school had an alpha who could override decisions, so Axe hadn’t expected this. He was left with no choice but to go convince Undyne directly. No more teasing; he would be serious and change her mind.“You’d better be ready to leave in the morning, Axe.” She was in excellent form tonight as well.Axe smiled like usual. “I get where yer comin’ from. I wouldn’t wan’ me here neither.” She watched him skeptically. “But ya should know by now dat dere’s no reason ta kick out Crooks. He’ll be nothin’ but nice n’ helpful.”The fish mermaid sighed and crossed her arms. “Yeah, I’ve been watching. That dude’s sweeter than Asriel.”Axe’s eyelight swelled. “So…?”“I can’t,” she shook her head. “Nice as he is, he still eats people. I just can’t let that slide. No amount of good cooking is going to make up for that. I wouldn’t even know if he was feeding me somebody!”His eyelight deflated to its usual size. “He’s a great healer too.”“I’m sure it isn’t that amazing.”“You’ll believe it if ya see it.” He turned around. “Come n’ see.”Undyne sighed, but she felt bad so she decided to give him a chance. She followed Axe to one of the common rooms where Crooks was tidying up some to make a place for them to sleep.“Hey bro,” Axe gathered Crooks’ attention.“Yes, Axe? What is it?”Axe took out his weapon and swung it against his chest as hard as he could. Dust and red magic filled the water, and the bones cracked almost to shattering.“Brother!” Crooks practically screamed. He was shocked that had just happened right in front of him.People sped in like torpedos. At the sight of Axe on the ground, Toriel slapped a hand over her mouth and Sans went pale. Alphys directly passed out. They were the three best healers in the school, but that was quite simply a fatal injury. Even working together, they couldn’t do anything.Crooks had tears in his eye sockets, but he fixed his jaw and refused to cry. Instead, he got right to work healing Axe. Undyne just backed up slowly, repeating “What the fuck?” to herself under her breath. He was asleep for two days, and Toriel refused to cast them out like that. Hell, even Undyne was too baffled to speak out much.When Axe finally woke up, Crooks started crying. He was a silent cryer, but the magic pink tears were being carried off on the current in thick drops.“How could you be so reckless?! Axe, you idiot! I was scared to death!”Axe flinched at the loud noise, but his crazy smile was a happy one.“I don’t remember nothin’, but lemme guess. I tried ta off myself?”Crooks let out a quiet sob and nodded. “Why, brother?”Axe looked around at the rest of the school, gathered to hear this. “‘Cause I knew ya could save me.”“Brother, that isn’t--”“--I was da only one who knew dat.” Crooks shut his mouth, and Axe grinned at Undyne. “See? Ya’d be crazy ta turn away a healer dat good.”“You’re the crazy one here,” she muttered half-heartedly.“Well I do got a big fuckin’ hole in my skull,” he beamed maniacally at her. “So can he stay?”“He can stay,” she said, defeated. “You can both stay. I can’t turn away someone with the guts to die for their brother.”“Ain’t got guts,” Axe chuckled. “But thanks.”“Just, no more eating people.”“Oh, certainly not!” Crooks said in a hurry. “Since it makes you all so uncomfortable, we wouldn’t dream of it. Isn’t that right, Axe?”“Sure, why not?”And so, their little school had grown a little bigger and a little stranger yet again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Alphys and Asgore got to work right away constructing new rooms for Axe and Crooks. Like the meroctopuses, they preferred as little light to leak in as possible. And, unlike the meroctopuses, they weren’t really fans of tight spaces.It was a pretty big project, so it was expected to take a few days. Crooks came forward right away and offered to help. He really wasn’t very strong, considering his size, but he did his best. Axe didn’t look like he was planning on helping, but he was there the moment Crooks bit off more than he could chew.“I got dis, bro. Take a rest.”Crooks hung his head but nodded. He went and found some lighter chores he could help with instead.Now that Axe was off his tail and helping, he would do it properly, but he couldn’t help but think there was someone stronger with a few more limbs who would have been better suited for this.“S’ Red out huntin’ or somethin’?”“Y-yeah," Alphys answered. "He's usually out most of the m-morning."“How’d he end up here? I never seen a Meroctopus livin’ in a school.”“Oh," she spoke absentmindedly while measuring a section of wall, "h-he’s Sans’s mate.”Axe’s single eyelight shrunk. “Da sleepy lil’ blue one? Fer real?”She smiled, “Y-yeah. Stretch, Black, and Blueberry are their kids.”“Dey had kids t’gether?! ”Was the hole in his skull acting up again? According to Axe's memory, different types of mer couldn't breed together?? But a mermaid and a meroctopus managed to have three kids???“We didn’t know it was possible e-either. Th-they learned how to do it after g-going to the surface.”Axe found his balance again quickly. “Da surface, huh? Crooks n’ me prob’ly can’t go dere. Bu’ I guess da leggy boys carry da rest of ya around?”Alphys hesitated, tipping her head in thought. “Actually, most of us haven’t gone up there.”Axe frowned a little. “Why not?”If the place was so amazing with so much new knowledge and technology, wouldn't they be leaping over the waves to get there?“Why? Um, that’s a good question. A-at first, it was because Red c-could only carry so many people, but Stretch and Black a-are big enough to help out now. Maybe it’s a-about time we had a look?” The dinosaur mermaid nodded to herself, “I-I’ll talk to Sans about it. I am pretty c-curious what it's like.”Axe chuckled. “He in charge, huh? Gets ta call da shots fer da big guy?”“W-w-well, Red isn’t very good a-at discussions. B-being put on the spot to make a-a decision m-makes him nervous. B-but Sans w-wouldn't make him do something he d-didn't want to do.”“Ain't good at yer kind of d'scussions, I guess.”Alphys paused in the middle of picking up a chunk of coral and frowned a little, “O-our kind? What do you mean?”Axe grinned his signature insane smile, and his eyesockets narrowed dangerously. “He’s real good at givin’ threats.”Oh yeah, Red didn't even have to say anything, and Axe already knew exactly what would happen if he overstepped his bounds and hurt someone in this school. He would be dead—nobody would be able to talk Red out of it. It was a really impressive unspoken threat that poured out of every ounce of his body language when the mersharks had first arrived. Axe considered himself the observant type, but he couldn't have missed that if he'd tried. Nobody who knew how "discussions" worked in the deep ocean could have.But that was fine. It wasn’t like Axe was some mindless killing machine just because he liked the taste of monsters. If he didn’t have to do anything, he wouldn’t. And also, he had given his own silent ultimatum right back: "you hurt my family, I hurt yours."It might sound excessively hostile, but they understood each other. Nobody was going to pull anything on the other's watch. Alphys and Asgore reached a point in the construction where they decided it was time for a break, so Axe immediately went off to find a good spot to nap. No sooner did he lay down and close his sockets than he felt someone else enter the room. He could tell from the change in the current that it was one of the kids, so he decided to stick to what he’d been doing. But he felt them reaching toward his face and opened his eyes.He caught Blueberry about to poke his cheek.“Wha’s up, berry?”“Blueberry!” the mermaid said brightly.“Snack,” Axe corrected. He sat up begrudgingly. “Whadaya wan’?”“Do you wanna play tag with me?”“Nope.” Axe started to lay back down.Blueberry wasn’t discouraged. “What about racing?”“Ain’t got energy fer dat, kid.”“Hide and seek?”Axe sighed through his nasal hole. “Yer stubborn. Can’t ya jus’ play wit’ da other kids?”“Yeah,” he said, “I’m inviting you to play with us!” Blueberry lowered his voice to a stage whisper and leaned forward. “They’re scared of you and Crooks, but everybody will be friends if we play together!”“You ain’t scared tho?”The mermaid child puffed up his chest. “I’m not scared of anything!”Axe chuckled. “Yer cute, kid.” He rolled his eyelight around a bit. An opportunity for Crooks to make friends, huh? The mershark forced himself to sit up. “Fine, hide n’ seek. Le’s go get Crooks.”“Oh! I know where he is!”Blueberry led the way to another common room where Crooks was folding fresh kelp into little pillows.“Hey, bro.”Crooks frowned suspiciously. “Hello, brother. I thought you’d be napping by now. You aren’t planning on doing something foolish, are you? Because I'm getting Deja Vu.”Axe resisted blinking in confusion. Something foolish? What did he do? Crooks rarely ever used his stern voice like this. No, because his memory was garbage, Axe never did anything he wouldn't do again. More importantly, if he thought too much about it now, he would forget what he was supposed to be doing.“Nothin' bad, bro. We got invited ta play a game.”Crooks sat up a little straighter. “We… really?” He set down his busy work. “Wh-What kind of game?”“Hide and seek first,” Blueberry grinned, “that was Axe's pick. But we can do others too! Like tag and racing! Racing is my favorite.”“I see. They all sound very fun. How do you play hide and seek?”“One person is it. They count to thirty with their eyes closed while everyone else hides. Then the person who’s it has to come find everybody.”“We can hide anywhere?”“Anywhere you can go within thirty seconds. I’m fast, so I can hide lots of places.”“It sounds simple enough. I’ll do my best.”“Great! Wait here; I’ll get the others.”Blueberry swam off, and Crooks looked at Axe in confusion. “Others? It isn’t just us three?”“He’s tryin’ ta help us make friends,” Axe chuckled. “Sweet kid.”Crooks' sunken eyesockets stung a little, but he put on his best smile. “He certainly is.”Axe's eyelight dilated slightly. "Oh! 'fore I forget, got a fun fact. Da berries're twins--brothers. Stretch too."Crooks let his mangled jaw hang slightly open. "N-not in a biological sense, surely?""Yep. No fuckin' idea how, but dey're Red n' Sansy's kids."Crooks shook his head, but he had on a happy little smile for the odd couple. "The deep ocean is vast, but I'm getting the feeling the world we lived in before was rather small."Small? Small couldn't begin to describe it. Axe wondered what the people in this school would think--mating and breeding between types, moving between ocean layers, and even socializing with creatures on the surface--of the things that went on in their old little water-tight community. “I know you’re in here somewhere,” Crooks muttered, leaning down to look inside of cubbies and pushing back seaweed curtains. “I can smell you, Asriel.”Curled up behind the bowls under the cooking counter, the little goat mermaid slapped his hand over his muzzle. Crooks felt the current stir, and his head snapped in that direction.“There you are!”Azzy screamed when Crooks’ face appeared right in front of him, and he hit his elbow on the wall.“Oh dear! I didn’t mean to startle you.”Crooks reached under the counter and pulled out the kid who had curled up to nurse his arm.“There there, it’s not that bad.” Crooks healed the forming bruise in an instant, and the little goat wiped his eyes. “Better?”“Yeah, thanks.”He started wiggling, and Crooks let him go.“Am I the first one you found?”“Yes. Would you like to help me look for the others?”“Sure! Um, Chara and Frisk always hide close together.”“Thank you for the hint.” Crooks swam back to where they all started and tried to pick up the mermaids’ scents. He found them hiding behind a curtain and Sans’s couch in a communal room.“No fair!” Chara thumped the sand with their tail. “How are we supposed to hide if you can smell us out?!”“Do something to hide your scent,” Crooks said simply. “Axe and I used to leave bones near the entrance of our den so other mersharks couldn’t find us.”“Bones huh?” Chara smiled wickedly. “Alright. I’ll outsmart you next time for sure.”Crooks smiled and turned around. “Come on, let's go find Blueberry.”Crooks led everyone back to the starting point again and swam around in circles a few times.Frisk tilted their head.“Crooks?” Asriel asked.He stopped swimming and pressed his index fingers together. “Sorry. Axe is better at this than I am. All I can smell is you three.”Chara shrugged. “Oh well. We’ll split up and find him the hard way.”Everybody picked a different direction and swam off. After about ten minutes, Frisk returned triumphant, holding Blueberry’s hand.“So the only person we haven’t found yet is Axe,” Azzy stated.“He’ll be somewhere we wouldn’t expect,” Crooks said. “Maybe outside, or in somebody else’s room. Pay careful attention to dark corners and shadows, he tends to disappear in them.”They began the search again, checking everywhere carefully. For such a big guy, Axe was really hard to find.“He’d better not be moving,” Chara huffed after they regathered.“Moving is against the rules!” Blueberry replied.“I told you he’s good at this,” Crooks sighed in light frustration. “Shall we just let him win this round?”“I’m tired of looking,” Asriel said. “I want to hide again.”“Agreed,” Chara said, and Frisk nodded."If everybody else thinks so, then okay," Blueberry smiled.Crooks cupped his long fingers around his mouth. “We give up, brother! Please come out!”The sand stirred in a corner of the starting room, and Axe’s head popped up out of it. He had been hiding in that dune the whole time.“Easy,” he grinned.“Bold hiding technique,” Blueberry commended.Chara smirked, “You know it won’t work a second time.”“Ya think I don’t got more?”The next round, as the last person found, Axe was it. There was no contest at all. He sniffed most of the kids immediately. Chara, he couldn't smell, so he immediately deduced that they were hiding in the food storage. They were quite upset to be found so quickly. Crooks took longer. Just like his brother, he was good at hiding, despite being huge.Axe slowly meandered down the halls, scanning the sand, walls, and shadows. At one point he stopped and looked behind him at the group of kids curiously following. He looked at them, looked at his surroundings, and then just looked confused.“Not a lot to go on with dis one,” he muttered and laughed slightly. Then he looked at the kids again. “Wha’ were we doin’ again?”“Huh?!” Chara’s face twisted in disbelief. “What do you mean? We’re looking for Crooks! Duh!”Axe’s lone eyelight shrunk in panic, but he took in the calm looks on the kids’ faces and took a deep breath. Crooks was fine. He wasn’t hurt or lost. The kids just needed him for something. If anything, this was good. His brother was making friends.“M’kay.” Axe went back to swimming. He looked in all the obvious places, and when he still didn’t see Crooks, he thought things through again. Together with kids, searching for someone trying not to be found...
Oh. Dis’s a game. I get it.
He started searching more seriously, but the kids became concerned when he repeatedly looked in the same spots.“Are you okay, Axe?” Asriel swam up next to him.Axe moved his eyelight down without turning his head. “Why? M’ I repeatin’ stuff?”“Yeah…”“Dat happens sometimes. Don’t worry ‘bout it.”“Do you forget things a lot?” Chara knocked their knuckles lightly against the side of their head. “Is it ‘cause of that big hole in your head?”Axe smiled, “Yeah. Sorry if it gets annoyin’. Can’t really help it. On dat note, how long we been at dis?”“About half an hour?” Asriel offered.“Alright, Imma call it. Bro! I give up! Come out!”Distantly, they heard a reply. “Then it is a tie!” After a minute, Crooks appeared before them, beaming. “We have each won one round, brother. I couldn’t find you either.”“Where were you?” Chara demanded.“On the roof,” Crooks smiled and pointed up. “The sun is awful, but I knew Axe would wait to search there last because of it. So as long as he just searched inside over and over and nobody else decided to look there, my hiding spot would be secured!” Crooks' proud smile became bashful. “Sorry for exploiting your forgetfulness, brother.”“S’ fine,” Axe shrugged. “M’ tired tho. Gonna take a nap.”“Aw, but we had so many more games planned!” Blueberry whined.“You go rest, brother,” Crooks said gently. He smiled down at Blue, “I would love to play more games!” With Axe and Crooks helping where they could, Asgore and Alphys were able to finish building the new rooms in a few days.The mersharks really were behaving themselves. Or rather, Axe was a lot less trouble than Undyne had expected him to be. He slept a lot of the day. He would work, unlike Sans, but only when he had to. Otherwise, he rested as much as possible. Several of the more observant people had pieced together that it was probably due to his injury, rather than laziness.Crooks, of course, did his best to help out around the den. He did odd-jobs, chores, cooking, and cleaning. Everybody loved the food he made so much that he’d reduced Toriel to prep-chef. She was more than fine with it, though she did still occasionally attempt to learn Crooks’ technique, to no avail. He was happy to re-teach her every time she asked, though.Neither of the brothers went outside, like, ever.“This isn’t the deep, you know,” Blackberry lectured Crooks. He would have said it to Axe too, but he was sleeping. Actually, there was no point since Axe would just forget. “You can go outside. I would even encourage learning the layout of your surroundings.”The gentle giant wrung his hands. “I would rather not. The sunlight makes my bones sting, not to mention I can’t see anything with all the glare.”He rolled his eyes and folded his arms, “So go out at night.”“But I sleep at night.” Crooks sounded so innocent.Blackberry sighed in exasperation, and Crooks ducked his head. He spoke up as if trying to appease the meroctopus child.“Um, I think Axe sometimes leaves the den at night.”Black frowned. “He does?”“Y-yes. Sometimes he takes too many naps and can’t sleep when he’s supposed to.”“He really does nap excessively--worse than dad,” Blackberry put his hands on his hips. “I thought he was the proactive type at first, to be honest.”“Well, he certainly is, but he’d rather sleep if there isn’t anything in particular that needs doing. His injury takes a lot out of him, and he gets more forgetful when he isn't well rested.”“Hm. I’m out of the den a lot these days, but even I’ve noticed that.” Blackberry frowned and pondered things. “If magic won’t do it, we could only ask a human doctor for help, but we still don’t know if you two can even go to the surface.”Blackberry looked at Crooks firmly. “Find out about that, would you? It could be important information in an emergency.”Crooks wrung his hands. “Emergency? What kind of emergency?”Blackberry sighed and folded his arms. “It isn’t like I had anything in particular in mind. But we have friends on the surface. They’re willing and able to help. You can find them by the docks two hours that way. Their names are Edge and Papyrus. They’re land skeletons.”“I… I will remember that.”“You’d better, because your brother won’t.” Any info they needed Axe to remember, they'd learned to pass along to Crooks. Crooks seemed to never forget anything.Speaking of the kindly horrorshow, he smiled with a slight wince and changed the subject. “You’re probably heading out again, but Blueberry asked me to pass on a message if I saw you.”“What message?”“You’re invited to a race with him.”Blackberry’s grin twisted maliciously. “Hmph! He’s cocky as usual.” The child turned and shot down the hall. “Blue! Where are you? I accept your challenge, and I will not lose again!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Axe slept most of the day away. It wasn’t until after dinner that he was awake and Crooks had some free time. The gentle horrorshow sought his brother out at the earliest opportunity.
“Brother, Blackberry asked us to find out whether we can breathe air or not.”
Axe responded immediately, “We can’t.”
Crooks was so surprised by the instant shutdown that he couldn’t help but ask again. “A-are you sure?”
Axe examined his brother unblinkingly and nodded. “We can’t. I already tried it. Why’s it matter?”
Crooks hunched his shoulders and wrung his bony hands. “Ah, well, I suppose it would matter if either of us wanted to go see a doctor on the surface.”
Axe’s mind usually worked pretty fast, despite stuttering inconveniently, but he felt it slowing down to a crawl. He couldn’t wrap his skull around why he’d suddenly broken into a cold sweat.
“... Doctor?”
“They… I’m to understand that they heal people without using magic. It’s possible they could do something about my teeth and your head injury.”
Axe’s sockets went wide, and the chills he was feeling intensified. “... M’ gonna go see how long we can hold our breath.”
Axe flicked his tail, transitioning from a ready-for-another-nap posture to a sprint in no time flat. Crooks found himself staring at bubbles and spun around in confusion.
“Axe, where are you going? It’s still light out!”
Crooks swam after his brother, wincing when the afternoon sunlight touched him. It wasn’t like he
couldn’t
be out in the light, but the stinging sensation really wasn’t comfortable.
At first, Crooks wasn’t sure it wasn’t just another defect of his, but Axe felt it too.
Crooks finally hid in the shade of the rock outcropping Axe had crawled up onto. He swam up enough to poke his head out of the water. As long as his gills were submerged, he could breathe just fine.
Crooks squinted his already small eye sockets to offset the glare, trying to see more of his brother than a blob of grey and red.
“Axe. Don’t just swim off like that. Couldn’t you have waited until night?”
“Pull me in if I pass out, alright bro?”
“I certainly will, but please don’t push yourself that hard!”
“We’ll do ya next.”
“I have to do it too?”
“Don’t make me keep talkin’.”
Oh, right. Axe was testing how long he could hold his breath. Crooks supposed… he wanted them both to do it because there was no guarantee they could hold their breath for the same amount of time. There tended to be some unity among a species, but the mershark brothers had both been through a lot.
Crooks did his part by keeping track of how much time passed. Eventually, Axe rolled over and dove off the rock, and the first thing he asked was, “How long?”
“Two hours,” Crooks smiled. “Are you feeling alright? Are you lightheaded?”
“Lighter den it used ta be,” Axe chuckled. “M’ fine. Didn’t push it too hard.” Axe pointed up at the rock. “Yer turn. I’ll pull ya in if ya pass out, but ya’d better keep time.”
“Can’t we wait until it’s a little darker?”
“No.” If they ever went to the surface for medical treatment, it would be during the day when doctors were awake, right? If the presence or absence of sunlight changed the length of time they could hold their breath, this was the more important measurement to know.
Crooks just sighed and accepted it. Axe was… probably actually crazy, but he always thought things through. Crooks had never seen him make a wrong decision, so he trusted even the choices that seemed arbitrary.
Crooks climbed up onto the rock and laid facing the water so the sun wasn’t in his eyes. He couldn’t make out Axe’s skull among the glittering reflections on the water.
“You’re watching, right?”
“Mhm.”
“Good. Please don’t fall asleep.”
“I’ll be right here, bro. I promise.”
By Crooks’ count, he held his breath for two hours and ten minutes. When he started feeling lightheaded, he began scooting toward the water. Chipped bony fingers grabbed his wrist tightly and pulled him under in an instant.
Crooks winced at the sensation of water running over his dried-out gills. “Thank you, brother.”
“No prob. How long didja make it?”
“Two hours, ten minutes: that’s ten minutes longer than you.”
“Dat’s good. Good job, bro.”
“Nyeh heh,” Crooks laughed shyly. “So, shall we go back now? We left without saying anything. Somebody might be worried.” There was a hint of hopefulness in Crooks’ voice.
“Yeah, I bet dey miss ya,” Axe grinned. “Let’s stay a lil’ longer tho.”
“What for? It’s nearly bedtime, brother.”
“Wanna show ya somethin’.”
Crooks was sleepy and skeptical, but he stayed with Axe for a while longer. Axe kept his one eyelight fixed on the surface. He swam up and poked his head through, grinned, and went back under. “M’kay, come see.”
Crooks followed Axe up and looked around for what he was supposed to be seeing. Axe seemed to be looking straight up, so Crooks tipped his head back.
“Oh! That’s pretty.” Crooks smiled at the moon’s cool glow. “What is it? Some kind of flying jellyfish?”
Axe glanced over where Crooks was looking. “Dat’s a rock. S’ called da moon.”
“A floating rock?” Crooks tilted his head. “But rocks sink.”
“Dat one’s special.” Axe pointed up at another section of the night sky. “Da little ones’re balls of fire. I dunno what dat means, but dey’re beautiful.”
Crooks frowned and squinted, following Axe’s finger.
“... What little ones?”
Axe froze then slowly turned to look at Crooks. “... Whadaya see up dere?”
“Um,” Crooks squinted his sockets more. “A dark grey sky and the moon?”
Axe was quiet for a minute. “S’ more like a black sky an’ a bunch a bright specks.”
“Oh. I can’t quite make them out from here.”
“Mm.” Axe took a second, then shrugged. “Well, dat’s all I wanted ta show ya. Ya can go back n’ sleep now.”
When Crooks was gone, Axe crawled back onto the rock, lying down to watch the stars from the best possible angle. He thought the sky was something amazing. During the day, it was something hot and bright for creatures that liked the shallows, and at night it was cold and dark like the deep, but still oh so pretty.
He reached up and slowly, carefully dug his claws into his dead eye socket, scraping and scratching at the inside until his mind went white. His manic grin stretched wider with the pain.
Crooks was going to get to see the sky this way too, or Axe would personally tear down every star until there was nothing left.
But the moon could stay.
***
Today was a special day. Today, the whole school was going on a field trip to the surface. Well, almost the whole school. Crooks and Axe were staying behind to guard the den.
A week had gone by since the battered Mersharks had joined the school, and they had been on their best behavior the whole time. (Some might be inclined to complain that Axe’s best behavior was him doing nothing but sleeping, but he
was
behaving himself.) It was clear that the brothers wanted to make this work, and that had done well to increase the others’ confidence in them. They had a budding relationship of trust.
The arrangement actually worked out nicely. The sun stung the mersharks, they couldn’t breathe air, and they didn’t have legs, so they were completely unsuited to the surface. Thus, they didn’t even want to go. It was nice that nobody who wanted to come had to sit out while the rest went above the water to have fun.
After a long swim, everyone was gathered in front of the docks. Before they surfaced, Sans turned around to lay down some important reminders.
“We can only carry a few people at a time, so when it isn’t your turn, don’t wander out of sight of the docks. It’s fine to chat with people and take pictures, but don’t let anyone besides Red, Stretch, Blackberry, Edge, and Papyrus carry you anywhere.”
Before letting the children go up, Toriel and Asgore wanted to see the surface for themselves. They were both pretty large mer, so Stretch and Blackberry couldn’t really help carry them. Undyne and Alphys would pose the same problem later. Red had a long day ahead of him. Thankfully the surface was rather cool in the fall, so at least he wouldn’t turn into calamari on the hot pavement.
“Oh my!” Toriel brushed her wet fur out of her eyes. This was her first time experiencing dripping. It was disconcerting how similar it felt to bleeding, but she quickly gathered that she wasn’t in any danger. Though her wet fur clinging to her body wasn’t a very pleasant sensation, not to mention she felt positively sluggish.
Red was going to voice his usual complaints about coming to the surface, but his train of thought derailed when he looked down at the co-founder of his school. She looked wrong. Like a wet cat. And she looked grumpy about it. Red got stuck somewhere between shock and laughter, and he just stared at her.
Toriel was to busy dealing with this new experience to notice Red, but she clearly heard laughter from just behind them.
“
Mom!
Oh my god, you look ridiculous!”
Toriel whipped her head around. Stretch had Chara in his arms and was standing on the dock, his head turned away in an armless shrug. She glared at him.
“Chara, dear, you were supposed to wait until I had decided it was safe. And you, Stretch, you are also at fault.”
He turned his head further, “She, uh, just kept nagging.”
“Whatever!” The willful kid beamed, “It’s obviously safe with Red here, and you
still
saw it before me. It’s fine, right? I wanna look around!”
Toriel opened her mouth, but before she could respond, Blackberry poked his head out of the water.
“Stretch! I only looked away for a second! What do you think you’re doing up there?” He looked down to where the water obscured their vision, “And for stars’ sake stop poking me you infernal creature!” He snapped his head to the soggy goat woman. “Miss Toriel, Frisk is being a pest!”
Suddenly, there was splashing from the direction of the beach, and five heads turned to see little Blueberry crawling onto the sand and grinning like a fool. Asriel followed shortly behind him. The little goat mer lunged forward and grappled Blueberry around his waist.
“You can’t! It isn’t our turn!”
He spotted everyone staring at him and gasped in embarrassment. “H-hi, mom.”
Toriel finally just held her head and let out a deep sigh. “It would appear there is no stopping them. Red, dear, would you set me down and go fetch Asgore? It would appear I am needed to supervise things.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Things were moving too fast up here for him anyway.
Red set Toriel on the edge of the docks and lowered himself back into the water. It was chaos down below as well. Undyne was playing with MK by throwing him like a torpedo and racing to receive him in a bizarre solo game of catch. The kid was giggling hysterically. Alphys was taking pictures and posting them to social media, “Aerodynamic… thumbs up… winky face.”
Frisk was bothering Blackberry to take her up to the surface, and since they were nonverbal, it was a lot of poking and prodding. The victim of their stubbornness looked about ready to bite their face off.
“Do not
test
me, you absolute vermin! This is for your own safety!” Frisk reached out fearlessly and gave him a good poke on the cheek. “IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SAFE, I CAN OBLIGE! Do it one more time,
I
dare
you
!”
Red looked back and forth between the troublesome groups, then looked for Sans and Asgore. They were just watching and letting this happen. Asgore looked like he was amused by the lively young people, but Sans’s lazy grin just said, “meh.”
Holy shit does that mean
I
have to do it?
Red gulped and started sweating. Diffusing things… uh, one looked like a confrontation, but the other was more of a game? How, uh… What would be the best way to… Oh, fuck it.
“Can you guys fucking not?”
It came out as mostly a growl because he was stressed and frustrated, and it stopped everybody in their tracks. Including Undyne. Sans picked that moment to step in, teleporting to catch MK before the baby could fly off into open waters.
Even while she was trembling in place, Alphys managed to shoot off a short tweet: ‘Oops, we’re in trouble. Teehee~.’
Red had managed to put a stop to the chaos, but he didn’t know where to go from there. His expression crumpled into panic now that everyone was looking at him, and he shot a look at Sans. The lazy mermaid chuckled.
“Okay, looks like plan A isn’t working. Everybody just get up on the beach and we’ll figure things out from there.”
“Aw, sweet!” Undyne swam over to retrieve her kid and her mate and bolted for the shore.
Blackberry glared at Frisk. “Do not think you will get whatever you want just by throwing up a fuss. It’s pathetic.”
Frisk shot him a grin, ‘You love me.’
“I told you this isn’t your accomplishment! Don’t look so satisfied!”
He begrudgingly carried Frisk up to go find Chara and Stretch. Red looked at Asgore.
“Yer, uh, Tori wants you.”
“Alright,” the old mer chuckled, “let’s see what all this fuss is about.”
Red set Asgore next to Toriel on the docks while he was still absolutely pouring seawater off of himself.
“Oh my,” he slicked his hair back and blinked a few times.
“My thoughts exactly,” Tori smiled, holding his hand. “It does get a little better as time passes, though.”
Red started fidgeting with his hands, feeling like a third wheel.
“Psst. Hey.” A familiar voice gave him something to focus on. He looked down and saw Sans grinning up at him, his face just barely poking up above the waves. “Do I get to come up too, or what?”
“Shit! ‘Course!”
Red pulled up his mate and held him in what was more of a hug than a carry. Everyone was hopping around on the beach like fucking lunatics, but Sans was always so relaxed. It grounded him. Before Red realized it, he had gone from an anxious mess to purring like a radiator. Gotta love his meroctopus mood swings. What would he do without this lazy little fish around to give him an up-swing every now and then?
It took practically no time for the land creatures to realize there were a dozen mer monsters having a party on the beach (thank you, Alphys, for broadcasting that to the whole fucking world), and they gathered with remarkable speed to take pictures and offer free snacks.
There was also a bit of chatting and cultural exchange. A human man showed Undyne his tattoos and explained the concept.
“Whoa! So it’s like a battle scar except only non-wusses can have them? That’s super neat, dude! Hey, check out this scar I got fighting a swordfish!”
Alphys had found her crowd.
“Y-you like M-mew Mew Kissy Cutie? I’ve seen both seasons and the special release films a-at least three times!” She patted the sand excitedly with her fins. “I-I have a Twitter! W-we can follow each other! It’ll be great! Like pen pals, right?”
Toriel and Asgore were treating this like the vacation it was and enjoying the local foods.
“So this is hot food.” Toriel chewed on a meat skewer given to her by a cat monster. “Sans and the others are always talking about it. I can see the appeal.”
“Perhaps we could get a stove for the den,” Asgore thought aloud. “That fire is a rather beautiful thing. I would like to take some back with us.”
The cat monster looked distressed. “Fire? Underwater? Dude, I hate to break this to you…”
The kids were being kids. Chara and Frisk were eagerly following Blueberry’s lead, posing for the cameras. Stretch and Blackberry were dragged along, but they were tolerating it. Asriel was shy at first, but he was quickly warming up to it. The cute little goat quickly became a crowd favorite, especially once his fur started drying off and became fluffy.
MK had found a crab and was dancing along with it. People were filming every second of it.
Sans watched everyone from a distance while he was held by a purring Red. Everybody was having a good time, so he decided to call the vacation part of this trip a success.
There were some people noticeably missing though.
Sans pulled out his phone and texted Edge ‘yo. where u at?’
He got three rapid-fire replies almost immediately. Edge and Papyrus were good about that.
‘I am at the city limits. People are driving in from everywhere and I have to keep it under control.’
‘Papyrus and Rus will be there to greet you shortly.’
‘I really wish you had told me ahead of time that you were going to do this.’
Sans furrowed his brow and scrolled up through his messages just to be sure. Then he replied, ‘we told you we were bringing everyone here for a vacation.’
‘Yes. However you did
not
tell me you were going to post it all over social media. You people know you’re famous, right?’
‘whoops, sorry. that was alphys.’
‘I know. I lectured her first and she blocked me.’
‘wait, she blocked you?’
“It happens a lot. She usually unblocks me by the next morning.”
Well if Edge wasn’t upset about it, Sans would let it slide.
After a few dozen more minutes, a red convertible pulled up on the beach. The guards let it right on through the barricade and queue because, of course, it was their captain’s husband. Papyrus got out and took Rus out of the baby seat. He carried blanket-wrapped bundle in one arm and a plastic shopping bag with the other. The cheerful land skeleton called out pleasant greetings to everyone as he passed by. He had to stop for longer when he reached the docks, since Toriel wanted to see the baby and be properly introduced.
“Papyrus, I presume.”
“Yes! I’m impressed you got it right on the first try. I do believe we neglected to send any photographs your way.”
“You text the way you speak, so it was not difficult to piece together.”
“I’ve heard plenty about you, lady Toriel, but not that you are proficient at puzzles. We absolutely must meet up again to solve some together!”
Toriel smiled sweetly. “That sounds wonderful, Papyrus. I only hope I don’t disappoint you.” Now that her fur was dry and fluffy, the surface wasn’t so bad. She wouldn’t be so against coming back at some point.
Papyrus excused himself and walked up to Sans and Red, holding out the small shopping bag.
“So sorry I'm late, but I finished that errand for you.”
“No problem. Thanks.”
Sans took the bag and peeked inside. It contained a box with another waterproof phone inside and a solar charger. They were for Axe. He had requested a phone of his own to take notes with because of his memory issues, and since the mershark brothers were guarding the den so everyone else could have a vacation, Sans thought it would make a nice thank you gift or souvenir or whatever.
“Is Edge still tied up?”
Papyrus smiled apologetically and nodded. “He said he would leave things to his subordinates once the situation stabilizes.”
Well, that was
if
it stabilized. Alphys had accidentally made a mess of things.
“People get really excited about mer monsters, huh?” Sans said absently.
“They really do. I suppose it’s no wonder though. Land and ocean creatures have had very little contact for hundreds of years. There are all kinds of stories floating around.”
“Yeah? Anything interesting?”
Papyrus held his chin with his free hand. “Not really. It’s all nonsense from what I’ve experienced. There are the expected stories about mer monsters drowning or saving land monsters, stories about gaining immortality by eating a mermaid’s tail, tales of giant meroctopuses sinking ships, of lamias stealing people as mates, mermaids luring sailors to their deaths with beautiful songs, and even rumors about gods living deep underwater. Something to do with life starting in the ocean, I think.”
“Wow, uh, it’s a pretty mixed batch when it comes to quality, huh? Some of those are garbage.”
“They’re just rumors,” Papyrus shrugged. “It would be silly to believe them. Then again, there are humans who didn’t believe in mer monsters at all until you two appeared.”
It was interesting to Sans. There were rumors about different kinds of mer monsters underwater as well, but they were far less… mystical. It was mostly things like ‘this type is dangerous’ or ‘that type eats people’.
“Well, enough of that talk. You all are here to relax and have fun! Is there anything at all I can do to contribute?”
Sans glanced down at the beach and saw pretty much everyone gathered around Papyrus’s car.
“I think maybe they want a ride.”
Papyrus looked over his shoulder and grinned. “Nyeh heh! I understand.” He gave Rus to Toriel to watch over and jogged back to his car. “Alright! I can take four people at a time! Children first!”
Edge did eventually join up with them. It was slightly ominous, though, the conversation that happened when Sans jokingly asked him what took him so long.
"I've taken care of everything up here."
"Lots of pesky tourists, huh?"
"No."
He wouldn't say anything more even when pressed, but at least whatever it was had been taken care of? Apparently?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After seeing off Sans and the rest of his group, Edge helped the other guards disperse the crowds and then returned home to Papyrus and their child.
“Oh, you’re just in time,” Papyrus smiled in relief while bouncing a stressed-out skeleton baby. “He’s already hungry again and I can’t nurse him anymore today.”
Edge shrugged off his jacket and hung it up in the entranceway. “Alright, hand him over then.”
He took Rus to the living room and sat down in a comfortable armchair. A vibrant red soul floated out of Edge’s chest, and he held it delicately while pretending it to Rus like a bottle.
The baby naturally closed his mouth around whatever part he grabbed first, clumsily holding the sides with his tiny hands. He relaxed as safe and familiar magic slowly filtered into his little body.
Baring his soul made Edge incredibly nervous, and it was best to nurse a monster child with positive emotions, so Papyrus did most of the nursing, but they could each only give so much in a day.
When the baby stopped absorbing the magic, Papyrus appeared to put him down for a nap. Edge, who was left alone, took out his phone. He unblocked a certain number, shot off a text, then blocked the number again and deleted it from his history.
‘Tighten your damn leash.’
He barely had time to put his phone down before he got a text from an unknown number.
‘They weren’t mine, but I can pull some strings special for you.’ Followed by another before he could block the new number, ‘So when do I get to see my nephew?’
‘Never.’ Edge wasn’t surprised he’d found out about Rus, but he was far from happy about it.
‘Heheh. Always such a hardass.’
Edge quickly blocked the number with a scowl, only to get one last text from yet another unknown number.
‘Yeah, love you too, coz.’
“Oh go jump off a bridge. Prick.”
***
Axe had been working hard for several days to learn how to read. He had asked Stretch to help him—since the young meroctopus was simultaneously available and patient—and they had found a good learning app for it. At this point, Axe’s main problem was that he had to relearn the same letters over and over. He was on his phone a lot playing with the app and doing just that.
For the most part, Crooks naturally ignored the existence of smartphones, but he had finally gotten a little curious now that his brother’s face was buried in one every hour that he wasn’t eating or sleeping.
“What are these ‘phone’ things people keep poking at and burying their noses in?”
Undyne looked up at him and raised her brows. “You don’t know about smartphones yet? Why the hell did you wait so long to ask, man!” She swiped Alphys’s phone and gave the startled dinosaur a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, babe. Lemme borrow this for a bit.”
“B-be… just be careful with it!”
Undyne grinned widely, “Of course!”
She grabbed Crooks’ wrist and pulled him into another room where it wasn’t so noisy.
“Okay, look. These things can do a lot of neat stuff, and you can only get them on the surface.”
Crooks examined the object’s sleek surface. “I believe you. It doesn’t look like something from the ocean.” He watched Undyne press the screen a few times until the image on it changed. “What is it for?”
“Well, the most important thing is that people who have one of these can talk to each other no matter how far away they are. But you can also watch cool videos, play games, google stuff, and take pictures!”
The mershark furrowed his brow. “I don’t really understand.”
“Lemme just show you! It’s faster that way anyway. Watch, I’ll take a picture.”
She held the phone up for a quick selfie and turned the screen to Crooks. “See? It’s me, right? Isn’t that awesome!”
It was. The frozen image was so lifelike. Even with his poor eyesight, Crooks could see that the image was perfect when he brought the phone screen closer to his face.
“Absolutely. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s like a smaller you is frozen in this little thing.”
Undyne wrapped her arm around Crooks’ shoulders and turned the camera sideways. Crooks could vaguely see little mirrors of their outlines moving as if copying them. The screen flickered as she took a quick photo of them both.
“It can hold, like, hundreds of these, probably. Here, you try. Just press that white circle to take the picture.”
Undyne pushed the phone into Crooks’ hands, but he didn’t take a picture with it. Instead, out of curiosity, he tapped on the photo she’d just taken and brought the screen close enough to see clearly. Crooks looked at the photograph and froze solid.
Heavens. Oh stars above. Was that what he
looked
like? Undyne’s likeness was perfect, so his must have been too, but... It was difficult to process.
He understood now why people stared when they met him, and why they winced when he smiled. It was actually harder to understand how the people in his new school could interact with him so casually. Crooks himself wouldn’t want to look at a face like his.
Undyne quickly noticed that her sweetheart of a buddy wasn’t saying much, and she saw quite a painful expression when she looked over at him. Her own satisfied smile dropped away.
“Hey, what’s the matter, buddy?”
Crooks snapped out of his thoughts and forced on a smile. “Nothing is wrong. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Crooks, man, don’t lie to me.”
Crooks held the phone against his chest as if to hide it and hung his head. “This is the first time I’ve seen myself,” he admitted quietly.
Undyne’s eyes went wide.
“Oh! Uh… man.” She rubbed the back of her head. “That’s awkward. You good, dude?”
“I’m not sure,” he said softly.
Undyne groaned a little, deep in her throat.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Crooks. It doesn’t matter what you look like. What’s important is what’s on the inside! And you are literally the nicest person I know!”
He smiled half-heartedly. “Thank you for the encouragement, Undyne.” But, a moment later, he was rubbing tears out of his eye sockets before the current could catch them. “I’m hideous.”
“What? Dude, that’s not true.”
“Yes it is.”
Undyne was hard-pressed to lie to Crooks. Instead, she backpedaled and rubbed her neck. “You get used to it, though. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
“‘Get used to it’, huh?”
This clearly wasn’t helping, but Undyne didn’t know what else she could say to cheer Crooks up.
“I dunno what to tell you, man. I’m sorry.”
Crooks wiped the last of his tears away and put on a calm smile. “You didn’t do anything to apologize for. Honestly, there are so many worse things that could happen to a person; I’m silly for getting upset over this.”
Undyne grinned and slapped Crooks’ back, causing him to lurch forward a little. “That’s the spirit! Exactly!”
Crooks laughed a little and resettled himself. “So why did my brother want one of these? I doubt it’s to take pictures of himself.”
“I think he wanted it to take notes. You know, something he can look back at in case he forgets something important.”
“So it’s going to do my job for me?”
Undyne blinked at the tinge of sarcasm she’d heard from Crooks practically for the first time, then she guwaffed.
“Fuhuhuhuhu! In theory! You should probably learn to read, ‘cause I don’t think Axe is gonna be able to keep anything in that broken skull of his. He’ll need your help when he can’t read his own notes.”
Crooks chuckled reservedly. “Ah, yes. I had better.
***
Sans watched Crooks do his self-imposed chores. He looked as cheerful as usual, but nothing of this nature ever slipped past Sans’s level 100 social skills.
“Something eating ya?”
Crooks smiled and shook his head. “No, nothing at all. I’m perfectly fine.”
Sans hummed. “Well, do you wanna talk about this ‘nothing’? It helps to get it off your chest.”
Crooks flatly gave him the side-eye, “Am I that obvious?” Sans shrugged and Crooks sighed, “Undyne was showing me how pictures worked, and I saw my own face for the first time. I don’t know how the rest of you can stand it.”
“Oh, that.” Sans chuckled softly. “Yeah, Red doesn’t like the way he looks either.”
Crooks looked up in surprise. “Really? He doesn’t strike me as the type to worry about things like that.”
Sans smiled and raised a brow teasingly. “Why not?”
Crooks wrung his hands. “Because he never worries about himself.”
Sans blinked and his smile dropped briefly. “Huh. Good answer.” The lazy blue mermaid laid back and shrugged. “And I guess you weren’t there when Toriel and I showed Axe his head wound for the first time.”
Crooks’ surprise deepened and worry seeped in. “Oh, um, h-how did he take it?”
“He laughed, cracked some jokes, and then shrugged it off.”
Crooks frowned and curled his fists. “That idiot. It’s a serious wound and he should take it seriously!”
“Yeah,” Sans chuckled. “But he’s kinda like you that way. I’m pretty sure it was just a front.”
Crooks’ expression fell to regret in an instant. “Oh…”
Sans eyed him and then looked at the ceiling. “Anyway, the point is none of the rest of us are bothered by it, and we’re the only ones who have to look.” He winked. “What’re you worried about when you got the better end of the bargain?”
“That’s… quite a way to twist this. I’m not sure you’ve convinced me.”
Sans chuckled. “In that case, how about if I said it won’t keep you from making friends or finding a mate?”
“I’m pretty sure it almost did—the friends part, I mean. You all didn’t exactly react positively when my brother and I appeared.”
“Uh…” Sans smiled awkwardly. “And how would you react if giant strangers turned up in your den without warning?”
Crooks held his chin and looked at the ceiling. “I think I would start by offering them a place to sit and something to eat.”
Sans blinked, then smiled bitterly. “Of course you would.” Crooks was hard to convince, so he thought about it a little harder. “How about you go ask Axe about it? You’ll believe it’s fine if he says so, right?”
“Well, that’s true. My brother never lies about anything because he knows he’ll get caught. But I’m afraid to ask him for the same reason.” Crooks visibly wilted. “What if he tells me it really is that bad?”
Sans shrugged. “At this point, just ask him. I’m sure you’ll feel better.”
Sans knew Axe was smart. Sure, he was usually honest to a fault, but he would twist his words a little to protect his brother’s self-esteem, right?
He was invested now, so he followed Crooks to see how it went.
“Axe, can I ask you something?”
“Hm? Sure, bro.”
“Am I ugly?”
Axe gave his usual unblinking stare. “First, why?”
“He saw a picture of himself for the first time,” Sans said from a respectful distance.
Axe stared at the mermaid for a minute, then looked back at Crooks. He was quiet for a while, enough for Crooks to get nervous and start wringing his hands.
“... Do ya wan’ an objective answer, or my personal opinion?”
“Um, how about the objective one?” Crooks said unsurely.
Axe chuckled darkly. “Well, ya ain’t pretty. Yer teeth’re a mess, ya got small eyes, an’ ya slouch. ‘Sides dat, yer still way too damn skinny. Yer magic ain’t a very lively color, an’ up here, yer kinda freakishly big.”
Sans was baffled to the point that all his thoughts had ground to a halt. So much for protecting Crooks’ self-esteem! This was actually a disaster!
“But,” Axe continued, “none of dat’s yer fault. If anybody ever makes ya feel bad fer it, I’ll kill ‘em.”
Sans cleared his throat. “Right now, I think that’s you.”
Axe looked at Sans, then looked at Crooks hunched over and forcing a very small, sad smile while holding back tears.
“And, uh, in your... personal opinion?” he asked quietly.
“Yer size an’ color’re fine fer a mershark, I don’ care if ya slouch, an’ yer face don’t matter. ‘S gonna get fixed eventually anyway.”
Crooks was caught off guard enough that his negative thoughts flew away. “What do you mean it’s going to get fixed?”
Axe tilted his head. “M’ I forgettin’ somethin’? Weren’t we plannin’ on gettin’ yer teeth an’ eyes fixed so ya could see an’ eat?”
Crooks raised his brows. “Well… There was some hope that that might happen.”
“No hope about it. Dey’re gettin’ fixed. An’ if dey bother ya, we can make sure dey’re nice and pretty after.”
Sans looked at Crooks’ absolute, pleasant shock and chuckled. “Feeling better now?”
The mershark blushed. “It, it’s just a comforting idea. M-maybe we can do Red and Axe as well.”
Axe chuckled darkly. “Why? I got somethin’ on my face? Where?” He pointed at the hole in his skull. “S’ it here? Heh. I don’t need dis ta look pretty. How else’re people s’posed ta know m’ a total headcase?”
“I suppose they could just try talking to you,” Crooks replied in irritation, rolling his faint eyelights. Axe chuckled, and Sans was satisfied that their moods had been improved for now.
***
Undyne volunteered to help Toriel clean up after dinner. It wasn’t unheard of, but it was slightly uncommon. Because of that, the goat woman wasn’t very surprised when her assistant struck up a somewhat serious conversation.
“Hey, Tori? I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Oh?” Toriel looked over in fabricated surprise, then smiled warmly, “Is something troubling you, my friend?”
The look on the fish’s face was contemplative and worried. “I’ve been thinking. You remember how we called an ocean council to keep Red and his kids from getting attacked? Shouldn’t we do the same thing for Crooks?” She hesitated and rolled her eyes. “And for Axe, I guess.”
Toriel muffled a laugh at the fish mer’s continued grudge against their crooked sweetheart’s brother, then frowned at the seriousness of the issue.
“You think they could be hurt if we didn’t?”
Undyne nodded tightly. “We’re used to them already, and used to big scary-looking monsters in general, but I think most people would panic.”
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk to them about it. If they agree to participate and feel that it’s necessary, I will certainly call for another council.”
Axe looked up from his phone screen and stared uninterestedly, “Wha’s an ocean council?”
“It would basically be to introduce you two to all the nearby schools at once so that they know you’re with us,” Undyne waved her arms and explained. “We had one for Red and the kids after Blackberry was attacked.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Crooks smiled softly. “Axe and I almost never go outside.”
Axe nodded and added, “Da safest thing fer us is dat dey don’t even know we exist.”
“Are you sure?” Toriel asked. “Forcing yourselves to stay cooped up in here all the time sounds a little lonely.”
“Whyever would we be lonely?” Crooks smiled, “We have so many friends here.”
“Are you sure?” Toriel asked.
“Of course! Everyone here is the very best kind of friend.”
As another person who would be attending the council if it happened, Sans was listening from nearby. “The best kind of friend, huh?” the lazy mermaid chuckled. “What’s that?”
“The kind that doesn’t want to eat us, obviously.”
Sans was shaken by that cheerful response, and his usual calm expression dropped for a minute. He recalled that Crooks’ previous school had tried to eat him and that was why he and Axe had fought their way out of it.
“Jeez, Crooks,” Undyne said softly. “Try not to trip over the bar on your way out.”
“So we’re not calling an ocean council?” Sans asked. He personally though it would be a good idea, but if the involved parties were against it, that was that.
“No thanks,” Axe shrugged him off and went back to staring at his phone. He started typing something, presumably a note that they’d decided against holding an ocean council.
“But what if--” Undyne still tried to press the issue, but Toriel placed a furry hand on her shoulder.
“Now now, Undyne. They’ve said they don’t want to have one. For now, let’s just respect their wishes. If anything does happen in the future, we’ll bring the matter up again.”
“It’s because I don’t want anything to happen!” She gestured at Crooks, who twitched at the motion. “He’s too nice for that shit!”
“I appreciate your concern, Undyne,” Crooks smiled meekly. “I can tell you care. But it is a little hurtful that you’re so convinced I’d be attacked.”
A look of guilt flashed across the fish’s face, and she lowered her head. “B-because you’re a shark,” she murmured in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. Her volume picked back up when she turned tail, though. “Since you said no, make
sure
you stay safe, okay?!”
Crooks gave a little wave, and Axe chuckled. “She’s sure changed her tune, huh?”
“Well, for one of you,” Toriel jabbed, placing a hand on her hip and smiling in amusement.
“She’s still not so fond of you, Axe,” Sans added with a teasing grin.
Axe was being double-teamed, but his usual grin didn’t even twitch. If anything, his eye sockets lilted a little in contentment.
“Dat don’t matter.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The school had just finished eating dinner. While the others were scattering, chatting, or cleaning up, Axe went to peek outside to see how long it would be until he could go out for a bit of star gazing.His overblown eyelight fixed unblinkingly on a group of mermaids watching from a distance. They looked like they were pretending to be out on a hunt, but the act wasn’t nearly good enough to trick Axe. The fact that they were watching the den was made even more obvious by how they became agitated once Axe came into view.Toriel noticed Axe just floating around and left the cleaning to the kids while she went to check on him.“Is everything alright, Axe?”Honestly, she’d expected he was having one of his forgetful moments, but then he nodded his head out at the ocean, casting her attention there.“Who’re dey?”Toriel frowned and huffed. “Just some rude people. Do not worry, they will not risk breaking the rules of the ocean council to do anything bad.”“... Dat’s good.”Axe wasn’t put at ease by Toriel’s reassurance; he could sense the group’s bloodlust from here.“So wha’s deir problem?” He needed more information. Mermaid culture was still unfamiliar to him, and he couldn’t take any risks without investigating things first.Toriel sighed. “They are afraid of Red and his children, and they are too stubborn to learn better.”“Racists, huh?”“That is one way to put it.” It had been bothering her for a while so Toriel accidentally let some of her tiredness show, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I do not imagine they are very happy to see you here either. Perhaps we should have called that ocean council after all.” The goat mermaid took a deep breath and locked her hands together. “Please do be careful. It would be better if you and Crooks did not encounter those people directly.”Toriel turned back to the kitchen and Axe glared oppressively the spies until they swam off. He would leave them alone for now, but his fuze was short. They had better mind their manners. And their distance. *** At this point, it had been almost a month since Axe and Crooks had joined the school. They had adapted quite a bit better than most of the other members had been expecting. Perhaps because they were creatures who were accustomed to living in groups. The mermaids were no longer concerned that the mersharks would do bad things, and instead, they were worried that bad things would happen to them. Toriel approached Red with one such concern.“I must ask, aside from the obvious, do Axe and Crooks appear healthy for mersharks?”Red stopped building the trap he was working on and looked down at the goat mom skeptically.“Define obvious.”The worried woman clasped her hands in front of her waist. “I thought they were eating better after coming here, but they still look malnourished to me. I suppose I am hoping they naturally appear that way.”Red looked back down at his work and fiddled with a few parts.“Nah, they’re starvin’.”Toriel frowned at his nonchalance. “But how can that be? We have more than enough food, and they have been eating regular meals.”Red shrugged and continued what he was doing. “I dunno what ta tell ya. They just ain’t eatin’ more than they’re usin’.”“Could you explain it in more detail?”“Uh, well… For example, Crooks only eats as much as he has ta, and he uses plenty of magic cooking for everyone. I’m not surprised he ain’t put on any weight.”Toriel had to agree there. She hadn’t exactly crunched the numbers for Crooks’ magical intake and output, but it sounded like a reasonable conclusion.“But what about Axe? I do not think I have seen him ever use magic.”Red abruptly stopped moving his hands. He turned his gaze to Toriel with the cautious look of someone who suspected they were being pranked. “... What?”Toriel furrowed her brow. “What do you mean ‘what’? Did I say something strange?”Red examined Toriel’s expression and body language intently, but he couldn’t really glean anything from it, and it frustrated him. “You can’t be serious, right?”She raised an eyebrow, “I assure you, I am being serious. I do not understand why you would think otherwise.”“Because it’s plain as day that Axe’s constantly usin’ magic?”“What exactly about that is plain as day, I have no idea. How can you tell he’s using magic?”“‘Cause his soul is like that.”“Like what?”“That.”Red gestured weirdly with his hands and Toriel frowned in confusion.“... Well what kind of magic is it?”“How the fuck should I know?”Toriel frowned. This settled absolutely nothing, and the conversation was going nowhere. Talking to this man should be used as a test to measure how adept one’s communication skills are, she thought in mild frustration. I do not know how Sans manages it. Speak of the mermaid, Sans drifted by at about that moment.“Hey Red, can you convince Axe to stop napping on my couch? There isn’t enough room for one of him, let alone both of us. I already asked him nicely a few times, but he keeps forgetting.”“Axe uses magic all the time, right Angel?” Red shot back.Sans blinked at the sudden topic change.“Uh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use magic, no. Why?”Red’s sharp teeth parted in shock, and he hung his head.“That is exactly what I told him,” Toriel said, “but he insists Axe is using magic constantly. Something about his soul?”Sans looked a little curious and turned his head back to Red. “Care to elaborate, big guy?”“I dunno how ta. S’ fuckin’ obvious.”Sans tilted his head. “Hm. How about we just ask him while you get him off my couch?”Red grunted, but he put down his trap and followed Sans to the couch. Axe was sprawled out on it with his head on one armrest and most of his tail hanging over the other. He didn’t come close to fitting, but apparently, it was comfy enough to justify the inconvenience.Axe was already used to the members of the school, so he didn’t wake up the moment others entered the room. He did, however, wake up when Red marked the couch with his magic. The mershark swam off of it reflexively, before his mind could even process what he was doing.As far as Sans could tell, Red just set a hand on the couch and startled Axe awake, so the following conversation was confusing to him.“Off limits?” Axe grinned tightly.“Quit forgettin’ already.”“Ya shoulda marked it in da first place if it bothers ya. M’ gonna forget shit.”Sans finally cut in. “What are you guys talking about? What’s marking?”Axe chuckled in amusement while Red looked mildly stunned.“Ya didn’t tell ‘im ‘bout it?”Red just stared at Sans, “Ya didn’t know about it?”Axe snorted, “Nothin’ here’s marked ‘cept fer what ya marked yerself. Dat didn’t tip ya off?” Axe shrugged while Red struggled to process the information. “Well, it don’t surprise me. Markin’ shit’s a threat. Don’t really fit wit’ mermaids, do it?”“So what is it?” Sans asked again.“Uh… it’s, well…” Red struggled to explain what was mostly an instinctual, non-verbal concept to him. “If somethin’s important, or if ya wanna protect it… keep it to yourself? Ya mark it, y’know?”Sans furrowed his brow and tried to reformat Red’s words into something sensible. “... Okay, I think I get what it’s for. It’s some kind of warning to others to stay away from your things, right?”Red nodded and smiled in relief, glad Angel could understand him.“But how do you mark something? And how do you tell if something’s been marked?”Red started sweating. “... Uh… ya just… do…”Axe waved his hand and stepped up to the plate. “S’ a kind of magic, like cookin’ or makin’ attacks. Ya put a lil’ of yer magic in somethin’ or someone. S’ thin, but s’ locked in so it pretty much never fuckin’ goes away. Den other people who’re used ta dat sorta thing can feel it. Even animals can tell if dey got good instincts.”“Huh.” Sans looked at Red curiously. “So what kind of things have you marked around here?”“Uh, well… My room, the entrance, you and the kids, and now the couch.”“You marked us ?” Sans examined Red with raised brows, and the octopus tried to make himself look smaller.Axe chuckled, “In da deep, s’ wha’ a mate’s s’posed ta do. Keeps things’ weaker den him from attackin’ ya.”“Didn’t you attack Blackberry?” Sans pointed out.“Yeah.” Nothing surprising about that, his face seemed to say.Sans could only chuckle helplessly, and he gave the fidgeting Red a pat.“Hey, I’m not mad, I’m just surprised. You say you marked us, but I can’t tell at all. Kinda figured I would notice something like that, y’know?” Yeah, me too, Red thought helplessly.“Well, we got kind of sidetracked,” Sans said, turning to Axe. “We wanted you to clear something up for us. Toriel and I say you don’t use magic, and Red says you use it all the time. Which is it?”Axe stared for a second. “Red’s got ya there.”“Seriously? What kind of magic is it?”Axe chuckled darkly, “Da kind dat’s none of yer business.”Sans smiled awkwardly and shrugged. “Well, as long as it isn’t anything bad, I guess I don’t need to know. More importantly, Toriel’s worried because you and Crooks aren’t gaining any weight.”Axe frowned for a second, then deliberately smiled. “She’s a nice lady.”Sans nodded. “Yep. So if you can’t use less magic for whatever reason, you should eat more. We have plenty of food here.”Axe’s smile wasn’t as wide as usual, and he scratched his cheek almost bashfully.“Well, I think so too, but… Nah, we'll give it a shot.”They tried to make the mersharks eat more. But it was impossible. Surprisingly, Axe had a sensitive stomach… or a sensitive whatever magic skeletons used to process food. He ate about as much as he usually did, tried to eat a little more, and had to stop because he got nauseous and almost threw up. Crooks initially refused to even attempt it and nearly cried when they tried to make him. The issue was put on hold for the time being. *** Fifteen people breathing. The current moved minutely with every rise and fall of their chests. Fifteen people breathing in the den.It was a quiet night, like they’d had every night since Axe and Crooks moved to this place. It seemed that creatures in the shallows preferred to sleep when it got dark. The ocean denizens became calm, and the current flowed in relaxing, lulling rhythms.It was easy to draw comfort from the sixteen people quietly breathing.… Sixteen?Axe’s eye sockets snapped open, and he swam out of his room into the hall. There was a wolf mermaid sneaking around inside their den, peeking into each room as he passed it. The intruder shivered, suddenly feeling like he was being watched, but he couldn’t see the ominous red ring glowing dimly behind his head.Axe stalked the intruder, twisting his tail ever so gently so that the current didn’t noticeably change. He couldn’t messily kill someone here—waking the school up to a murder scene was a no-go, and at the very least, he needed more to go on than trespassing as their crime. Well, Axe didn’t need much personally, but he was pretty well aware that the mermaids in his school wouldn’t be okay with wanton killing.The intruder stopped in front of Red’s room, looking grim, and quietly materialized a harpoon. Unseen behind him, Axe’s smile nearly split his skull.Obviously, Red wasn’t in any danger. As soon as an attack was made, he would wake up, and this weakling couldn’t kill him even if he managed to land the hit. But Axe saw him first, so he was his prey.That was why, before the intruder could throw his weapon, his neck was snapped, and he stopped thinking.Axe almost brought the body to the pantry without a second thought. Then he thought better and buried it in the sand outside. It wouldn’t be there for long.He checked out the surroundings, and there were two more mermaids sneaking around out there. They followed their friend in short order and were buried with their pal. With three kills under his belt, Axe snuck into Crooks’ room and woke him up.“Hey, bro.”“Axe?” Crooks sat up on his bed of kelp and rubbed his eye sockets. “What time is it?”“Late. I killed some people.”“What?!” To Crooks’ credit, he managed to shout in a whisper, knowing the others would be sleeping. “Not somebody we know, I hope!”“Nah. Jus’ some snakes. Couple outside. One snuck in an’ tried ta kill Red.”“How dreadful!”“Yep. Listen, dere’s some stuff goin’ on between Red an’ da outsider mermaids right now. Nobody can know dey were here. Help me get rid a dem quietly?”Crooks smiled shyly. “I’ve also heard about that ‘stuff’. Thank goodness he isn’t the one who killed them.”“Thank me,” Axe chuckled.Crooks rolled his eyes and stretched out his arms. “Yes, thank you, Axe. Now, show me where my ingredients are. We still have work to do.”Crooks followed Axe outside where they discretely cut up three bodies. Crooks properly cooked everything and, between two giant mersharks, the three little mermaids were easily disposed of, bones, scales, fur and all.“I’m not gonna keep any notes about dis,” Axe said. “M’ gonna forget sooner or later. S’long as ya don’t say nothin’, it’ll be like dey were never here. Den da others can’t get in any trouble.”Crooks smiled softly. “It does feel nice to be able to help them in some way. I just wish our methods weren’t so… antithetical to their values. I would rather not have to hide things from my friends.”“Don’t beat yerself up over it. We did somethin’ good.”Crooks smiled brightly, “Yes.” *** The next morning at breakfast, Toriel started up the conversation on Axe and Crooks’ health again.“I’ve been thinking about it. Perhaps rather than more food, we should try finding food with a higher nutritional value for you. Something with a high concentration of magic, perhaps?” Toriel suggested.Axe thought it was funny for some reason, and Crooks excused himself from the table. Regardless, they started feeding the mersharks surface food after that, since it was almost entirely magic, and their conditions finally started to improve. Crooks’ favorite was spider cider. He had his own sippy cup for it. Also, incidentally, Red had noticed a faint smell of blood outside of the den that morning, and it didn't escape his notice that Axe and Crooks ate a little less than usual for breakfast. But everyone in the school was alive and well, so he didn't really give a crap about what or who died that night. Fortunately, nobody else managed to connect the dots.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After Blueberry was born, it was hard for Sans to just up and follow Red around whenever he went out hunting. An important part of a young mermaid’s development was having at least one of their parents available pretty much whenever. They were a species who would get lonely easily.
And on that note, even someone as patient as Sans would eventually get tired of being apart from his mate. It was eating at him to the point where he even complained about it at dinner. Sans the skeleton complaining about something and actually being serious about it was an event about as rare as bubbles floating down, so the rest of the school immediately rearranged their schedules so that Red didn’t have any work to do for a week.
The big idiot put up a bit of a fight when he realized the others were banning him from working. Sans had to get in his face and tell him
why
it was happening before he got the picture.
“So… we’re leavin’ for a whole week?”
He looked skeptical at best, but Sans brought his face close and persuaded Red with a sultry smile, “The
two
of us are going to find somewhere
comfortable
where we can be
alone
for a while.”
Red couldn’t stop himself from blushing, and a short purr rolled out before he stopped it. “Wh-What about the kids?”
“They’ll be fine. They have a whole school to take care of them.” Sans held Red’s cheek in his little hand. “But your mate is lonely and wants to spend time with you.”
Red’s eyelights morphed into hearts. He just sat there, purring, curling and uncurling the tips of his tentacles. Sans tugged on Red’s shoulder gently to get him to leave the room. Toriel saw them from the entrance and clapped her hands together.
“So it looks like that is settled. Asgore and Undyne left to hunt just a moment ago.”
“Great. I guess we’ll leave now,” Sans nodded. Next to him, Red was still blushing, and his teeth were apparently welded shut. He grunted at Toriel and that was all she got for a goodbye.
“Have a safe trip,” the goat woman smiled and waved them off.
It was late fall at this point, So Sans and Red swam south to look for a vacation spot. They ended up at an archipelago where the water was a couple degrees warmer: pleasant for Sans; not unpleasant for Red. They picked an island with a small natural cave underneath and cleared it out of less intelligent sea life, claiming it as their vacation home.
Sans started exploring the shore beneath the waves. He picked up a large, round, green thing and looked at it curiously.
“One of these things? How far into the warm waters did we go?”
Red peeked over Sans’s shoulder and gave the strange item an unimpressed look. “What is it?”
“Coconut,” Sans replied. “They must be growing on this island.”
“Surface food?” Red leaned in to look closer. “S’ it taste good?”
“I dunno. They’re hard to open, so I’ve never had one. But this stuff was in some of the sweets Stretch brought home, so it must be edible.”
Red hummed and reached one hand over Sans’s shoulder, unceremoniously crushing the fruit in his claws. Some misty liquid dispersed into the water, and they were left with chunks of green rind and white flesh.
Sans chuckled. It was nice having Red around; there was no such thing as an obstacle for him.
As always, Red tasted the strange fruit first to make sure it was safe. It was kind of tough, and the flavor was meh in Red’s opinion. He treated it with green magic to at least make it softer before giving it to sans. Sans chewed a piece, looking thoughtful, then shrugged.
“Eh. At least I can say I’ve tried it now.”
Sans looked out along the shoreline and saw a few more coconuts scattered about.
“If it’s warm enough for these, it should be warm enough for Lamias,” he mused. “I wonder if we’ll see any of them?” Sans smiled humorously at Red, but the meroctopus just looked confused.
“Do you not know what a Lamia is?”
Red shook his head.
“It’s a mermonster with the lower half of a snake. They like really warm water, so we almost never see them around us.”
Red frowned in contemplation. “Lower half of a snake, huh? So those’re called Lamias.”
Sans raised his eyebrows. “So you
have
seen them?”
He nodded. “I think so. That was in the deep though. Saw a couple of ‘em harassin’ an Angler mer. Jus’ for a second though. They ran away when they saw me.”
Sans looked a little uncertain. “H-harassing? I didn’t think they were bullies. I didn’t know they could swim that deep either. Are you sure those were Lamias?”
“No,” Red replied honestly. “But they were mer with snake tails.” He blushed a little, “And it wasn’t the violent kinda harrassin’ neither.”
Sans blinked and then made an awkward face. “Yeah, that sounds a little more like Lamias.”
They had stuffed a bunch of food in their item boxes before leaving the den, so they didn’t have to hunt during this trip. Red was happy enough to cuddle on the sand with Sans until evening, then cuddle in the cave until morning, but by the second day, he was feeling restless. He wasn’t used to not doing things. In the past, he and Sans were always doing something when they hung out. Checking Red’s traps, usually.
“We gonna…
do
somethin’?”
“What do you wanna do?” Sans smiled coyly.
“Mm… hunt? Make traps?”
Sans’s smile twisted awkwardly. “Uh, we’re not supposed to work during our vacation.”
Red pouted, and Sans let out a small, sympathetic sigh.
“So the hell’re people s’posed to do on vacation?”
We could talk,
Sans swallowed the words before he could say them.
Heh, yeah right.
“How about we explore the islands then,” the little socialite suggested.
“Mm. Okay.”
Red carried Sans up onto the beach of the nearest island and looked curiously at the native flora. The surface here looked nothing like it did where Edge and Papyrus lived. Primarily, there was too much greenery.
Sans pointed up at a tall tree with a leafy feathered top. “Hey look, it’s more of those things.” Red looked up at the coconuts hanging off the tree and grunted in response. “I guess that’s where they come from.”
Sans’s eyelights flickered in thought. “Could we climb up there?” he asked slowly. “We’d be able to see most of the island from the top.”
Red hummed and gave the trunk an experimental tug with one tentacle. It had some sturdiness to it. He climbed up a few steps, but the trunk was thinner higher up. The whole thing bent into an arc and practically deposited Red back onto the sand. If he had let go right that second, the trunk probably would’ve been spared from snapping in half, but it couldn’t take the stress for more than that instant.
Red threw the severed tree trunk off of himself with a dissatisfied growl and began untangling himself from his many limbs. Naturally, Sans had been carefully protected in his arms the whole while.
“Alright, I’m just gonna teleport to the top of that one,” Sans pointed.
“Hey, wai—!” Red started to protest, but the little fish vanished from his arms. He crawled over to the tree Sans had indicated and frantically searched the leaves with his eyelights.
Up top, Sans was holding an armful of leaves tightly for security, gazing out at the sea of rolling green with wide sockets. He could see the ocean, the land, and a small portion of the air all cast out below him. There was something enchanting and thrilling about it, and
very
beautiful.
From below, Red called up in concern.
“Hey, Sans? You alright? Please don’t fall, sweetheart. Stay put, okay? M’ comin’ up there.”
Sans’s eyelights shrunk, “No no no!” He looked down the trunk to see Red frozen in a ready-to-climb position. In his worry, he was like a big dog who didn’t realize it wasn’t a puppy anymore.
“Seriously, don’t! I’m fine, okay? Just stay there and I’ll teleport down in a minute.”
Red whined nervously but stayed put. Sans spared himself a few more moments to admire the scenery, remembered to take a few pictures, and then returned to alleviate Red’s panic. The giant meroctopus nuzzled their faces together the instant Sans was back safely in his arms, purring from sheer relief.
“Ya had me worried, Angel,” he chided ever so gently. “Thought ya’d fall n’ hurt yerself.”
“Sorry I made you worried.” Sans smiled reassuringly and petted the top of Red’s skull. “Take a look at the pictures I took, huh? It’s better in person, but isn’t it pretty?”
Sans held his phone facing Red and the meroctopus got close to examine the details. It was… fine. Compared to his Angel, nothing else was all that dazzling, but he gave a little nod to satisfy Sans.
They continued to explore the islands for most of the day. Though they didn’t have a campfire, Sans asked a campfire-like question while they cuddled together on the beach.
“Hey Red, what do you want out of life?”
The giant looked confused. “Uh, to not die?”
“Besides that,” Sans waved. “Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do if you had the chance?”
Red shrunk like he thought he was in trouble. “Never really thought about it.” He looked at Sans. “You got somethin’ like that?”
Sans hummed. “Nope. I’m pretty much satisfied with my life.” He frowned in thought. “Though if it were possible, I’d want to get the mermaids to fully accept you and the kids. Maybe Crooks and Axe while I’m at it.” He chuckled, “And if there were a way to cure your social anxiety, that could be nice.”
Red pointed at him. “That! That can be my thing.”
“If anything were possible, you’d cure your social anxiety?” Sans asked to clarify. Red nodded, then clearly hesitated.
“On second thought… Instead of that, I’d rather take ya somewhere safe n’ comfortable where no one could ever find us. N’ it would be just us forever.”
Sans made a complicated face. “Vetoed.”
“Then I’d want another kid.”
Sans chuckled helplessly. “You know we’ve got a ban on that right now.”
Red shrugged and looked away like a child caught doing something bad.
“Stretch n’ Black’re pretty much good on their own now. ‘Sides, thought we’re s’posed ta do what we want while we’re on vacation.”
“Still, let’s put that on hold for now,” Sans insisted.
They ran out of things to do after a couple of days. It felt wrong to nap and cuddle their whole vacation away, so Sans expanded his thinking a little.
The things Red wanted to do didn’t necessarily have to be classified as work. They could turn it into a bonding experience
somehow
.
“Hey, Red.”
The giant peeked an eye socket open. “Mm?”
“You wanna hunt?”
He perked up immediately. “Yeah.”
Sans nodded, rolled onto his stomach, leaned his chin on his hands and flicked his tail back and forth like a pendulum. Red’s eyes followed it, attracted to the motion and the pretty color.
“Teach me.”
That broke the short spell, and Red blinked in wide-eyed confusion.
“Whadja say, Angel?”
“Teach me how to hunt.”
“Uhh…” Red’s earlier excitement had ebbed away, replaced by uncertainty. His ultimate response was one Sans hadn’t even thought about. “Am I… not bringing back enough food?”
Sans laughed, and maybe he shouldn’t have, because it looked like Red’s pride as a provider was hurt.
“Ah, It has nothing to do with that. Relax. I just thought, if you taught me how to hunt, we could turn it into… sort of a fun couple’s exercise. I’m not really expecting to catch anything myself.”
“Oh.”
The meroctopus looked relieved. Then he put on his serious face and gave his mate a once-over, from his powerful tail to his easy-going smile. What did he have to work with here…
Well, Sans was fast, so actually catching prey wouldn’t be too hard for him. But he was also weak, and he didn’t have natural weapons like claws, fangs, or poison to finish the job. The scenario Red pictured happening was that Sans would get ahold of something and then lose it right away.
He would have him use magic to attack, but he knew Sans preferred to save his magic for healing and teleporting—just in case.
“It’ll hafta be traps, then.” He decided. “Sorry, Angel, But yer not really built fer anythin’ close n’ personal.”
Sans chuckled. “Alright, so traps. I already know a little from watching you. Where should we start?”
“By makin’ one.”
Red started searching the ocean floor, picking up all kinds of junk. Twine and plant fibers, bits of driftwood, and scrap metal all got thrown together in one ugly junk pile.
“Is this enough?” Sans asked uncertainly.
“Depends on whatcha wanna catch,” Red shrugged. “S’ enough ta trap some crabs. Help me wind these stringy things real tight.”
Sans took a minute to watch Red, then copied his technique—albeit with a few minor changes, due to his hands being so much smaller.
They were making little strings, Sans realized. And once he knew what the goal was, he could move his hands a little faster. After a few minutes, he had actually overtaken Red, who had to work slow and careful so he didn’t accidentally cut the string on his sharp claws.
“Hey, yer pretty good at that, Angel.”
“Thanks.”
They finished making the string, and then they wove it into a neat little net. Sans didn’t really have a feel for it yet, but Red apparently knew exactly how big the holes could be.
They assembled the net together with the bits of driftwood and scrap metal and had something that looked decently close to the traps Red had back home.
“It looks pretty good. Color me surprised.”
“The traps back home’re made of junk too, ya know? Just… slightly nicer junk.”
Red went on to teach Sans all about where to put the trap and how often to check up on it, and then all that was left was to wait.
Now that Red’s mind had been on crabs all day, he turned to Sans again. “Actually, I remembered a way ya could hunt without traps.”
Sans blinked and tipped his head, smiling skeptically. “Really?”
“Mm. C’mere.”
He led Sans to a spot where a crab was buried in the sand and pointed.
“There’s a crab there. Smack it with yer tail real good.”
Sans smiled awkwardly. “Just smack it?”
“Yer a fast swimmer, so ya got a strong tail, yeah? Ya can probably hit pretty hard with it if ya try.”
Sans hummed. He’d never thought of using his tail as a weapon before
Red pointed at the sand again. “Once ya hit it, it’ll be stunned. Ya can smash it on a rock or somethin’ after that.”
Sans winced. “I feel kind of bad for the crab. Also, if I’m going to hit it with a rock anyway, why hit it with my tail first?”
Red looked at him stupidly. “‘Cause it’s a crab. If ya don’t confuse it first, it’ll pinch ya.”
It made so much sense.
“Can I just kill it with my tail then?” Sans asked, although he wasn’t certain he wanted to.
“Thing is, yer hittin’ it into the sand. S’ got a cushion, so it probably won’t get hurt that bad. The usual strategy is ta crush or bite it after ya stun it.” Red gave Sans a hesitant look and another quick once-over.
“I dunno. D’ya think ya can?”
Sans winced at the mental image of cracking a tooth doing something stupid like biting a crabshell. “Eh, pass. I guess I’ll try the rock thing.”
The little mer snuck up on the patch of sand that Red indicated and gave it a hard thwack with his tail. Red quickly passed Sans a rock to finish the job, but when the sand cleared enough to see—
“It died?” Red murmured, gobsmacked.
Sans was caught off guard too, and he laughed in bewilderment. “Didn’t know I had it in me.”
Red pulled Sans into a big hug. “Ya did such a good job, Angel! M’ so proud of ya!”
Sans chuckled and blushed. It felt surprisingly good to be complemented and praised like this by Red. The big guy really did seem proud of his accomplishment.
Red hugged his mate tightly and rattled off a few more words of praise, then he pulled back a fraction and grinned blissfully.
“Yeah, let’s have that kid after all.”
Sans blanked out, automatically responding with the first thing that popped into his head.
“How did you come to that conclusion?!”
At being outright asked that question, a flurry of thoughts traveled through Red’s mind so jam-packed and tangled up in instincts he barely understood, that he was just left confused.
Because it’s hot? Your first kill is special. Isn’t it obvious to wanna have a strong person’s babies? You’re actually even better than I realized. Mm, that tail. Do you not want my kids when I hunt for you? Shut up and let’s get rough. I wanna hug ya again. That crab looks tasty. Kids please?
“Uh…” Red shook his head to refocus his thoughts. “That don’t matter. We’re doin’ it. I ain’t takin’ no fer an answer.”
Sans smiled awkwardly. “No.”
Red hung his head and immediately gave up, which Sans found amusing considering the words he’d literally just said.
“But I can think of something else we can do if you’re riled up.”
Red lifted his head a fraction due to curiosity, and Sans beckoned him back to the cave.
Sans one-sidedly pleasured his mate who was simultaneously always and never in heat. He’d been thinking for a while that it might be a little mean to make Red wait for the few days every year that his mermaid biology decided it was time to make love. Right now, when they had nothing but time on their hands, was the perfect time to remedy that injustice a little.
However, Red didn’t forget his earlier request, nor did the instincts cluttering his head and heart ease up for the rest of the vacation. In the end, Sans was weak, and he sighed internally.
Toriel’s going to kill me
, he laughed bitterly.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Blueberry looked around the den. Looked again, and again. Then he curled up in a sad little ball on the sand. Blackberry nearly swam past him, stopped to sigh, and then asked in a tone that barely feigned interest, “Are you playing hide and seek? That is a terrible hiding spot.”Blueberry turned his head up so he could see his brother. His round sockets full of cyan tears. “I can’t find mom.”Blackberry recoiled like the little fish’s gaze carried an electric current. He’s crying?!“M-mom and dad went on a vacation together. You know that.”“When are they coming back?”“Five more days.” He should know that too. Blueberry curled into a smaller blue ball. “I miss them…”Blackberry felt extremely uncomfortable seeing his hyperactive twin looking so… depressed. “Well... I have training to do.”He turned to leave but felt something catch one of his legs. Blueberry was pouting up at him with big, round eyes. “Please don’t go. I’m lonely.”“Play with Stretch,” Blackberry grimaced, trying to pull his tentacle free. Blueberry’s grip was like iron. “Stretch is sleeping.”“The others then!”“I wanna play with you.”Blackberry sighed and finally shook off Blue’s grip—by literally shaking him off.“Fine! You can come and train with me, but when it’s too much for you, you have to go back, okay? I’m not going to baby you.”Blueberry rubbed his tears away and smiled brightly. “Okay!” From there, Blackberry began a special training exercise: an exercise to be totally aware of his surroundings except for the bubbly blue mermaid swimming happy circles around him. It took an immense amount of effort, but so did most techniques worth having.And, in fact, Blackberry got used to tuning his brother out. At some point, he really did forget Blueberry was there. Black just went about his day as usual, cautiously exploring and mentally mapping the deep waters nearest to the den.A sudden tug on Black’s hand nearly shocked his soul out of his body, and he just barely held back from driving a bone attack straight through Blueberry’s skull.“Hey, Black, isn’t it lunchtime yet? I’m kinda hungry.”“You’re still here?!” The young meroctopus scattered his unused attack and stared in disbelief. The water pressure should be crushing his tiny body. He should be blind and suffocating. Why had he followed this far?!“Go home, Blue! It isn’t safe!”“But I feel fine. And you said before that I could come with you until I didn’t feel good.”Blackberry just looked at his twin in shock.… His… twin. Just like Blackberry was half mermaid, Blueberry was half meroctopus.Blackberry knew that, but because Blue looked exactly like a mermaid, he hadn’t realized that he had inherited, well, any of Red’s genes. Now, because of that oversight, he had mistakenly agreed to let Blueberry follow him to the deep ocean. Blackberry suddenly shuddered. Mom is going to kill me. “Y-you’re right,” he excused, “it’s lunchtime. We’re going back. Stay close to me, don’t swim in circles, and don’t glow your tail no matter what.”“Are we playing a game?” Blue smiled excitedly, eyelights glittering.“Yes, a game,” Black spat. “It’s called don’t get eaten by deep sea creatures!”“The name could use work,” Blueberry replied, to which black gritted his teeth.The very first thing he did when they got home was find Undyne and beg her to teach Blueberry how to defend himself. Blueberry already had a habit of wandering off, and he could go a long way before anybody noticed he was gone. If there was a chance he could wander into the deep… Blackberry would train his brother himself, but their bodies and fighting styles were so different that there wasn’t much that effectively carried over. He also could have asked Asgore to train Blue, but Undyne was the queen of crash courses, and this was something that needed sorting fast. All Undyne had had to do was hand Blue a weapon and show him how to swing it. He thought their sparring was a great game. There was no skill or technique whatsoever behind his movements, but he was fast enough to block Undyne’s semi-serious attacks, and he hit hard back. Undyne blocked another attack from the little guy, her eyes widening when the small training spear she’d made for him snapped in half. The fish woman took some distance and smiled tensely.“What’s with this? A kid shouldn’t be this strong.”“He is my twin,” Blackberry folded his arms. “It would be pathetic if he had no talent.”Honestly, he was beyond relieved. If Blue could go to the deep yet lacked the capacity to protect himself, that would have been the worst situation.Undyne stared at the meroctopus for a minute, then slapped her forehead. “Oh, duh! He’s half meroctopus!” She looked down at the training spear little Blue had snapped in half. “It must be Red’s genes. He didn’t get that from Sans.”“Give him a real weapon,” Black ordered. “One that won’t break.”“I’ll do you one better,” the fish lady grinned dangerously. “Hey Blue, how’d you like to learn how to create your own attacks?”Blueberry blinked, then his eyes got wide and sparkly. “Yes! Yes yes yes! I want too!”“H-hold on. Isn’t it still a little early for that?” A pit of nervousness formed in the meroctopus’s stomach. “It’ll be fine! He’s your twin, right? And you learned ages ago!”“You’re overlooking the fact that I’m far less excitable than—”“Alright, Blueberry, listen up! Auntie Undyne’s gonna teach you how to summon an attack!”Blueberry just trembled in place, holding his little fists up to his chin and laughing “mwehehe!” excitedly. Black couldn’t get either of their attentions with words, and he hesitated too long to stop them by force.About ten minutes later, the surrounding sand was littered with summoned bones and bits of debris, and Blueberry was passed out from magic overuse with a blissful grin on his face. Undyne turned her head rigidly to Black, her long red hair a mess and her expression shell-shocked.“I, uh, think maybe your parents are going to kill me.”Blackberry sighed deeply. “Give me your hand, Undyne,” he requested tiredly.Undyne smiled crookedly, “Huh? Why?”“I’M GOING TO BITE IT OFF, YOU STUPID FISH!”He swam toward her, and she blocked him with a sudden barrage of spears, panic on her face.“What?! No way, dude! I already lost my finger once!”“I know! You don’t deserve any of them!”They continued shouting at each other between volleys of attacks, Undyne just barely managing to keep Blue’s furious brother (and his dangerous-looking teeth) at bay. But she was already tired from dealing with Blueberry’s uncontrolled flurry of summoned attacks. A pained scream echoed out over the sand. “Oh dear,” Crooks worried softly. “What happened?”“I bit her,” Blackberry muttered, looking away from the scene of Crooks melding the severed hand back to Undyne’s wrist.“And I stabbed him when he wouldn’t let go,” Undyne said glumly, her eyes flickering to the small new scar Black had on his collarbone and the hole in his tentacle from trying to block the blow.“I know I’m a bit nearsighted, but I can see that,” Crooks smiled awkwardly.He finished with Undyne’s hand and moved on to Blackberry’s scar. Thanks to the mershark’s otherworldly healing ability, the mark faded to nothing. Undyne breathed a sigh of relief that she wouldn’t have an even angrier Red to deal with when he got back. In fact, even her wrist didn’t have any scars left over. Fuck, even the scar from Red biting her finger off was gone!“Dude, you’re seriously good at this,” she complimented genuinely, turning her hand over in front of her face.Crooks smiled mildly and blushed a little—for a moment. “Thank you, but let’s not change the subject. Why were the two of you fighting?”Blackberry took it upon himself to explain the situation, starting from that morning and ending when he threw himself at Undyne. Crooks, meanwhile, decided the sleeping Blueberry didn’t look warm enough and tucked him in with a blanket.“That does explain it,” he surmised calmly. “Alright, I will help convince Blue to stay away from the deep, and you two should work with Asgore to teach him magic control in the time you have left before Sans and Red return.”“You’re going to keep Blue away from the deep?” Undyne tilted her head. “What’re you gonna say to him?”“Nothing that isn’t true,” Crooks assured her with a smile. “The cautions I was told as a child will do, I suppose. I certainly would have left for the shallows after hearing that if I could have.” Blueberry woke up a few hours later, but he still looked quite pale when he left the healing room. Others had asked him what was wrong, but he just covered his mouth and shook his head, looking ill. Over the next few days, if the deep was mentioned, the little guy would start shaking, and he had become vehemently against Black going down there. Finally, the meroctopus confronted Crooks.“He’s traumatized! What in the world did you tell him?!”“Oh.” Crooks set down the kelp blankets he was folding and held his chin. “I never did get to finish that talk. I’d only mentioned a bit about my background before he swam off. I only thought to establish that I was from the deep and therefore have some authority on the subject, that way he would take my warning seriously. I suppose all he really needed was a small chiding?”Black stared at Crooks’ oblivious smile and remedied a few things in his head. First, he understood a bit more why Red never talked about his personal history. And second, while he wasn’t as bad as Axe, Crooks wasn’t completely sane himself. He had a distorted perspective of what was normal or frightening due to his upbringing.“I understand. It’s my mistake for not stopping you.” Crooks tilted his head curiously and Blackberry sighed. “Hopefully he cheers up soon.” Blue did cheer up. He was a hard one to keep down. Though his visibly traumatized reactions to the deep stopped, he kept a good distance from it, and he at least learned not to use his magic without adult supervision. It could be said his rushed training was complete by the time Sans and Red returned. Undyne and Black were still worried they were going to get in trouble, but it turned out the skeleton parents were too preoccupied getting scolded by Toriel to scold anybody themselves.”Another child?! That makes four, Sans! We are already oversaturated and you know it! Undyne and Alphys happen to want another of their own, you know? They will have to wait even longer now! Little can be done for Red, but I expected you to know better!”And it went on, loud enough for most of the den to listen in on. As a matter of fact, Red had teleported away in a panic the moment the yelling started, probably hiding as far away as his old cave. Sans stayed behind and absorbed the scolding for Toriel’s stress-relief. He didn’t let it get to him at all, and even managed to talk her tentatively around to his side when it was over. Of course, even if she didn’t accept it, the damage was done. They were having another kid.Black’s misgivings were banished by the euphoric news that he was going to have a younger sibling. Soon, he would be a big brother! No longer the youngest! It was more than worth the stress of the last few days.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Learning to read had opened up a whole new world to Axe; the surface world, to be specific. And the more he learned about it, the more complicated it got. There was money to be exchanged for goods and services, jobs with which to earn that money, banks to safeguard it, taxes to redirect a portion of it to government functions… Governments were a whole other can of worms he wasn’t interested in at the moment. Anyway, the service he was looking into was some kind of “dental surgery” for Crooks. For that, not only did one need money, but they needed to choose a specific doctor or clinical office out of millions, and they were expected to have some form of “identification” or “insurance” before said doctor would even allow a discussion about a monetary exchange. Axe didn’t have those things. It was nearly impossible to get those things on his own. But money could be exchanged for services, including hiring people to forge all that information for you, or paying your doctor of choice to look the other way. However, these things were against the law, and if the people were caught, they would be forced to pay a fine. The amount you paid them had to at least match that fine, but realistically, no one would even look your way if you weren’t offering at least double.So Axe had to pay people to help him bypass any barriers, and then he had to pay for the original service. It came down to needing a lot of money, didn’t it? So besides getting a job, how could he earn money? Because, let’s face it, Axe couldn’t even breathe air, there wasn’t a single surface job he could reliably do.Red and Sans had money. Where did they get it then? Axe asked around and found that Red had sold gold found on the ocean floor and gotten surface money in exchange. Axe could do the same, right? The surface was a no-go for him, but the deep was his birthplace. He’d seen plenty of sunken ships and piles of treasure in his time. But transporting enough of it would take a lot of trips. That was a lot of time and energy that Axe didn’t have.Oh, but cellphones had a pretty useful feature called an item box. He could put all the gold in there and make just one trip. Surface technology was convenient. It was still a bit much to ask Axe to do that long swim, hunt for gold, and return all in the same day. He was still recovering from a nearly life-long period of starvation. He would need to hole up somewhere down there and rest at some point. The whole operation wasn’t something he could sneak off and do without anyone noticing. Since he couldn’t do it secretly, he wouldn’t. “Hey, bro. M’ goin’ back ta da deep fer a bit.”Crooks dropped the plate he had been cleaning. Thankfully, the water resistance kept it from falling fast and shattering. “Whatever for?” the gangly mershark asked in a shaky voice, reaching to retrieve the dish with trembling phalanges. “Ta find gold.”Crooks visibly relaxed and put on a relieved smile. “Oh, is that all? I understand. I myself was worrying about Sans and Red buying food for us from the surface. Even if they seem so willing to share,” he trailed off a little. “Well, I don’t want to be a burden on them.” He cleared his throat shyly. “Do you need me to come with you?”Axe shook his head, and Crooks smiled in sad understanding. “Of course not. What about Red or Blackberry?”“Nah thanks.”Now Crooks frowned. “You’re going alone? Axe, that isn’t safe.”“Alone, nothin’ll even catch my tail shadow,” Axe excused. “Wit’ dose two ‘round, I might get noticed’.”“It’s still better to have help if something does happen,” Crooks insisted. “Besides, what could be the harm? If you take Red, he can handle any fights that come up all on his own.”Axe stared at Crooks while he deliberated, but if he was so insistent…“Fine. I’ll take Red wit’.”Crooks smiled sweetly. “Good.” *** Red had to remind himself to release the treasure chest from his suckers. It was so easy to forget that he and Axe weren’t competing over this. Judging by the rusty glint of Axe’s weapon, if he kept grabbing all the gold they discovered in his tentacles, he was going to lose one of them. The reason was one even Red could understand. Axe wanted money to help Crooks. In comparison, Red only wanted to secure a little extra funds while he was down here anyway. Red had gotten very good at the concept of sharing when he was in the den, but down here, he had a tendency to relapse into his old lifestyle. Something about the general atmosphere of the deep—the memories just flooded back into him. “Sorry. Go ahead.”Axe lowered his weapon back down the fraction it had risen up and glided over to the chest. He poured most of the ancient currency into his item box, but he left some for Red. He would have preferred to take all of it, but Red’s memories were what had led them to find so many sunken vessels. Axe owed him some of the loot. “Ya still need more?” The meroctopus asked, already searching his skull for their next stop.Axe hummed and spun his axe around casually. “M’not really sure. Maybe, but I don’t wanna be gone too long.”Red moved over to the mangled door that was the treasure hold’s exit. “So we’re goin’ back now?” He was eager to see his little Angelfish again.“I’d love ta,” Axe chuckled, equally anxious to get back to Crooks, “but I need a break first.” He was already positioning himself on a section of floor. “Get comfy.”Red frowned and let go of the bent door frame, taking a seat a reasonable distance away from Axe—pretty much in the opposite corner of the room, due to their sizes.If Red were someone other than himself, it would have been a good moment to ask Axe some of the lingering questions he had, but… As expected, he couldn’t do it. Now, Axe would chat and banter, but he wasn’t one to make conversation where there wasn’t any to be had. Or, in other words, he only talked when there was something to talk about. Red braced himself for a few hours of awkward silence, but he only had to endure it for a few minutes.“Got a question fer ya,” Axe murmured, sockets opening slowly like he’d still been planning on taking a nap until that very moment. “How’d ya have kids wit’ a mermaid?”“H-huh?” Red tumbled into bashful nervousness in record time at the intimate question out of left field. It was completely unexpected on his end, and he even wondered if he’d heard it right through Axe’s slightly thicker accent. “Ya mean… in general, or me specifically?”Axe’s teasing grin was filled with silent laughter. “S’ dere a difference?”Red shook his head stupidly. “Uh, no…? Wait, yeah. Ya ain’t interested in one are ya?” The only mermaids in the school without mates were the children, and Axe shouldn’t have met anyone from a different school. Nobody who was still alive, anyway. If that really was the case, it was worrying.“M’ jus’ curious,” Axe shrugged. “Thought it was impossible fer different types ta have kids. If dat ain’t da case after all, I wanna know more.” He let his eyelight drift to the side absently and volunteered a little extra information. “Info like dat’d be worth more’n a few get-outa-death-free cards fer us.”Red furrowed his brow. He understood that kind of exchange with other species, but the mersharks were starving, weren’t they? Was it really worth enough for a starving person to miss a free meal?“Why?” Red asked stupidly.Axe studied him, then lidded his eyesockets casually. “Call it population problems,” he shrugged. Then the shark hummed, “Crooks’d be upset if I said more.”Red hesitated. There would be no problem with telling Axe about it, but if he did, he’d lose what was apparently a good bargaining chip. “Let’s trade. I’ll tell ya how ta mate with other types of monster, n’ you tell me exactly why ya wanna know.”Axe’s smile drained off his face. It was rare to see him be overtly serious.“Didn’tcha hear me?” the mershark said darkly. “I said Crooks’ be upset if I toldja.”Red frowned, somewhat unhappy that his attempt at negotiation had fallen flat.“Fine. Then tell me what da magic yer always usin’s for.”Axe clearly wasn’t thrilled about that either. “None of yer business,” he said flatly. Red pouted. “Then how about—”“I don’t hafta trade nothin’,” Axe cut in. “Dere’re plenty’a people back home who’ll tell me fer free.”Red frowned, but he wasn’t all that upset. He’d never thought he had the conversational skills to make a trade like this in the first place. “Yeah, fine,” the meroctopus shrugged. “All ya gotta do’s fall in love with someone, touch your souls together, and both of ya gotta want ta have a kid together.”“Dat’s all?” Axe confirmed, whipping out his phone to take notes.“S’ really that easy,” Red confirmed. “Ya can’t have more’n one kid at a time that way though.”“Oh man.” Axe’s somewhat insane smile stretched wide across his face, and he tugged at his dead eye socket. “Dat’s good news… real good.”Red nodded. “Glad yer happy.” He’d officially given up his only bargaining chip, but, “Can I ask ya a question anyway?”Axe grinned at him. “Ya can ask ,” he said teasingly, strongly implying he wouldn’t be offering an answer.“I never had any siblings,” Red prefaced, “but Crooks n’ ya seem a lil’ too close ta me. D’ya like him?”Red wasn’t expecting a response of overwhelming killing intent, but he was one of the best people to take it in stride. Axe’s hand twitched, his brain caught between reaching for his weapon and responding with words.“Say it again,” he hissed, “I fuckin’ dare ya.”“Sorry,” Red shrugged. “M’ kinda stupid. Wazzat a no, or didja get rejected?”Axe’s thread of self-restraint snapped, and he swung his weapon without holding back. Red batted it away casually, and Axe didn’t look particularly upset that he’d missed. In the end, it had been nothing more than a common phrase in the deep ocean’s language. Translation: quit you’re bullshit.“S’ a taboo subject,” he growled. “Ya got any idea wha’ happens when a species of bloodthirsty cannibals splits up inta lil’ groups dat don’t change fer generations?”Axe’s bloated eyelight shrunk to a pinprick, and he slapped a gnarled hand over his mouth, cursing his damn scatterbrain with every fiber of his being.Red just hummed. “Ya got a problem with inbreedin’?”He knew a little about it. For most monsters, it wasn’t a big deal. Monsters were spared the physical bodies of humans, and they were resistant to the ill effects of incest. But even so, if it was perpetuated long enough, it could get pretty bad.“Izzat why Crooks’ got so many health problems?” If that was the case, it would make perfect sense that the brothers would be vehemently against the idea of being romantically involved. Axe gave Red a very off-putting glare, where his smile was wide and twitching and his sockets were wide open, he clawed aggressively at the dead one. “I wasn’t s’pposed ta tell ya dat,” he said, his voice surprisingly well-controlled. “Ya’d better keep it ta yerself.”“That’s not so hard,” Red shrugged. He wasn’t a gossip. “Since I already know ‘bout it, ya might as well gimme da whole story.”Axe chuckled darkly, and his expression normalized somewhat. “Sure. But if ya tell anyone else, Crooks’ gonna cry, n’ den imma halfta kill ya in yer sleep. Dat fine?”Red returned a lopsided, shark-toothed smile. “I ain’t gonna tell ‘em shit. I like my Angel soft n’ nice like he is. I ain’t gonna break him—or da kids.”Axe smiled, dark and dangerous, and got himself comfortable on the floor. “Alright. Don’t go whinin’ ta me later dat ya can’t stomach it.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The mother shark held up her head proudly and displayed her children to the school. There were two of them in total. One was small, with only one working eye, and the other was brittle with a broken mouth. But they were two. With two children, she had successfully replaced herself and her mate for the next generation. Her mate… She had loved her mate more than anyone, but she had devoured him regardless. Since the nutrients had allowed two of their clutch to survive, it was worth the sacrifice. Some in the school mocked her children, while others were apathetic. The mother disregarded them. She once fought off someone from another school who thought they would make a good snack, and her school had had a nice meal. Crooks didn’t like to eat. His teeth caused him pain, and he cried anytime there was pressure on them. She scolded him that he would eat or he would die. Sometimes he still refused. She helped him file some of his more badly overgrown teeth down and pulled out one that had been stabbing the inside of his mouth. He was a little more compliant after that. Or maybe he was just worried that complaining more would compel her to repeat the procedure.Axe needed no encouragement. He was aggressive and liked to try and swing the weapon she favored. She told him to always be strong and to protect his brother. They two were the last skeletons in their school, as she and her mate had been, and as their three shared grandparents had been. They alone were the future of their kind. They were irreplaceable. The children slowly grew bigger. They didn’t have enough to eat, so they were larger but weighed the same. The mother saw her last night when Axe finally managed to lift her weapon himself. The children ate well that night, but they were left alone. Axe swam close to crooks with his oversized weapon in hand. Together, they searched the cliff sides for debris. Crooks spotted a hint of white hiding amongst the grey-black. He tried to pretend he hadn’t noticed it, but Axe saw his head jerk away too quickly. He swam forward to pick up the bones himself. There were three and a half rib bones from a small fish. Axe started gnawing on one and handed Crooks another. The brittle skeleton grimaced. “I don’t like bones,” he said shortly. “They’re hard to chew.”“S’ it hurt worse den an empty stomach?” Axe asked. “Sometimes,” his brother replied. He scratched at the bone with his fingertip, but it wasn’t sharp enough to shave off the marrow. Axe sighed through his nose and held his hand out. Crooks passed back the bone with a guilty look and watched Axe carefully chip away at it with his blade. Skeletons didn’t really have to chew. If Crooks was patient enough, he could keep bite-sized pieces in his mouth until they dissolved on their own—or at least until they softened up a little. Axe started cutting up the next one for him before finishing his portion. He held the blade a little too close and nicked his finger. Like lightning, he shoved the digit into his mouth, hoping nobody had smelled the blood he could taste like a supernova of flavor on his tongue. Crooks put a fragile hand on his shoulder. “Let me see it.”Slowly, axe pulled his finger out of his mouth. He gave it a good lick so the saliva would get in the way of the small leakage of blood flow. Crooks held his hand, closing his eyes in peaceful concentration, and the scratch healed over before anyone could notice it. Axe’s eyelight wobbled faintly in amazement. He’d only seen his brother do this once or twice before, but it was still just as amazing. “How d’ya do dat?” he asked. Crooks shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. I just… want you to stop hurting—to be better—and let my magic move on its own.”It was possible to use specialized magic without any training, but you had to have the aptitude. Axe couldn’t express how it made him feel to have just one person who genuinely cared about him. “It makes me tired though,” Crooks added, slouching his weak shoulders. Axe wordlessly handed him a bite-sized piece of bone and got back to work cutting up more. They had almost finished eating when a fuss stirred up in the distance. Axe and Crooks swam through the darkness to see what was going on, and saw that the rest of the group had found something great. It looked like a couple of meroctopuses had gotten into a fight, and there was one left lying on the rocks, barely clinging to life. The bear-type meroctopus had a green tentacle grasped tightly in his paw, showing that his opponent hadn’t gotten away unscathed. The bear shoved away the sharks that tried to get close, but he was severely weakened. Axe tried to move in, but a limb flailed out at him. He managed to cut off the tip and retreat with it, grinning wildly as he showed it to Crooks. The rest of the sharks had a bit of a game of chicken going on with their prey, and the alpha finished it, shoving her gnarled, old harpoon through the bear’s chest. Everyone cheered. They would scavenge when they had to, but the only real way for their school to survive was to risk their lives to take down the occasional big game. If they were careful, they could survive for half a month on a kill like this. Members of the school dedicatedly started cutting up the body, compelled by the alpha’s glare not to eat anything until it had been rationed out. Meanwhile, she caught Axe’s eye and swam over. Emperia was a stern-looking fish woman, with a wiry but strong, reliable body. Her thin lips, gouged left eye, and needle teeth would have made her a nightmare in shallower waters, but she was pretty standard-looking at this depth.Axe guarded his little piece of magical flesh suspiciously as she approached him. “Not bad, kid. You’ve got guts charging in instead of running away the first time you see a meroctopus.” Her grin stretched wider. “You can keep that piece. You worked hard for it. And you’ll get your rations too. Good work.”Axe blinked when she swam off, and his cheeks heated up in an unfamiliar way. But he shook the feeling off and turned to Crooks. “Hey, ya should try dat thing on dis,” he said, holding up the piece of meat. “D’ya think maybe da rest’d grow back?”“I don’t know,” Crooks frowned. “I can try.”They swam off somewhere others couldn’t see them easily, and Crooks tried using his strange green magic. Unfortunately, the meat didn’t grow any, but it did turn a little clearer and sparkly. The frail mershark gave up after a few seconds, slouching and holding his hands to his chest while he got his breath back. “Maybe,” he huffed,” I just done have enough magic for it.”Axe hummed and examined the pretty-looking meat. “Ya did somethin’ ta it.”He tore off a bite, and his eyes went wide. “... Tasty.”Meroctopus was delicious. No one had ever mentioned that to him before. He and Crooks shared their little meal together and went excitedly to get their rations from the alpha. It wasn’t as delicious as they’d expected. Axe suggested Crooks’ magic had improved the taste. They tested it out on a little piece of meat and realized it was true. However… it took a lot of magic for Crooks to do, and all it was was an improvement in taste. They decided only to use that ability on special occasions and buried it in their minds. Seasons passed, but the weather never changed at this depth. There were more children in the school. Three more. The school had lost one capable adult male to his mate, and another to her children. In the future, they would have increased their hunting strength by one, but for now, it was down significantly. They ran into a lone meroctopus in the middle of the night, and it apparently thought that was a good enough reason to fight them. They could have been wiped out, but the alpha called a retreat just in time and threw herself in for a suicide attack. She knew they would be chased if she didn’t finish it here. She stabbed the meroctopus through the eye just as it gouged her stomach, and they both hung limply in the water. Axe stared. The woman who had encouraged him, praised him as a hunter, and let him and Crooks have extra food, was dying. He moved to grab Crooks and drag him over to heal her, but his brother was already swimming just as fast as he could. With his small amount of magic, he couldn’t do much more than seal the wound, but that was enough for the alpha to wake up. She was tough as nails. Emperia looked at Crooks gasping, crying, and focusing with all his might as he held his little hands over her stomach. The green magic coming from his hands, her wound stopping bleeding right in front of her eyes. What on earth was going on?“How are you doing that?” She gurgled. In all honesty, she probably shouldn’t be talking yet. “I just can,” Crooks sniffled. He ran out of expendable magic, and Axe caught his shoulder before he could faint face-first on the alpha’s wound. It was tender and red—jarring against her pale blue skin—but it wasn’t bleeding. Stubbornly, the alpha raised her hand and patted Crooks gently on the shoulder. “That’s a special power you have, kid. Thanks.”“Thanks fer protectin’ us,” Axe said for his brother. “He could heal ya even better if he had more magic ta spare.”Emperia nodded. “Oh, he’s getting double rations tonight.” She frowned, “I wish I could promise more.” Emperia checked that the others were preoccupied preparing her kill, and chuckled derisively. “You know, I don’t really like skeletons much. I feel so damn guilty looking at you, and I can’t tell just how close you are to dusting.”Axe said nothing, and the alpha sighed, looking off into the middle distance for a moment.“Tell me if either of you are on the edge, okay? I’ll do something if I can.”“‘Kay,” Axe nodded. Crooks woke up, and Emperia smiled her terrifying smile at him. “Good news little guy. You get double rations tonight.”“O-oh. Uh, thank you.”“Nah. You deserve more than that.” Floating not too far off, Emperia saw a piece of her intestines that had been gouged out earlier. She snatched it out of the water and grinned. “Here’s something we stopped teaching the kids a few generations back,” she said, blowing the severed piece of intestine full of breath. She tied off the end and displayed how it was neutrally buoyant. “It’s a ball,” she said. “You pass it back and forth and play with it.” She shrugged. “If you get hungry, you can eat it. It’s yours now.”Crooks looked at the ball in fascination. He tested bouncing it on his palms, and blushed at the fluffy feeling that blossomed in his soul. “D’ya like it?” Emperia grinned. “Y-yes. Thank you.”The alpha smiled, but it quickly turned bitter. “You know, we used to let the kids play, but now it’s too important to have all the hunters we can get.” She willed the smile into something more cheerful and gave the frail skeleton an extremely gentle noogy. “But you can’t hunt anyway, so you should play.”“Um… okay.”The alpha smiled at the promising two children. Axe had grade-A hunter’s instincts and admirable killing intent. Crooks could heal him if he bit off more than he could chew. She looked forward to meeting their children. If they had talent like their parents, she wouldn’t mind helping to rear them up a little. Axe woke up with a fever one day. At first, he thought he was ill, but he had never gotten sick before. There were no illnesses in this part of the ocean, only parasites. He wondered if he’d caught one, but he hadn’t eaten anything suspicious lately. He hadn’t eaten much at all, in fact. Axe took a few minutes to feel out the thoughts in his head and the sensations in his body, and then he understood. He was in heat. Crooks should be in heat too. So that was it. It was finally time to pass this harsh life on to their children. Personally, Axe was ready for it. He thought maybe he wouldn’t feel so tired and hungry if he was dead. Axe went to find Crooks, who had also woken up to his first heat, and together they made a plan. Since the young children would need protecting, Axe would be the mother. They would conceive immediately after their next meal. If it was enough, maybe the clutch would live without Crooks having to become food for their unborn. Axe thought they should meet him if they could, and he really didn’t want to have to endure any length of time here without Crooks for company. They didn’t do it. The conception failed magnificently. Crooks’ body had never worked quite right, but of all the things to be broken… He was incapable of forming a sex. When he couldn’t make one type, they abruptly decided to switch roles, but he couldn’t make the other either. Maybe it was just a fluke. It could be hard to use magic you’d never tried before. They endured another long, harsh year and tried again. Still nothing. So, just like that, they were the last skeletons this school would ever have?Crooks just kept crying, and he wouldn’t stop apologizing. Axe tried to console him, but he wouldn’t have it. Axe went to ask Emperia, the only other person in the school he actually liked, how he could cheer his brother up.“It didn’t work this year either, huh?” she grimaced.”I’m sorry, Axe. Maybe he’s just a late-bloomer, but if it’s because of inbreeding, he might never be able to have kids. It’s… happened before.”“Wha’s inbreeding? Izzat a parasite?”The alpha smiled bitterly. “Yeah. You’re young, huh, Axe?” And she explained that the world and the culture he knew were nothing more than a necessary sickness that circumstance has forced onto them.“But, I mean, sick kids are better than no kids at all, right?” She smiled, but it looked painful. Another year went by, and another heat came, and Axe asked if Crooks wanted to try again.“No, I’d rather not,” he said. Axe was confused. “Why not?”Crooks gave Axe a look he’d never seen before. It might have been disdain, but he couldn’t tell where it was aimed at.“Because even if we succeeded, why bring children into this world just to suffer?”Axe was taken aback. Apparently Crooks had done some thinking over these past few years.“Ya don’t know dat fer sure, right?” Axe mentioned. “Maybe dere’ll be lots more food ‘round fer deir generation.”“I don't know what the ocean will be like in the future,” Crooks conceded. “But I do know what I'd be passing down to them. Knowingly allowing that would just be cruel.”“Ya really… wanna stop tryin’?”Crooks smiled bitterly and nodded. “I’m sorry, brother. For what it’s worth, if you ever happen upon… an alternative partner… I wouldn’t mind if you pursued them.”Wouldn’t mind. He wouldn’t mind, huh? Axe felt knives stabbing at his soul, but he said nothing, and his expression stayed frozen.It had never been about kids for him. It had never been about tradition or obligation. It was only ever because Crooks was perfect.“D’ya wanna die anyway?” he asked. “If ya don’t wanna be stuck in dis hell like Emperia, I could help ya.”“Thank you for the offer,” Crooks smiled softly, “but I don’t want to die. Life is… hard, but at least I know what to expect. Dying scares me.”So Crooks wanted to stay alive. In that case, Axe was stuck here too. He wouldn’t leave Crooks alone to fend for himself. “M’kay. … Hey, Crooks?”“What is it?”“I don’t really care ‘bout havin’ kids.” He swam closer and gingerly took Crooks’ hand. “And I ain’t never gonna be wit’ anyone ‘sides ya. I love ya. Really. Wit’ all my soul. D’ya… know dat?”Crooks grimaced. “Let’s not talk about things like that.”“Why not?” Axe demanded—firm, but not angry. “‘Cause s’ incest? An’ s’ bad, n’ it fucked us up? I ain’t askin’ ta mate wit’cha, bro. I love ya. I wanna keep ya close, protect ya, hold ya sometimes. Dat’s it. Dat’s enough.”Crooks avoided his eyes and looked guiltily off to the side. “... It makes me uncomfortable.” He hung his head, “It’s… wrong. It hurts innocent people. I never asked to be born. Certainly not here, and certainly not like this.”“But we can’t even have kids!”“I dislike it by association.” Crooks was holding firm on this, and it made Axe frustrated. But much, much heavier on his heart than that irritation was a crushing loneliness.“Ya don’t love me.”“I love you like a brother, Axe. Frankly, you shouldn’t want more than that from me.”Crooks had come into this conversation prepared to lose everything: his relationship with his brother, and even his life. He already knew that while his own body was in metaphorical pieces, Axe’s mind was always teetering on the edge of collapse. It wasn’t helped in the least by the fact that he’d been guarding Crooks while he slept since they were born. When had Axe ever gotten the rest he needed? Nobody else in the school particularly noticed or cared—they only cared whether you could hunt or not—but Crooks worried over his brother’s mental state.If there was anything Crooks could do that would set him off, it was rejecting him like this. But he had to.“I don’t want to have a romantic relationship with you. I just want to be brothers.”Axe was quiet, processing maybe.“...Okay.”“Are you mad?”“... Nah. M’ sorry I made ya uncomfortable.”“That’s alright. As long as you understand.”Axe nodded. Crooks was the only person who had ever really cared about him. Emperia was nice, but she wouldn’t linger over it long if he died. She valued him because he helped keep the group alive, because he had been a promising mother, and now because he was cursed to stay childless just like her. Crooks cared about him as a person, Crooks would be sad if he died, and Crooks was the purest, most perfect person on this side of the ocean.Axe ruefully accepted that he just wasn’t good enough to be anything more than his brother. They burried the conversation and didn’t talk about it again for years after. The food was gone. Times had been hard before, but lately it was even worse. People went to bed with empty bellies and had fitful dreams. The tenuous alliance the mershark school had always been was quickly breaking down. The feeling in the water was palpable; everyone was thinking about who would be the best to eat first.Many of them were looking at Crooks.It was true that he wasn’t any help during a hunt, but Emperia had praised him for his special magic that could heal people. However, now, not only prey, but predators were absent. Nobody had the chance to hunt or get injured, so they didn’t need healing, and Crooks would need to use up magic to use the ability if it was needed. It seemed people no longer thought they were getting a good return on the investment of feeding him. They would direct their hungry eyes at him… and then see Axe nearby, glaring back a warning.Axe and Crooks weren’t just sexually mature, they were adults, like the alpha. Axe’s strength and social position were second only to the alpha. Without her help, Crooks wasn’t really on the menu. Her friendship with the skeletons was all that was stopping her from giving in to the suggestions of others, but the food crisis was reaching a critical pitch. Either somebody would die, or they all would, and it was better if that someone died before losing any more of their body mass.“You should eat me,” Crooks told Axe. “You and the others. They’re right, after all. I’m only a burden in this situation.”Axe stared at his brother and slowly shook his head. “I’d let it happen if ya wanted ta die, but ya don’t. Ya jus’ wan’ everyone else ta live.”“Yes,” Crooks admitted. “I do want that.”“Den it don’t hafta be ya,” Axe said stubbornly. “Da first person who makes a move on ya, imma kill ‘em.”Crooks felt his insides twisting into tighter knots. He was so hungry. He thought back wistfully to the toy ball he had had for a few weeks as a child. He and Axe had gotten hungry and eaten it, but that was just as well. The cold salted water wouldn’t have kept it from rotting forever.“Why do you suppose there isn’t anything down here anymore?” Crooks wondered. “Why are we the only ones who didn’t get the notice to leave?”They had been swimming for months, trying to find anywhere that still had some life, but the results had been a failure.“And,” Crooks continued when Axe didn’t have an answer, “are we doomed? Even if one or more of us become food for the others, all we can do is buy time. Someday there won’t be any of us left.”Axe shrugged. “Personally, I don’t got da energy ta think about none of dat. But it don’t look good fer us as a species. Hell, even if everybody else keeps ta demselves, imma hafta do somethin’ while I can still swing my weapon. Probably jus’ a few more days ‘fore shit gets messy.”Axe held his hand out, and Crooks squeezed it for comfort. “I’m afraid,” Crooks whispered.“Yeah. Me too.” Axe looked at him. “Dunno if I’ll ever get another chance ta say dis, so I’m jus’ gonna say it. ‘Bout half our lifetimes ago, I toldja I got feelin’s fer ya, an’ ya let me down hard.” Crooks frowned in a mixture of suspicion and guilt, and Axe chuckled. “Welp, my feelin’s never changed. I still love ya—as a brother an’ lots more.”Crooks shook his head solemnly. “I’m sorry, Axe. I couldn't—”“I know,” Axe cut him off. “I didn’t tell ya hopin’ fer dat.” He chuckled wryly, “Tho it woulda been nice. I jus’ wanted ta say I’m glad I got ta spend my life wit’ ya.”Crooks startled and abruptly teared up, and he pulled Axe into a gentle embrace. “Me too,” he choked out. “I don’t regret a minute of it.” It was the next morning. As much as it burdened her, Emperia had accepted that action had to be taken, and she had brought a group to kill Crooks. Axe glared at her sad but decided face with menace. “He saved yer life,” was all he could spit out.“I know,” the alpha replied grimly. “I don’t like doing this.”“Yer gonna like it even less in a minute.” He brought his weapon up, and the fight began. It was Axe against Emperia and three others. He shouldn’t have been their match, but he was fighting with literally everything on the line. Axe didn’t have a single concern for his own safety. He only wanted to protect Crooks and kill these people.Two of the helpers went down, blood soaking the sea, and another joined from somewhere else. He was running out of stamina quickly. And then, in a moment of distraction, the alpha plunged her harpoon into his skull. They stayed frozen like that for a second, and then she yanked her weapon free. She forced herself to tune out Crooks’ screaming.“I’m sorry about this, Crooks,” she said earnestly. She was about to go on and say that plenty of people had already died today, and they didn't need to add to that list just yet, but then,“Ya ain’t gonna touch him,” Axe’s strained voice came. “Not even over my dead body.”She looked at the skeleton in horror. Half his damn skull was gouged out, but he was upright, talking and pointing his weapon at her!“How in the actual fuck are you alive?” she gaped. But no. She could sense it. He was burning through pretty much all of his magic just keeping himself from falling apart. She could be done with this with just one more attack.But before she realized it, her neck had blossomed into a fountain, and her head flew away. He had thrown away his only means of attack, just to kill her. And then he collapsed.“Brother!” Crooks cried again and rushed toward him. Pouring in as much green magic as he could. Quietly, the remaining attackers surrounded them both.“Please, stop this,” he cried. “I want to leave. I don’t want to stay here anymore. You can have all of the food. I only want to take my brother and his axe and go.”For them, it was a good deal. They would get a large food supply, and a direction to follow for a future harvest. Not to mention, they could save some energy by ending the fight here. They let Crooks retrieve Axe’s weapon and go in peace. Crooks found a cave and holed up there with his brother for weeks. He had no source of food for all the healing magic he was using, but he also didn’t need to go anywhere, so he cut off his own tail and ate it. He would restore it later if Axe ever recovered enough to hunt. If not, they would die here together, but Crooks at least wanted to be able to say goodbye.Axe eventually did wake up. He wasn’t exactly back to his usual self. He was shaking and stuttering, and he was having problems with his memory. He had forgotten a lot, actually. Tentatively, Crooks asked him… if he remembered who he liked.Axe did. He knew it in his soul, not in his head. But something else in his soul shouted at him to keep that a secret. While his damaged skull swam with images of Crooks getting mad and crying, he shook his head no. Crooks had smiled. *** “So he don’t know ya like him?” Red asked.“Nah. I never told him ‘bout it. I know how he feels ‘bout anythin’ incestuous.”“Huh. I told Angel I liked him the same day I figured it out.”Axe tilted his head. “Figured wha’ out?”“That I was in love with him.”Axe chuckled. Red really was an idiot. But so was he.“‘Kay. M’ rested ‘nuff ta head back now.”Red nodded and led the way out, eager to see Sans again after a long day fishing around in the deep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Now that Axe had found some gold coins, the next step was to sell them on the surface. Stretch was willing to make the land part of the trip for him, since he was planning to go over and buy more sweets anyway. Papyrus insisted that the mershark brothers take this opportunity to come along, learn where their port town was, and introduce themselves. Their stamina still wasn’t the best, but it was enough.The school did have the thought though… The people in this town were familiar with mer monsters by now, but every one of them ended up plastered all over the internet. Until they had the land skeletons’ opinion on what the reaction would be to Axe and Crooks, they didn’t really want random people spotting them.Therefore, Stretch went up at the docks on his own, and Edge and Papyrus waited off by the treeline to meet the mersharks. At some point, the few pictures taken of Axe and Crooks had been mysteriously deleted, so they hadn’t been able to send any to their friends on the surface to help prepare them. Toriel had given them verbal warning, though, and even Undyne had sent a text to Edge warning him not to be mean to Crooks or else. Papyrus peered out over the water, one hand supporting the three-year old skeleton he was carrying and the other shielding his eyes from the sun. “I think I see something big swimming down there,” he mentioned. “Do you think it’s them?”“Perhaps,” Edge replied. “I doubt they can see us from underwater. They’re probably being cautious.”“I’ll just give them a little wave,” Papyrus smiled, dipping his hand into the water. The mersharks knew they were looking for skeletons, so it should hopefully encourage them to surface. Papyrus froze and instinctively jerked his hand back when a nightmare popped up from below. A giant’s skull with a massive hole in it, an off-putting, one-eyed stare, and a crooked, insane smile. He combed over the three land skeletons with his overblown eyelight, definitely, Papyrus realized with a pang of guilt, noticing how frightened they must have looked. The soft skeleton looked worriedly at Edge to see him just glaring like usual. His eyelights were smaller and more focused than was typical for him, but he didn’t look afraid. Papyrus was impressed by his mate’s nerves of steel. He almost wished he had a chest to bury his face in like Rus did.Internally, Edge was rather disturbed. He’d thought he had a scary face until he’d met Red, then the feeling had lightened a bit. Now, seeing this demon from the deep ocean, he had enough leeway to pity him. The advantages and disadvantages of having an intimidating appearance must have been applied tenfold. “I’m Edge. This is my husband—or “mate”—Papyrus, and our son, Rus. You must be Axe?”“Mhm.”Overall, Axe’s impression of land skeletons was that they looked scrawny, barely worth the effort of hunting. The legs were also pretty weird. Nothing but two boney sticks. They could very easily still be a threat, of course, but if these were the same skeletons he was told to expect, they should be about as friendly as he could hope to expect. Axe gestured with his hand under the water, and Crooks popped up next to him. “Did we find the right place?” He lisped. Papyrus glanced once at his teeth before looking away, trying to disguise his violent wince as a small neck-stretching exercise. This time, Edge’s face did change slightly as it took on shadows of pity. “And you must be Crooks.”“Yes, I am. I’ve heard a lot about you three. It’s so nice to meet you in person like this.”The faces were certainly more nightmarish than Papyrus had been ready for, but he warmed up quickly to the sweet and innocent sounding Crooks. “We’re very glad you could come! Did the long swim give you any trouble?”“It wasn’t too bad. I’m impressed that Stretch in particular makes the trip so often.”“He’s lazier den Sans,” Axe chuckled. “He don’t got any excuse fer sleepin’ dat much.” Axe eyed the thin stretch of sand that passed for a shoreline here. “Speakin’ of, m’ tired. Gonna take a nap.”The giant found a sliver of beach a short distance from the land skeletons. He wanted his head above water so he could hear if Crooks called for him, but obviously his gills needed to stay submerged. Axe folded his arms under his head and passed out impressively quick. “He wasn’t kidding,” Papyrus said, startled. “I’ll apologize on his behalf for the rude behavior,” Crooks smiled diplomatically. Edge eyed the gaping hole in Axe’s skull and huffed through his nose hole. “Don’t worry about it. He looks like he needs it.”“He’s a very light sleeper. He’ll probably tune in if we start talking about anything he’s interested in.”“Oh, it really isn’t a problem,” Papyrus said, sitting down cross-legged in the grass. “Why don’t you come a little closer? I have something to give you.”Crooks looked slightly skeptical, but he got as close as he could while still being able to breathe. “You didn’t have to get me anything. I didn’t bring any gifts for you.”“I did it just because I wanted to, so don’t mind it,” Papyrus waved. He pulled out his phone and took a fluffy pink thing out from the item box. “This is a food I think you might like very much, but there was no way to send any to you underwater.”Crooks took the little cloud by the stick and examined it. He put the whole thing into his mouth in one go, looking to avoid chewing, and it melted away like it had never existed, leaving behind a flowery sweetness. “Goodness! Did I really just eat a cloud?”“It’s called cotton candy,” Papyrus beamed. “It’s certainly a delicate food. Should I have brought more, I wonder? I wasn’t expecting both of you to be as big as Red.”While Papyrus was playing host, Edge took out a picnic blanket and spread it out to sit on. Papyrus set little Rus down in the middle of the checkered cloth. He was wearing a cute, green sweater, black leggings, and toddler boots. Immediately, he hid behind his parents. “There’s no need to be shy,” Papyrus said, rubbing Rus’s head. “Axe and Crooks are our friends, not strangers.” Papyrus took a seat cross-legged and laced his fingers. “We thought we might tell you about what the town is like, since you can’t really come up to see it. Would you be interested in that?”“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” the mershark beamed. They swapped stories for a while, and Axe continued blissfully snoozing until something came close enough to wake him up. He opened his eyes to see Rus within arm’s reach of him, just standing there and staring curiously at the hole in his skull, swinging his arms absently at his sides.“Hey,” he called, interrupting the conversation. “Yer kid’s in snackin’ distance. Dat’s dangerous.”Rus looked surprised and trotted to Edge, who picked him up almost unconsciously.“We brought actual food if you’re hungry.” The land skeleton raised an eyebrow, “I thought it would be too rude to ask before, but would you really eat a person?”“It ain’t a hypothetical,” Axe chuckled darkly. “Would. Have. Dey taste good too.”“Axe, please don’t worry our friends,” Crooks chided him. “Come closer and have something to eat.” He gestured at a picnic basket. Axe slid back into the water and crawled out again next to Crooks. He opened a basket his brother hadn’t touched and barely glanced at the contents before shoving them down his mouth hole. “I’m a bit curious that neither of you check if the food is safe to eat like Red does,” Edge mentioned. “I’m sure Red checks for Sans’s benefit,” Crooks replied. “Meroctopuses have very strong stomachs, so most things don't bother them.”“And mersharks as well?” Papyrus asked. “Not particularly. We’re just used to it.” Crooks smiled.Rus started wiggling around in Edge’s arms, so he set the little guy down to play some more. He ran to the back edge of the blanket and crouched down to watch a train of ants.“Is Rus your only child?” Crooks asked delicately.Papyrus nodded pleasantly. “Yes, he is. I don’t think we’ll have any more, either.”“I’m sorry,” the mershark lowered his head.Papyrus frowned quizzically, then held a hand to his mouth and gasped. “Oh! My apologies. Monsters on the surface don’t have many children at a time, and parents focusing their attention on just one or two children is quite common.” The soft land skeleton smiled. “It didn’t occur to me that you wouldn’t know that yet.”Something tickled in the back of Axe’s skull, and he wondered briefly what he’d forgotten this time. It might have been important but... No, it was no use. The feeling was gone. If it really was important, it should be in his notes somewhere.”I see,” Crooks let out a sigh of relief. “That’s... very good.”The first impressions were rocky as usual, but the overall meeting was a pleasant one, and when Stretch was finished with his errands, they returned to the den. In the following weeks, Axe went on more treasure hunts, and he and Crooks went on more visits to the surface. One day, the land skeletons sadly couldn’t make the time to meet them. Axe decided to take a nap under the docks, and Crooks swam slow, carefree circles under a large boat. They were just waiting for Stretch to finish their errands, really.While they waited, there was a sudden series of quick thumps on the dock. Axe stayed sleeping, but Crooks poked his eyesockets above the water. There was a three or four year old human crouched at the edge, scanning the water. Back on the beach, he could see two blurry figures that might have been the kid’s parents. They didn’t seem to be paying much attention. There was a little fish in the water, and the kid reached out a hand to try and pet it. He tipped forward and into the water. Crooks chuckled and brought his head back down to look. Had the surface child succeeded in catching the fish? Crooks blinked and frowned. The human was moving his limbs around without really going anywhere. With sudden worry, he realized that the human didn’t know how to swim.Crooks swam over and picked the human up by the back of his shirt, carefully depositing him back on the dock. They started coughing, and he gave him a gentle pat on the back to help him dislodge the water from their lungs. The child started crying when he realized what had happened. Still, nobody else seemed to have noticed what was going on. “It’s alright. You’re safe now. Does it hurt anywhere? Do you need healing, little human?”“N-no,” the child rubbed his eyes and sobbed. “I want my mommy!”“Your mother is over there, I think,” and Crooks pointed to the beach. The child uncovered their eyes to look, saw Crooks--just his head and hand poking out of the water, really--and peed himself.“Oh dear. What’s wrong?”“S...scary… mommy…” the child was crying again.Crooks momentarily froze before being washed over with a (rather undeserved) surge of guilt. “Oh…” He hid his mouth behind his hands. “Oh my. I… I’m sorry, little one. Please don’t cry.”Frankly, to a young human child, any adult they didn’t know was frightening. An adult with a scary face was definitely a monster that eats children. Crooks was well far and beyond the scariest thing a sheltered, innocent human child had ever been allowed to see in reality or fiction. And he was big, and that made it so much scarier.Crooks didn’t know what to do. The child was still crying. He just hoped his mother would come to console him and went back under the water. “Ya okay?”Crooks looked at Axe, sitting up from his nap and looking at him in concern. He reached up and felt little tears that he quickly wiped away. Axe’s eyes narrowed dangerously. He gritted his teeth and grabbed his axe. Crooks rushed over and quickly held his arm. “No, Axe, it’s okay.”“Yer cryin’,” he stated the obvious.“That’s, well… I accidentally frightened a child and felt bad about it. That’s all. You don’t need to hurt anyone over it.”Axe raised his eyebrows, surprised to get a genuine rebuke from his brother. He lowered his axe back onto the sand. “If ya say so, den fine.”Crooks frowned. Now he felt bad for being too harsh with Axe. He was just being his usual overprotective self. There had been no need to make it sound like he liked hurting people.“I’m sorry. I’m being rude.”“... Nah. S’ fine. Cryin’ kids’re hard ta deal wit’. Stressed ya out, dat’s all.”“Y-yes. That’s exactly it.”Up above, they heard rapid footsteps on the dock, and then a woman’s voice speaking loudly. It was too muffled to hear from underwater.“I should go apologize for scaring her child,” Crooks sighed.“Don’tcha mean say yer welcome fer helpin’ ‘em?”Crooks blinked. “You were awake for that?”“Nah.” Axe rubbed the back of his skull. “Can’t think of any other reason ya’d be talkin’ ta a human kid ‘cept if ya were helpin’ em. What’d he trip n’ cut himself or somethin’?”“He fell in and couldn’t swim,” Crooks said mutely.Axe’s eyes went wide in shock. “Ya saved his damn life an’ he made ya cry?” Axe gripped his axe handle hard, but he didn’t lift it. He just laughed to himself dangerously. “Oh man do I hate lil’ brats. He’d better hope he don’t fall in here again…”“You quit that,” Crooks frowned. “I’ll be back in a moment.”Crooks hid his teeth behind his hands preemptively and poked his head out of the water. A human woman jumped, but quickly collected herself. “There you are! Finally! Did you pull my son into the water?”“Pardon me?” Crooks was caught off guard. Clearly the child hadn’t recovered enough to tell his mother what had happened yet.“Did you pull my son into the water?” the woman repeated. “He’s soaking wet and crying about a scary mermaid! I don’t care if you wanted to play, he can’t swim! You have to talk with the parents first before messing with their kids. I could report you!”“Excuse me, ma’am, but I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Crooks said patiently. “I didn’t pull your son into the water; I pulled him out of it. He fell off the dock and I saw that he wasn’t swimming up on his own.”The woman stopped her bout of indignant rage short and gave her child a perplexed look. “Adrian, is that true? Did you fall off the dock?”The kid was still sniffling and couldn’t really speak, but he nodded. Suddenly, the woman looked horribly embarrassed. “Oh… god--I’m so sorry. I just assumed… I’m sorry. Thank you for saving my son.”“That’s alright. I’m glad he wasn’t hurt.”The woman nodded and sighed. “Adrian, why are you still crying? Come here and thank the nice mermaid for helping you.” She turned a curious eye to Crooks. “By the way, why have you been covering your mouth this whole time?”“Oh, well, I’m… waiting on a visit to the dentist. They look pretty bad. I didn’t want to scare him again.”“Ahh.” The woman nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry about that.” She coaxed the kid out from behind her, and he gave Crooks a proper thank you, and then they walked back to the beach.“Thanks again,” the woman waved. “Good luck with your dentist appointment.”“Thank you,” Crooks smiled behind his hands and sank back underwater. “Well, that cleared up fairly well.”Axe stared at him quietly. He hadn’t missed Crooks hiding his teeth to talk with the surface-dwellers. “...Dat’s good.”He pulled out his phone to consult his notes, anxious to see how close he was to having enough to pay for Crooks’ treatment. The numbers were honestly pretty good. They improved his mood somewhat.And then, before he put the phone back down, he got a text from an unknown number.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A shiny shoe clacked down on the pavement at the edge of the town. Sliding up a pair of pressed black pants, a tidy red dress shirt, and a sleek black vest was a shark-toothed smile. The broadly-built skeleton man had a jacket slung over his shoulder, a fedora on his head, and a fat cigar between his teeth. Magical red smoke drifted up when he exhaled, taking in the scenery. There was a cool breeze due to the waterfront, and it smelled like salt, fish, and trees. He could see all the way down to the docks from here.“As always, a real quiet-like place.”He grinned and bit down on the tip of his cigar, a single gold tooth flashing in a mouth full of sharp teeth.“Ain’t even any taxis. Ya might as well’ve retired in the countryside. Oh well.”Hit repositioned his jacket on his shoulder and began the walk down to his cousin’s house. *** Edge and Papyrus were supposed to meet Axe and Crooks by the shore in about an hour, so naturally they were making sure everything was tidied up at home before that. “I’m going to help Rus get dressed,” Edge called, holding the toddler’s hand as they started up the stairs. “Alright,” Papyrus called back. “Bring a hat! It might get chilly by the water today if the clouds come out.”Edge snorted that he didn’t need to be reminded.The soft skeleton went back to humming and packing the many picnic baskets lined up on the counter. A knock at the front door soon pulled him away.“Just a moment!”He’d been touching foodstuffs, so he rinsed and dried his hands before opening the front door. Papyrus found himself eye-level with a thick cigar and a wide, shark-toothed grin.“Hey there, coz. Long time no see.”The man was taller than Edge even with his usual heels on, and he had an impressive build for a skeleton monster. (His arms were as thick as some humans’ legs!) Though, his tidy, well-dressed appearance made him look more like the kind of guy to talk his way through most situations. Papyrus was surprised to see him here, since Edge didn’t seem to get along with his cousin very well, but he smiled regardless.“Well this is a surprise! It’s nice to see you again, Hit. To what do we owe the visit?”“Mind if I come in first?” he drawled in a smooth Brooklyn accent.“Oh, of course! Make yourself at home.”Papyrus led the way back into the living room, and Hit politely closed the door behind himself.“I apologize for the mess. We’re getting ready for a picnic with some friends soon.”“Ya got a lotta good friends, huh,” Hit commented, taking a seat on the couch while he eyed the many cute baskets.“More everyday, I hope,” Papyrus chuckled. He spotted Hit’s cigar again and smiled that it had clearly been extinguished. “So how have you been lately?”“Oh, the usual,” he shrugged. “The family business’s eatin’ up my life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Bro still has that stick up his—er, you know. Dad’s healthy. Little lady’s still a wildcat.” Hit relocated his cigar from between his teeth to between his fingers. “How about here? Heard ya had a kid.”“Rus, yes. He’s doing quite well, thank you. Edge is upstairs right now helping him get dressed. You can meet him when they come down.” Papyrus rinsed an empty jar in the sink and dropped it into the recycling. “So what inspired this sudden visit?”“Ah,” Hit rubbed the back of neck. “Wish I could say I came just for a family reunion, but it’s actually business.”“Business? Out here?” Papyrus tilted his head in confusion.“Not exactly. I’m just here to meet a potential business partner, but I figured I might as well stop by. It ain’t often I’m in your neighborhood, after all.”“I see. Well, whatever the case, we’re happy to have you. I should have offered sooner, but would you like anything to drink?”“Some water would be good. Thanks.”“It’s no trouble at all.”Papyrus went to fill a cup in the sink, and Hit took a good look around. Edge’s place was tidy and clean. There were lots of bright colors and flowery patterns that made him think Papyrus had done the decorating. On a house, it kind of worked, though it wasn’t really to Hit’s taste. Now if only that cheerful saint could do something about his abysmal taste in clothing.On a different note, there weren’t any obvious security cameras lying around. Nor were there any hidden cameras or wiretaps, according to the quick electronic sweep he’d done around the outside before coming in. There was a low creak, and Hit turned his head. Edge was standing on the bottom step of the stairs, barricading Rus behind him and glaring harshly at Hit.“Why are you in my house?” he demanded icily.“Aw, come on. Not even a hello?”“Why are you here?”Hit bit his cigar again, but he knew better than to light it around Papyrus, even though the itch was there in the back of his mind. “Just stoppin’ by while I take care of a little errand,” Hit shrugged. He directed a nod at Rus, “Cute kid.”Edge gritted his teeth, wanting to tell the man to just leave, but unable to ignore what he’d just said.“An errand,” he echoed coldly. “Here? Where I work?” Edge snorted, “Why not just save yourself some time? Grab the gun I’m sure you have on you and shoot yourself in the foot.”Hit cocked an eyebrow. “Ya know, you really oughta work on those diplomacy skills.” Hit glanced back at Papyrus, standing uncertainly in the kitchen with a glass of water clasped in his hands. He curled a finger in a beckoning gesture and, to Edge’s absolute fury, Papyrus delivered the drink to him. Hit took a sip at his own goddamn pace and then set the glass on an end table.“There ain’t really a need to get so worked up about it,” he said patiently. “I’m meetin’ someone here, but the business is gonna happen elsewhere. I’m hurt that you think I’d mess with your life like that.”“I thought that was your job,” Edge said snidely.“Business is business,” Hit shrugged. “You’re family. And your family is family. You guys get a pass.”“I’m touched. Please leave.”Hit stood up and took his jacket off the arm of the chair, folding it over his forearm. “Alright. I can tell when I’ve overstayed my welcome.” He looked at Papyrus, “Thanks for the hospitality. I appreciate it.”“O-of course! Anytime.” Papyrus winced slightly, realizing that he really didn’t have the right to offer a repeat occurrence given the current mood.If Hit noticed the tension in the room, he wasn’t bothered by it. He grinned down at Rus and tipped his hat.“As for you, little man, it was nice ta meetcha. Maybe we’ll see each other again someday.”Edge’s glare was smoldering, and Hit decided not to push it any further. “Alright, I’ll get outta yer hair.” He walked to the front door, opened it, and stopped. “Oh yeah, and you should probably tighten up the security around here. M’ pretty sure ya didn’t want info about those new sharks of yours gettin’ around yet. I had the boys block it. That and the location of their den. Yer welcome.”And then he was gone, and if there was any furniture within reach, Edge would have thrown it at where he’d been.Papyrus approached slowly and smiled down at Rus. “Would you go up to your room for a few more minutes, Rus? I’d like to have a little talk with your mother in private.”“Okay.” Rus held the railing tightly and scaled back up the steps, and Papyrus quirked an eyebrow at his husband.“You implied that we were keeping distance from your extended family due to a minor difference of opinions,” he reminded. “From what I saw just now, I got the distinct feeling there’s more to it than that. Do I get to hear about it?”Edge gritted his teeth and growled, “Let’s go have a seat first and I’ll explain.” *** Hit took a short stroll through town and found his way to the local bank and money exchange center. He pushed open the door and flashed a smile at the lone attendant currently present at the front counter. Taking a quick look around, he spotted two doors behind the counter, each with a simple gold placard pinned to it. One read David, and the other Marsha. “Can I help you, sir?” the attendant asked.“Sure ya can, dollface. Is your manager in?”The attendant blinked and put up a reflexive barrier after being called something as foreign to this region as “dollface”. “She is, yes. What do you need with her?”Hit made to reach into his breast pocket. “Well, see, the thing is--ah shit. Hang on, I forgot the thing. I’ll hafta come back.”Hit walked back outside the building, went somewhere he wouldn’t be noticed, and vanished in a puff of red smoke. When he reappeared, it was in David’s office. It was completely empty and all the lights were off. Hit ignored that and turned on the computer. While it booted up, he made himself comfortable.From there, he opened the control panel, found the ip address and a few other tidbits, and texted them to a contact named Alpha. Hit leaned back and watched as applications opened and filtered data without any input from him. Soon, what he needed was pulled up on screen. ‘Nice. Thanks, Alph,’ he texted. No response. Typical.Hit pocketed his phone and scanned the documents. Alright, so there were the dates and the exchange amounts. There was the video footage of the meroctopus who made the deposits… And there was the name on the account the funds were ultimately transferred to. Hit smiled dangerously.‘Bingo. My hunch was right. Pull up his recent online activity for me would ya, Alph?’Hit closed all the applications and shut off the PC, teleporting back out of the office. He found a bench down by the docks where he could enjoy the nice breeze and sat down to wait for the data transfer. It took a few minutes to come through; a pretty big file and a text from Alpha.‘Oh yeah, he’s desperate,’ it read.Hit ran his eyes over the various google searches and chuckled wryly to himself.‘Great, thanks. My turn.’Alpha sent him one last text with a phone number attached, and Hit immediately sent a message to it.‘Real nice weather today, ain’t it?’ *** Before the conversation had started in earnest, Papyrus had sent an apologetic text to the mer monsters that they might not be able to meet today. At least not in a timely matter. This talk needed to happen and it was likely to take some time. It wasn’t like Papyrus had never met Edge’s family before or knew nothing about his upbringing. He knew his parents had died before he was a teenager and their close friends had taken him in. Hit and Edge mutually considered themselves something like cousins, but legally, they were closer to brothers.
“Nah, Paps. My dad and his were bros. Can’t just forget them and take ‘em outta the equation like that.”
Hit, his brother, his father, and so on; those people valued family extremely highly. They were open and friendly too, as far as Papyrus’s experience went. Edge had stubbornly kept their dating secret, but when he told his adoptive family that he was in love and leaving to a remote harbor town to marry his hitherto unknown lover, they were shockingly supportive. They were ready to throw a big party and an even bigger wedding and wholeheartedly welcomed him into their fold. Edge had insisted on a smaller wedding instead, with only close family members present. That was honestly where Papyrus had met them for the first time. They really had been kind to him, and they had apparently heard a lot about him. It was a warm welcome, but he had almost never seen them again, and Edge never talked about them in any detail. “Could you repeat that?” Papyrus asked softly. “I said they’re in the mafia,” Edge cut bitterly. “They’re dangerous, and I don’t want them anywhere near you or Rus.”“But they seemed like such nice people when I met them,” the soft skeleton said helplessly. “They’re not base criminals, Papyrus. Mafia organizations are built on the principle that family are the only people you can trust. Of course they’d be good to us.” Edge clenched his fists in his lap. “But they’re still criminals: murderers, thieves, blackmailers, and kidnappers. If they’re allowed free reign, anybody who mildly “disrespects” you on the streets could turn up dead or missing.”Papyrus tugged at his shirt collar. That… certainly didn’t sound good. “I didn’t know about it for a long time,” Edge continued. “But even then… I did notice people disappear occasionally. I was furious when I found out.”“Do they know you’re in law enforcement now?” Papyrus asked carefully. “They know. It doesn’t bother them, and I hate that. They probably think it’s some kind of rebellious phase and that I’ll start contributing to the family business someday.” He scowled, “They have enough people with positions at least as prestigious as mine in their pockets that they aren’t the least bit concerned I might actually show them to justice.”“You mean they’re paying off guards and policemen?”“Paying them off, blackmailing them, or they were part of the mafia to start with.”“Oh dear.”Edge took in the nervous look on his husband’s face and sighed. “It’s a lot worse than you think. Believe me. So many people owe them one way or another that they can get away with whatever they want—as long as they’re not grossly public about it. I’m fairly certain this is the largest town around that doesn’t have its leadership under their thumb. I’m proud of that, but I know they’re only staying away as a favor to me. I suppose, as the adopted son of the family head, I have the privilege to not participate.”They sat in silence for a few beats.“I never told you because knowing about things like this tends to invite trouble.” The image of Hit just relaxing in his home on his couch flashed in Edge’s mind, “But being too ignorant is dangerous in its own right.” He pinched his nasal ridge, “I’m sorry. I did everything I could to keep you out of it and to get out myself.”“I don’t regret being with you,” Papyrus cut straight to the heart of Edge’s anxiety with one easy stroke. “But I am a little worried. You never hear about gangs in this day and age. I rather thought they weren’t prevalent anymore.”Edge grimaced. “No, I’m afraid they just got smarter about how they do their business.”“I see.” Papyrus lowered his head, and Edge wished he had something good to tell him.“Hit being here isn’t a good sign. Just in case, I’m going to teach you certain things to look out for. If you see anything suspicious, call me immediately, got it? I more or less trust my family not to do anything drastic, but I don’t have the same faith in their enemies, and I won’t take any chances with you and Rus.”“I understand.” *** Axe looked at the message in confusion. This number wasn’t saved to his contacts. Who was this person and why were they asking him about the weather of all things?‘Who dis?’ he shot back.‘I’m your new best pal.’ The next text came before Axe could respond, ‘Heard you’re lookin’ fer a good doctor.’Now, Axe just didn’t know what to say.‘How’dya know dat?’ he asked stupidly.‘’Cause I know everything. The name’s Hit, and as it just so happens, I’m acquainted with some real good doctors.’‘Where’re ya, what’re ya, whaddaya want, an’ what’re ya offerin’?’ Axe threw back mercilessly.‘Heh. I like ya already. How ‘bout we go meet by that big warehouse, huh? Talk face to face.’“Hm…”“Who are you texting, brother?”“I dunno, but he wants ta talk in person.” Axe’s fingertips twitched toward his dead socket, but he resisted. “I wanna hear wha’ he’s gotta say.”“Shall I go with you?”Axe hesitated, then he reluctantly nodded. They knew where the big warehouse was. It was just at the edge of the shopping area, on the opposite side of the docks from the woods where they usually met the land skeletons.It was an out-of-the-way, unpopulated place. The only times there were people there were when the ships were being loaded or unloaded. Axe poked his eyes out of the water and saw a stocky land skeleton in fancy clothes leaning against the side of the building and blowing smoky red magic into the air. He locked eyes with Axe and grinned a friendly yet predatory grin.“Hey. Glad ya could make it.”Crooks popped up next to Axe, and the land skeleton’s grin twisted wryly.“And yer bro, too. A pleasure. The name’s Hit.”Crooks’ small sockets widened a fraction. It was very rare that someone didn’t even flinch their first time seeing him.“The pleasure is mine,” he said in mild shock. “My name is Crooks.”The land skeleton grinned and pinched a brown stick between his teeth, blowing out more of the red smoke.“So. Shall we get straight ta business?”Axe grunted his permission.“The deal is this,” Hit started, “You do me a little favor fer a few days, and I introduce ya to a good doctor.” He grinned wider and flashed his gold tooth. “Not a ton of dentists know how to treat skeletons, but I can personally vouch for this one.” He waved the hand holding his cigar. “And, by “introduce ya,” I mean I’ll make arrangements fer any transportation that ya need. Includin’ the logistics of gettin’ a water-breather to a surface hospital.”Now that Crooks realized what kind of discussion this was, he was hanging back quietly; shy and embarrassed, but hopeful.“Wha’s da favor?” Axe asked.“Heh. Glad ya axed,” Hit winked. Axe’s smile twitched up a fraction despite himself, but the land skeleton transitioned smoothly and immediately back into business mode. “See, I’m a businessman,” he smiled dashingly, pointing at his broad chest. “I ain’t been using this place, but it’s still my territory. Problem is, some people seem ta have forgotten that. I wanna remind ‘em in a flashy sorta way.”Axe was giving him an ‘enough of your bullshit fancy talk’ look, so Hit wrapped his presentation up.“In two weeks, boats with a red seal on the bottom’re gonna start poppin’ up around here. When ya see one, follow it. Then, if anything happens to fall into the ocean while yer watching, pile it up on a nearby island. There’ll be three ships you gotta do it for.”Axe tapped out a note of the details and glared at Hit. “Deal.” He displayed a smile so insane and deadly that even Crooks was startled back, but Hit took it without backing down. Even if his expression showed he knew he was looking into the jaws of death, he still wore a challenging smile.“If ya try n’ pull out, ya’d better not come within’ a hundred miles of any ocean ever again. I will tear ya ta pieces.”Hit chuckled. “Like I said: I’m a businessman. A promise is worth its weight in gold; breaking ‘em is bad for business.”Axe just chuckled and sank back under the waves with Crooks right behind him. Hit took a long drag on his cigar and blew it out slowly. The weather really was nice today, so he decided to walk back to the town entrance and enjoy it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Red had finished his hunting for the day. He was hanging out in the den, leaning against the side of the couch and watching Sans play some stupid app game. Steady purrs rolled out of his chest. Sans beat a level and glanced over at his mate, chuckling. “What’s up, big guy?”“Nothin’," Red rumbled.“You’re purring a lot.”“M’ happy.”“What about?”“Dunno.”Sans smiled. It was fine to be happy about nothing in particular. Sometimes that was the best kind of happiness.“Well, I’m glad you’re in a good mood,” the mermaid chuckled. “I’m still waiting for the random rage fits now that you’re pregnant again.”“M’ in too good a mood ta get angry,” Red hummed, leaning his skull against Sans’s. Sans raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t protest. Although, he was pretty certain Red switched moods faster than anyone else he’d ever met. The only exception might be Axe, but he was crazy and had a hole in his skull nearly big enough for Sans to fit his whole skull inside of it. If that was what Red was competing with, his emotional landscape was a damn harsh environment indeed.And Sans could somehow make him happy no matter what was going on in there.“Any idea where the kids ran off to?" Sans asked idly. "Nuh-uh," Red mumbled. "But they're fine.""Are you sure?" the small blue mermaid teased. "You didn't notice when Blueberry went nuts with his magic or when Blackberry got mad enough to bite Undyne's hand off."The meroctopus pouted. "That ain't my fault. Apparently, it's hard ta focus on that shit in the middle of havin' sex.""Heheh, yeah." Sans gave Red's cheek a pat to show he really was only having a little fun. "But they handled it by themselves pretty well. I guess you were right when you said Stretch and Blackberry are pretty much fine on their own. Heck, even Blue's getting close to that point, which is kinda surprising." Red just tilted his head, and Sans chuckled. "It's not a huge difference, but he's developing a little faster than mermaids usually do. You didn't notice?""Nope.""Well, I guess it's hard to notice compared to the other two."Sans went back to playing with his app. Red snuggled up to him and went back to purring. *** It started as a game of hide and seek. Blueberry was determined not to get caught, so he resolved to swim as far as he could in a straight line in the time he had to hide. Once he went a certain distance, he couldn’t hear MK counting anymore and he just kind of kept swimming. When he realized he’d gone too far, he hung his head. The countdown had definitely stopped, but he’d kept moving against the rules. It was an automatic loss. Blueberry turned around to start swimming back and caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. Looking more closely… It was a ship! Already almost totally submerged in the water and still sinking!The young mermaid’s eyes went wide and he swam over at top speed. As soon as he thought he might be close enough to be heard, he started shouting. “Does anyone need help?! Is anybody drowning?!”Though, once he was almost on top of the vessel, he noticed the smell of blood on the water. He slapped a hand over his mouth when a human corpse floated by. He suddenly felt sick. Before this ship went down, something terrible must have happened on it. Still, determined to help where he could, he started searching inside every cabin for survivors. Every human he found had been stabbed or slashed or pierced or burnt to death. But he didn’t give up until checking the very last room. And he was glad he did. Inside was a survivor. A skeleton mer no less. His breathing was shallow, and he was heavily wounded. The right half of his skull was all but melted away, his ribs were laced with cracks and leaking red magic. His red tail was ripped off after the first foot or so, so Blueberry wasn’t sure if he were a mermaid, mershark, or lamia. Then again, he was about Sans’s size, so he was much too small to be a mershark unless he was still a child.“Hey!” Blueberry bolted over and held the mer gently. “Please don’t die yet, okay?!”Blueberry called out for help with his soul, and suddenly the room was more full of bones and squishy red tentacles than water. Red quashed a complaint at being called for from such a tight space and spotted the two tiny mermaids he had somehow avoided crushing.“Dad, please! This person needs help!”Red looked at the mangled monster in shock. He shook his head. “He’s in bad shape, sweetheart. We need Crooks fer this.”Red held the stranger gently in a tentacle and pulled Blueberry into his arms. Suddenly they were in the den’s healing room. Blueberry swam off immediately and dragged Crooks back in record time. He hadn’t explained anything to the confused mershark, but Crooks understood when he saw the severely wounded creature. “I’ll do whatever I can,” he said and went straight to work. “What happened to him?” Red asked. “I don’t know,” Blueberry confessed. “I found a sinking ship and went to help rescue people. When I got there, all the humans were dead already, and he was like this.”They left the room to give Crooks quiet to work his magic. It was a whole seven hours later when the gangly skeleton mer slid tiredly out of the healing room. “Y’alright, bro?” Axe asked quietly, holding up his younger brother so he didn’t have to use energy to stay buoyant. He had started to worry when he heard Blueberry had found a sinking ship, but according to the dates he had saved, it wasn't time for the marked ships Hit had mentioned to start appearing.“It was a close call,” Crooks held his forehead. “He should wake up in the morning though.”“Thank you!” Blueberry swam up to hug the mershark healer, and Crooks blushed a pale pink. “Oh, d-don’t mention it.” *** Geno opened his eyes slowly and processed the pale green coral ceiling above him, the kelp bed below, the water all around...He expected to be under water after the ship went down, but he didn’t expect to wake up again, let alone in a setting like this. This didn’t look like the inside of a shipwreck. Geno tried sitting up, but his head swam terribly. He reached up to feel where one of the humans had shot him. As he expected, there was a hole in his skull. But why was it so smooth around the edges? Like it had been melted instead of blown apart. Maybe it had to do with the excessive magic numbing drugs the poachers had pumped into his system. But actually, the hole felt smaller than he thought it should. At the time, he’d thought for sure it would kill him. Had his rescuers managed to heal it somewhat?More importantly, where was he right now? Where were his hypothetical rescuers?The butchered mermaid wasn’t left to ponder long. A young skeleton mermaid with an electric blue tail and eyes came into the room to check on him after only a few minutes. “You’re awake! Thank goodness!”Geno was surprised to be suddenly hugged by a stranger, but it didn’t last long. The little guy soon backed off and gave him a concerned smile. “Does it still hurt? Crooks tried really hard, but you were hurt really bad.”Geno stared at the stranger in confused awe. “Why did you save me?”“Why?” The young mermaid tipped his skull cutely. “Because you needed help!”Geno lowered his head, staring sullenly at the nub of his tail. “... You shouldn’t have.”The stranger shook his head firmly and smiled. “I’m Blueberry, but my friends call me Blue! What’s your name?”He sighed, “Geno.”“Nice to meet you, Geno!” Blueberry leaned in closer and spoke softly. “What happened on the boat? When I got there, everybody but you had been killed!” He leaned back again and pressed his hands into his lap. “Were you attacked?”Geno looked at the stranger being genuinely concerned about his situation. It felt… complicated.“I did it.”The kid’s eye sockets went wide. “What?”“I killed them. Sorry, but you saved a murderer.”He waited for the angry words, the cold shoulder. He waited to be left to die, unable to even swim without his tail. But Blueberry smiled sheepishly and played with his fingertips. “Um… I’m sure you probably had a reason. Right? I mean, dad and Axe killed people too, but it was because they had to.”Geno’s mouth hung open. All his experience and common sense had led him to believe that mermaids weren’t killers. Even given his circumstances, he was a pariah for bending to that impulse. This child made it sound so common!“You’re fine living with killers?”“It’s not like they would hurt us.”… This was insane. Geno wasn’t a member of this school—why was this child still talking to him after finding out he’d killed people?“So why did you kill those humans? Did they kidnap you? They kidnapped my mom once, but my dad rescued him.”Geno smiled bitterly. Maybe because this child had assumed his circumstances were similar to something he’d seen before; maybe that was why he acted so defenselessly. “Yeah, they did. Your mom was lucky.”“I’m lucky too! He was pregnant with me when it happened.”Geno looked up in shock, but Blueberry was already on his way out of the room. “I’m gonna go get Crooks. He needs to make sure you’re as healed as possible! Just wait here.”Geno chuckled humorlessly. How would he leave? How far could he get by crawling on his hands?He waited around for a minute, examining the divots in the coral. And then, a frantically apologetic voice drifted in from outside; soft, high-pitched, and with a noticeable lisp. “I’m so sorry! I meant to keep an eye on him, but I got caught up cooking lunch.”“It’s fine, I was watching him!” Blueberry said brightly, just as he rounded the corner to enter the room. Following right behind him was— Holy fucking stars! If Geno’s tail was still attached, he would have shot to the back wall automatically at the sight of the ocean horror now sharing a room with him. As it was, the involuntary tail contractions just launched him off the bed a little. First, it couldn’t be overstated, this thing was absolutely fucking huge! It must have been four or five times Geno’s size when he still had his tail. Despite growing so big, the creature was dangerously gaunt, and his malformed skeletal face was like something out of a nightmare. There was also something odd about the way he swam—and Geno noticed his lower half was a shark tail. What kind of monstrosity was this?!“Are you still in pain? You look rather ill.”Geno shook himself out of his frightened trance when the terror spoke. “I-it doesn’t hurt.”The mershark put a hand on his sternum and sighed. “Thank goodness. I would feel terrible if I did a poor job and left you in pain for so many hours.” He smiled, and Geno winced at those atrocious teeth twisting. “My name is Crooks. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”“I’m… Geno.”“So, Geno,” Blueberry butted in, “What kind of mer are you? Are you a mermaid like me? Maybe a Lamia? I’ve never seen a Lamia before.”“I’m a mermaid. What… what about… your friend?”“Crooks is a mershark.” He said it like it was an obvious and expected thing. What the hell was a mershark? How and why did those exist?!“I’ve, uh, never seen one before.”“That's not surprising,” Crooks had made himself busy fluffing up some new bedding for Geno. “Mermaids can’t go to the deep, and my brother and I only recently became able to survive in the shallows. We were both region-locked species until now.” He swam a little closer, and Geno flinched back. Crooks smiled softly. “Relax. I need to lift you up for a moment to change your bedding. I’ll be gentle.”What was Geno going to do? Resist? Run? All he could do was nod and let the giant, gangly mer do as he pleased. Though, Crooks was honest about being gentle with him. He handled things quite delicately considering his size... Or maybe it was just easy for someone his size to handle a smaller than average mermaid like Geno.Blueberry folded his arms and leaned against the edge of the bed while it was being remade. He stared curiously at the nub of Geno’s tail.“What happened to your tail?” he asked innocently.The small mermaid’s face twisted in bitter hatred. “Humans cut it off.”Blueberry was shocked. “But humans are so nice! They feed me snacks and take pictures with me!”Geno looked at him, baffled, but before he could ask just what the kid was talking about, the giant shark freak spoke up.“Alright, that’s enough for now, Blue. No need for prying questions. You can go back to playing.”“Are you sure? Is he gonna be okay?”“You don’t need to worry. I will take good care of him.”Blueberry smiled and nodded, swimming off to join in on another game. Everybody said Crooks was the best of the most amazing healers, so everything would be okay if he said so.Now that Geno was left alone with a creature straight out of his nightmares, he felt his tension steadily rising. Crooks set him on the neatly-made bed and smiled in apology. “If you can manage to relax, you’ll heal better. It seems like I’m not helping much.”Geno shook his head and succeeded in clearing his thoughts a little. Terrifying monstrosity? He certainly was, but this mershark had been nothing but kind to him. Hell, from the way it sounded, it was thanks to him that Geno was still alive at all. He should be more polite … But why did he feel such a looming sense of danger still? He really couldn’t calm down.“No, I’m sorry. You’ve been kind to me. I’m just still a little on edge from earlier.”Crooks smiled tiredly. “How diplomatic of you. Either way, you need to eat something. Lunch is almost ready. I’ll be right back with some food.”Crooks came back in a few minutes with some fish, and Geno obediently ate it. He was momentarily paralyzed. “It’s… delicious. Wow.”The mershark beamed and wrung his spindly hands. “You think so? I’m so glad you like it.”“Did… did you make this?”Crooks nodded shyly. “Green magic is really the only thing I’m good at, so I do most of the cooking and healing in this school.”“You’re a shark, but you don’t hunt?” Geno chuckled dryly. He felt a little bad about the comment when Crooks tucked in his chin.“Erm, no. I’m too weak for that. Red takes care of the hunting.”“Another mershark?”“Red is a meroctopus, actually.”Geno’s breath caught. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now. “There are meroctopuses in this school?”“Only Red and two of his children. And you don’t need to get worked up about it. They’re all fairly well-adjusted to life in a school.”“Are there actually any mermaids here besides that kid?”“It’s mostly mermaids,” Crooks said. “There are—well, let’s see… ten mermaids, three meroctopuses, and two mersharks. One more meroctopus on the way. Be very careful if you run into Red. I’m told he got awfully cranky the last time he was expecting.”Unfortunately, Geno’s face probably showed exactly what he was thinking: I’ve been taken into a den of demons. Crooks was looking at him though, so he quickly hid the expression and tried a different topic.“You’re brother’s the other mershark, right? Does he hunt?”To his surprise, Crooks shook his head. “My brother makes and fixes traps and sleeps a lot.” Crooks smiled sadly and sighed a little. “You’re lucky. That wound to your skull didn’t go very deep and left your mind mostly untouched. I should be able to fix it in just a few weeks.”That was a sudden subject change, but... Weeks, huh? That was a long time, but it was amazing that he could fix it at all.“Well, I guess I’ve got time.”Crooks shot him a glare that was maybe only ten percent serious. “It would be faster and easier if you didn’t have a red soul. Monsters like you and my brother can tank injuries like no one else, but your magic warps around them and becomes so much harder to set right.”“I’ve never heard that before,” Geno murmured, genuinely surprised by the news.“Well, it takes an awful lot of determination for the differences to become obvious,” Crooks answered. “Anyway, After your head is better, I’ll get to work on your tail, and then you’ll be free to return to your life.”“You can fix my tail?!” Geno shot up. He’d known plenty of healers, but regrowing another person’s limbs was impossible. Reattaching could be done, but regrowing? He’d never heard of someone doing that before! Crooks automatically curled into a defensive posture, small eye sockets widening. It was weird to see such a large creature back off so easily.“Um… yes?”Geno blinked and laid himself back down. “... You’re pretty skittish for such a big guy.”“Axe is the fighter, not me. I’m also,” he rubbed the sides of his skull, “not used to hearing shouting except when people are fighting.”That was so… weird. The hell was this giant terrifying shark monstrosity doing being afraid of a small, tailless mermaid like him?“Sorry… Axe is your brother, I guess?”“Yes.”Geno tried to think of something else to say, but that overbearing feeling was still pressing down on him. Feelings of being somewhere he shouldn’t; of being in mortal danger.“You killed a lot of people,” Crooks said softly, and Geno startled out of the daze he’d unknowingly entered.“You’re a mermaid, but I get a sense from you like you were from the deep like my brother, myself, or Red. I wonder… can you feel anything strange?”Geno stared at the mershark with wide eyes and slowly lowered his head. “I feel like I wandered into someplace really dangerous,” he started cautiously.Crooks gasped, “I knew it! Red’s marked several areas in this den with his magic. It permeates everywhere and wards of predators and outsiders.” He suddenly looked very nervous, lowering his head, wringing his hands, and speaking much more softly. “If… if you can sense that, can you perhaps sense anything else?”Geno looked directly at the mershark and decided to just be honest. “I feel like you’re going to eat me.”Crooks winced hard and avoided making eye contact. “I… I see… I’m terribly sorry about that. I haven’t done anything like that lately—it’s against policy in this school—but I can’t help but think about it sometimes.” The mershark smiled awkwardly. “Actually, I haven’t eaten dinner yet, and frankly it isn’t helping. The others must be wondering where I am as well. I’d better go join them. You just stay here and… try to relax.” He paused momentarily at the door. “... I’m truly very sorry. I know being looked at like prey feels unpleasant. I’ll take better care for next time.””Uh, sure.” Crooks left, and Geno rolled over, hugging himself. He was surrounded by murderous, monster-eating demons, and he couldn’t even swim to get away. ... He could probably just consider it punishment for all the people he killed. They had been living garbage, but it was still an objectively wrong thing to do.... But what was worse was that these demons were being nice to him when he had done something so terrible.Geno felt tears welling up, and he just let them silently get carried off by the current. He had needed to cry for a long time; now was fine.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Geno was left alone for some time; probably until everyone else in the school had finished eating lunch. After that though, someone he hadn’t met yet came to visit him. This time it was a mermaid (thank stars): a large goat woman with soft white fur and a gentle gaze.“Hello, dear. I am Toriel, cofounder of this school. I apologize for taking so long to greet you.”Geno propped himself up on his arms. “Oh, uh, don’t worry about it. It sounds like you’re taking me in for a while, so thanks.”“Of course, you are most welcome.”Toriel found a place to rest comfortably and settled in. “Now then. If you don’t mind, I’d like for you to tell me what happened.”Geno’s fists automatically gripped the kelp bedding and squeezed it. His expression was blank for a moment, without even his eyelight showing, but he forced on a somewhat natural-looking smile. “Is the short version fine?”The goat lady nodded. “Yes, that will do.”He sighed and made himself relax. “Humans attacked my den and captured everyone. Once they had us on their ship, they finished us off one by one. They saved me for last, but their tranquilizers wore off, and I killed them all instead.”He’d spoken about death so callously. This time, definitely, he would be kicked out.Toriel reached out and put a large fluffy hand on one of his. “I am very sorry for your loss,” she said with downcast eyes.Geno stared at her and felt tears welling up again. “What is wrong with you people?” he hiccuped. “I’m a murderer. I’d do it again if I was back there. Why are you being so nice?”Toriel let him sob for a minute, keeping his hand warm and safe. Slowly, she started to explain herself.“It would have been hard to warmly welcome you if I were myself from a few years ago,” she confessed. “Maybe, given some time… but it would have been a long process.” She looked at Geno with a gaze that made him shiver, filled with nothing but warmth and acceptance. “However, my world has expanded since then. Some of the sweetest and kindest people I know have done absolutely terrible things. They were hurt badly in the past, and they came here to heal. Now they are my precious family.”She squeezed his hand, and he could do nothing to stop the flood of tears.“No matter who you were or what you have done in the past, I see no reason why you should be any different. Especially if you have no one to return to. You are welcome here.” *** “I-I’m surprised we settled that so fast,” Alphys mentioned, bringing her plate over to help Asgore with dish duty.“Yes, the vote was unanimous on the first take,” the goat mer chuckled.“Ya sure trust mermaids, huh?” Axe teased from back by the table. “Or’s dere some secret rule where anyone who ends up in yer sick room gets a free pass?”Undyne swam over and flicked him on the forehead. She folded her arms while he grinned at her menacingly.“Wrong. We just thought if a freak like you can fit in here, anybody can. And we all voted for him to stay, remember?”Red and Axe chimed in at the same time.“I voted yes ‘cause Crooks wanted him ta stay.”“I only said yes ‘cause Angel did.”Undyne bared her teeth. “Do you guys understand how a vote works?! Jeez! Toriel already went in there!”“Y-you guys aren’t against it, though, right?” Alphys asked. “S’long as he’s nice ta Crooks,” Axe shrugged.“R-red?”The meroctopus held his mate to his chest like a protective shield. “He’s fine with it,” Sans answered. He wasn’t totally sure if it was true, but he said so anyway just to free Red from the pressure of answering. “Whatever,” Undyne sighed. “We already voted, so he stays in this school until he decides to leave or majorly screws up.” *** “Dinner is almost ready,” Crooks called sweetly. Toriel, his assistant chef, looked over her shoulder, “Stretch, dear, would you please go invite Geno to join us?”Stretch had just been lounging by the table, sucking on a lollipop while staring at his phone. He froze and looked up slowly when he was called on.It wasn’t surprising. Stretch was called on all the time to help the adults with little chores, tasks, or shopping trips. Asking for him first was almost a habit now. But he wished Toriel would remember that he had trouble with strangers.Stretch took a deep, calming breath and tried to rein in his social anxiety. He’d been working on this every day he went to the surface town. This was just one mermaid; he could handle it.“M’kay. I’ll go get him.”Of course, it was an effort; it wasn’t easy. As he swam down the hall, Stretch’s mind went to places it really didn’t need to be exploring right now. For example, how this would be his first meeting with a mermaid who had single-handedly killed an entire ship full of humans, and who probably had a bad impression of meroctopuses. Stretch paused for a moment, set a hand on his sternum, and took another deep breath. Mermaids had the “talk first” instinct, he reminded himself. Even if things looked bad, he had at least one verbal exchange to figure that out and get out of there.Stretch arrived at the healing room and peeked his head around the doorway. Yup, there he was. Seeing a skeleton mermaid around Sans’s size reminded Stretch of his dad. A little bit of his anxiety went away.“Hey,” he called.Geno stopped staring at the ceiling and looked at where the voice had come from. He propped himself up on his arms to see a little better. There was a skeleton mermaid kid peeking into the room. “Uh, hi?”“Tori said to invite you to dinner.”“Oh, uh… thanks.”“Do you need help swimming?” Geno frowned down at his nub of a tail. “...That would be easier.”“M’kay.” He almost swam in to help right then, but hesitated. Stretch didn’t think he was anything to get worked up about compared to Crooks, but it was probably better to be careful. “Hey, uh, fair warning: I’m a meroctopus. Don’t attack me or anything, okay?”Geno’s whole body froze on a reflex. Wh...at? “The shocked stare isn’t reassuring.”Geno snapped out of it, shaking his head and sighing. “Uh, sorry. Look, I don’t even care anymore. The common sense I’m used to clearly doesn’t apply here.”Stretch took a moment, then nodded. He came into the room and noted Geno’s hidden, curious glances at his lower half. Stretch held out a hand and pulled Geno up into his arms the way Red always held Sans. Stretch wasn’t that much bigger than Geno, but it worked just fine. Stretch decided to talk while they walked.“I don’t know how much you know about the people here. Want some pointers for how to deal with them?”Geno considered the terrifying creatures he would likely see in the next room and nodded. “Yes, please.”“Alright. First, don’t go near my mom; people stress him out. Be nice to Crooks; his brother is really protective of him. Undyne, the blue fish lady, is loud but she means well. Black, my youngest brother, has a bad mouth, but don’t let him get under your skin. He’s a nice guy deep down, he’s just bad at expressing it. Oh yeah, and don’t be mean to my dad, or my mom will get mad.”Geno ran some quick numbers in his head. “Crooks said there were only three meroctopuses in this school, but you listed at least five.”“It’s kind of a pain to explain it over and over,” Stretch sighed. “Monsters can breed between types by touching their souls together, wishing for kids, and using up a ton of magic. So technically, my brothers and I are all half mermaid and half meroctopus; our ectobiology just takes after whatever our mom was.”Geno was still trying to process that when they arrived at the kitchen. Monsters breeding between types was huge news—huge enough that he could almost just ignore the fact that a mermaid and a meroctopus had apparently fallen in love and had three (soon to be four) mixed offspring. If he’d had any doubts about the authenticity of that absurd idea, they were dispelled when he actually saw the cuddly couple waiting at the table with everyone else. Stretch set Geno down in an open chair, and Geno gritted his teeth, focusing his gaze on his food. He didn’t need to pay attention to the giant, battle-scarred meroctopus cuddling a chubby blue mermaid in his lap, or the equally giant mershark who wouldn’t stop staring at him. He really tried not to look there, but it was clear now how a conversation about Crooks’ brother had transitioned into a talk about head injuries. Geno wondered if he looked that bad and hoped it was at least a little less gory to look at in his case.There were three massive mer creatures crowded around the table with the normal-sized mermaids (and young meroctopuses), and it was kind of debatable which of them looked the scariest. Right now, though, Axe was definitely the one making him the most uncomfortable. ‘Be nice to Crooks’ Stretch had warned him. It was a little late for that warning, and he hoped he hadn’t been too rude to the mershark healer when they’d first met. Perhaps he had crossed some line, if the strong sense of being warned off he was getting from Axe really wasn’t his imagination. There weren’t any words to it, only feelings, so it was hard to interpret. Open your mouth if you want to say something to me, Geno thought frustratedly, staring hard at the food on his plate.If the people gathered here were everyone in this school, it was a very small school. Geno had come from a small school himself, but they still numbered around fifty. Almost half of the people here were kids too. The hunting and fighting strength of a school this small was nowhere near sufficient to protect and raise them… or not. They had collected some massive and terrifying members. Crooks said he was weak and that his brother didn’t hunt, but… he couldn’t believe that gigantic shark people were unable to defend themselves, and he had seen how viscous meroctopuses could get when their territory was invaded.As long as they wanted to protect this school, it would probably be safe. On the other hand, now the greatest dangers to these mermaids were all gathered up and living in their den.Geno accidentally looked up from his plate for a second and met gazes with a young meroctopus who had sharp teeth and an ill-tempered scowl. Before anything could transpire, a male goat mer sitting next to Toriel announced that it was time to eat, and they broke eye contact.The food was delicious. Truly. Crooks had probably cooked and ate sentient beings like this in the past, but he made really good food. Geno couldn’t have been disgusted eating it even if he’d wanted to.“Since this is Geno’s first time meeting most of us,” Toriel started, interrupting a few bubbles of casual chatter, “Why do we not introduce ourselves?” She turned to him and set a hand on her chest. “As you already know, my name is Toriel, and I am one of the cofounders of this school. I assist with childbirth and rearing, and I used to be our main cook and healer, before Crooks joined us and did a far better job than I could.”The lanky mershark wasn’t eating the delicious food he’d prepared. Instead, he was sipping from some strange, brightly colored container. He blushed bright pink when Toriel called him out.“Toriel please,” he murmured. She just smiled and then patted the male goat mermaid’s hand. “You go next, dear.”They went around the table, and Geno learned everybody’s names and a little bit about them. Of course, he had to introduce himself at the end.“My name’s Geno,” he clenched his fists in his lap, “and I’m all that’s left after my school was captured, butchered, and killed by human poachers.”A heavy atmosphere settled around the table, but it was quickly dispelled by Black getting up and thumping Geno on the forehead with a summoned bone. “Unacceptable. Nobody asked about that. Try again and tell us something about yourself that actually matters.”Geno held the spot where he’d been hit and stared at the child in shock. “You’re saying that doesn’t matter?” he glared. Black folded his arms in a dominating pose. “What happened to you and who you are are different things, imbecile. Tell me you hate humans! Tell me you aren’t afraid to defend yourself! Tell me what you do, not what was done to you!”Geno just stared at the kid in shock for a while, until some chuckling from Toriel and Sans broke the silence. Geno set his jaw and sat up straighter. “Fine. My name is Geno, and I’m an attack mage.”Toriel covered her mouth to muffle her giggling. “Welcome to our school, Geno.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Geno spent a lot of time in bed in the healing room. That couldn’t be helped; he could hardly swim without a tail. He could drag himself around with his arms if he really wanted to, but that was slow and embarrassing, so he preferred not to. The children of the school gave him a decent amount of company, mostly because they were dragged along by Blue’s energy, and sometimes he got visits from Toriel or Asgore. The person he interacted most with was Crooks, though.
Well, obviously. Crooks was the person healing him after all. He usually visited at least five or six times a day to check if Geno needed anything. The actual healing happened maybe once a day. There was no fixed schedule for it; Crooks just started whenever he felt like he had regained enough magic since the last time.
Getting healed was boring for Geno; all he did was lay there, so he occasionally tried to start up a conversation—preferably one where he didn’t have to talk much, since he’d never been very good at keeping his fins out of his mouth.
It just so happened that a suitable topic came to him while he was just sitting around waiting.
“How did a school like this even happen?”
Crooks lessened the amount of magic he was using to free up some of his focus, and he briefly smiled.
“Would you like to know? It’s a rather interesting story, actually.”
Crooks began recounting the tale he’d heard from Asgore while the hole in Geno’s skull slowly shrank.
Several years ago, Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Sans, and baby Asriel had lived together in a much bigger school ruled by a fair goat mermaid called Regalia. They had all found each other in the larger group and became very close friends.
One day, Asgore and Undyne were out hunting for food when they happened upon a sunken vessel. They went inside, hoping to find some easily-trapped fish, but instead they found two mermaid infants about Asriel’s age: Chara and Frisk. Asgore ignored the worried protests of the others in the hunting group and brought the children back to Toriel. She and the rest of their close friends agreed that they should give the children a home.
However, Regalia, their leader, had a certain strict policy: human-type mermaids could not join her school. In the past, a group of human mermaids had sold out Regalia’s mate to surface poachers, and she couldn’t bring herself to forgive them. She was above warring with the whole race based on the actions of a few individuals, but she couldn’t bear to have those living reminders nearby.
So, Asgore and Toriel founded their own school in order to adopt the children, and their friends followed them.
Crooks smiled wistfully. “And then the rest of us sort of came along the way.”
Geno opened his mouth helplessly.
He skipped the parts I most wanted to know about.
Although, that did explain why there were human mermaid children living here. They didn’t really stand out next to all the deep-ocean freaks of nature (no offense intended), but normally, human types had a hard time getting along with mer creatures unlike them. They weren’t
actual
humans, obviously, but they were closer to them than other monsters. There was a disproportionate number of difficult individuals among them, so they were somewhat discriminated against.
Still, the human-types aside, Geno wanted to ask how Crooks and his brother had ended up here, and how Red and Sans had become mates. But Crooks sighed and took his hands back. He’d used up all the magic he safely could for the time being. Geno reached up to feel the hole in his skull, and it was a little smaller than before. The progress was slow, but it was healing.
Geno thought back to the ugly hole in Axe’s skull and looked at Crooks curiously.
“Why haven’t you healed your brother’s skull yet?”
Crooks, who had taken a seat on a pile of spare kelp bedding, smiled bitterly. “Because I can’t.”
“Why not?” Geno had never imagined a healer as powerful as Crooks, so knowing there were still injuries he couldn’t fix was frightening.
“My brother’s mind is currently maintaining a very delicate homeostasis. Every alteration I make risks breaking him irreparably. So, I stopped as soon as he was well enough to function. I don’t have the confidence to try again.”
A 'delicate homeostasis,' huh?
Geno had interacted with Axe as little as he could in the last few days, but he could already tell that the guy wasn’t all there.
“So, basically, he went crazy after getting his skull bashed in?”
Crooks, knowing that Axe’s personality hadn’t changed all that much after his injury, frowned slightly. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t talk about my brother that way. He’s not crazy.”
Geno winced, “Uh, sorry...” He quickly grasped for a change of topic. “W-where is Axe, anyway?”
Crooks answered simply, but at least he didn’t seem like he wanted to hold onto his irritation. “Oh, he went out.”
***
The sun was out, but the wind was blowing, and the season was starting to turn chilly. Hit used one hand to hold down his hat and nodded out at the mid-sized carrier ship drifting a few hundred meters off the shoreline of their little island.
“Alright, sink ‘em,” he ordered.
Two human men fired a pair of miniature rocket launchers, and a bull monster threw a massive fireball out over the waves. All three landed, and the ship started blaring its alarms. Some men were scrambling around, plugging leaks and putting out fires, while others jumped overboard.
“One more to the mainmast,” Hit told the attack mage. “Take out those sirens.”
The bull worked up another fireball while the other two removed the empty rocket launchers from their shoulders. One asked, “Nobody should be able to hear it from out here, right boss?”
“I can hear it,” Hit replied, exhaling a puff of smoke, “And it’s gettin’ on my nerves.”
The second fireball found its target, and the electronic wailing stopped.
“Much better,” the skeleton man grinned.
The first fireball had been aimed precisely so that it hit right about where the ship was keeping its illegal shipment of explosives. The ship transformed itself into a third massive fireball, and anyone who still remained onboard was
forced
off.
“Hey, boss, why’d ya bring your tools?” The bull monster asked. “Ain’t we just lettin’ ‘em drown?”
“You kiddin’?” Hit laughed. “These guys left my coz for dead at the bottom of the ocean. They ain’t gettin’ off that easy.”
The two human men shared a look, and one spoke up dumbly, “Boss, we didn’t bring swimsuits.”
“Did I ask you to swim? Just relax; I asked a new pal to handle it.”
Right on cue, two half-drowned men were thrown onto the beach as if they were ragged dolls, and a huge, broken skull peeked up out of the water.
“Yer here too? Didn’t know ya were gonna supervise me.”
Hit grinned and bit down on a fresh cigar. He took his time to pull out a lighter and start it up, taking a long, deep drag. His boys bet on their boss’s confidence, and they managed not to run from whatever that giant in the water was.
“Sorry ‘bout being so vague before. Got a habit not to give out details where other people might pick up on ‘em. Anyway, if you can bring me the guys that’re still kickin’, we’ll be set.”
Axe ducked back under the water and brought body after body to the shore. He’d gotten to over twenty of them in time, but plenty of others had died whether to fire or water.
Axe swam as close to the shore as he could without dragging his tail in the sand and watched Hit and his boys set up a video camera and a metal table and strap one of the survivors to the surface.
“What’re dose fer?” Axe asked, staring at the metal toolbox full of strangely-shaped utensils.
“Torture,” Hit shot him a charming smile and spun a metal poker between his thick finger bones.
The shark hummed. “N’ wha’s da camera fer?”
“To film it,” the monster answered. “Some freaks like to watch this shit. We’re doin’ it anyway, might as well make some money off it.” He raised an eyebrow playfully, “You gonna stay and watch? Some people get squeamish.”
“Don’t see da point,” Axe easily refused. “I wanted ta ask what ta do wit’ da rest of ‘em.”
“Ah.”
The mafia boss was just about done preparing himself. He’d taken off his hat and nice jacket and put an apron over his shirt. He had his sleeves rolled up to his forearms and latex gloves on his hands. There was no reason for him to dirty himself in a literal sense, after all. He couldn’t show himself to Dolly like that, now could he?
“Just leave ‘em. It ain’t like we owe them a funeral or nothin’.”
“Can I eat ‘em?”
Hit stalled and almost dropped the poker his attack mage had just finished heating up for him. The mershark waited quite patiently for a response, considering the strong scent of blood and magic that was tempting him half out of his mind.
“If I can’t, say so quick so I can leave.”
“Holy fuckin’ shit, you eat people?! Are you fuckin’ serious?! Jesus!”
“Can I or not?”
“Hit took a deep breath and composed himself. “Yeah, sure. Why not? Fuckin’ freaks’re everywhere, I swear,” he muttered the complaint under his breath
Axe’s went back underwater right away and started gathering up deceased monsters and humans. Crooks didn’t have a phone of his own yet, so Axe texted Stretch. He trusted that kid more than anybody else not to spread things around without a reason.
‘Tell Crooks ta come here’ was all he sent. It didn’t matter that Crooks didn’t know where to find him; they could sniff each other out from way farther than this. And, rather than a distraction, all the blood in the water would serve as a beacon for Axe’s location.
“Axe?” Crooks questioned hesitantly.
“Wasn’t me,” he shook his head. “But da people who did it said we could have dese.”
Crooks looked at the considerable pile of corpses. “That’s quite generous… Axe, this is clearly too much for the two of us.”
Axe nodded. He knew it it too. And, although he hated the thought of wasting food, nothing ever
really
went to waste in the ocean. “Should we jus’ give up on ‘em?”
The lanky mershark pondered it seriously.
“Well… if we’re trying not to be wasteful, I think I know where these would be put to the best use.”
Leave it to Crooks, he’d thought of an amazing, conflicting, saint-like idea. But even as he felt conflicted about it, Axe followed him and helped him achieve it.
They swam the bodies over deep water and tossed them down, taking care to scatter them out. There was a chance they were feeding the bastards who’d tried to kill Crooks, and Axe strongly disliked that, but even he felt some pity for them. After all, they were still down there starving, if they weren’t dead already.
Axe looked over at his brother and sighed. “Yer too good, bro.”
“I think I’m quite terrible,” he answered softly.
After all, this was only a small mercy. If he were truly benevolent, he could go back down and spread the knowledge of how to rise to the shallows. The reason he didn’t, though, was understandable, but selfish.
I rather like the comfort of knowing nobody up here is secretly out to eat me.
Apparently, he was willing to sit back and let people die for his own peace of mind. Crooks sighed and wondered if experiencing luxury had spoiled him.
“But I don’t feel pity enough to do anything more for them.”
“I’d’ve dropped ocean mines,” Axe shrugged carelessly. “Yer a saint fer feedin’ ‘em.”
Crooks rolled his eyes; his brother’s jokes were tasteless as always. “If that’s all of them, let’s head back. I’m quite tired now.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Axe continued to watch the ships in the harbor for the next few days. Anytime one with a red marking on the bottom left the port, he followed it. The main goal for Hit always seemed to be making the crews on board suffer, but sometimes he added something extra “to make it worth his time.” For example, after sinking the second ship in a way that didn’t blow it up, Hit asked Axe to gather up a bunch of crates from the cargo hold. From one busted up box, Axe saw that the contents were blocks and bags of white stuff, but he couldn’t give a crap what it was for.Yet again, he asked if he could have the dead bodies. “You don’t gotta ask,” Hit grumbled, waving his hand. “They’re dead, what the fuck do I care?”There were fewer deceased than last time, but Crooks insisted that they weren’t facing any food troubles. As they had just finished hauling the bodies to the deep to dump them, a fresh one fell in from above. Axe’s phone buzzed, and he read a text from Hit.‘Fucker died. Help yourself.’The little rat monster was still freshly bleeding. Axe felt himself start drooling, and he looked at Crooks like a puppy begging for food. Crooks faked a cough and tried to look at least a little more composed.“Yes, well, I suppose just one would be fine.”“Yer da best, bro,” Axe grinned.They dressed and cooked the monster right there and enjoyed a tasty snack.“I guess, like usual, you’ll forget this and I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Crooks mused.Axe raised a brow at the word “usual.” “We do dis a lot?”Crooks shook his head. “Only every now and then, when the opportunity arises.”Axe hummed. “We thanked Red yet?”“For what?”“Fer keepin’ quiet. Dere’s no way he ain’t noticed.”Crooks was surprised by that revelation, but he didn’t doubt it. He actually felt silly for not thinking of it before. “I’ll be sure to thank him sometime soon.” The next ship was the last one, and tragically, none of the crew died. After dragging them all to shore to be at Hit’s mercy, Axe asked if there was anything else he should fetch this time.Hit scratched his chin, “I actually got no idea what this one was carryin’. Just bring a couple boxes up an’ I’ll see if I like any of it.”Axe carried a few dozen crates ashore, and Hit’s boys cracked them open with crowbars. It seemed like a mixed batch. There were weapons (soaked and almost surely broken), rare animal pelts (also soaked), some bags of greenish-brown leaves ( which Hit decided to keep), and…Axe’s overblown eyelight shrunk in shock. The latest crate he’d fished up was full of severed mermaid tails.Hit looked at that and whistled. “Hope it wasn’t anybody you knew.” He scratched his chin, “Come to think of it, there’s this rumor been going around lately in some parts: if you eat a mermaid’s tail, you’ll become immortal.”Axe scoffed. “As if. Dat’s da stupidest thing I ever heard.”“I guess you’d know,” the gangster shrugged. “I never bought it anyway.”Axe started fishing around in the crate, tossing tails into the water behind him.“H-hey!” one of the humans half-interjected.“Ya ain’t sellin’ dese,” Axe stated coldly. “Unless ya wanna see me mad.”The man shut his mouth quick.Finally, Axe pulled out what he’d been hoping to find: a small red tail with a familiar smell. He couldn’t help but chuckle at his crazy luck; finding Geno’s tail in a place like this. It wasn’t in perfect shape anymore; the color was a little dull, the scales were soft, and it didn’t have that lively, springy feel, but he was willing to bet Crooks could use it for something.If nothing else, maybe closure for that grumpy little snowflake.“That one look tasty or somethin’?” Hit asked, leaning in a little to examine the magical chunk of meat. That he was even attempting to understand the mind of a cannibal, uh… good for him?“Nah. Friend of mine got his tail chopped off. Dis’s it.”Hit stood up straight and scratched his cheekbone. “Ya got a healer who can reattach it? I could probably hook you up with someone I know.”Axe shook his head. “Nah. My bro can handle it.”Hit hummed and tipped his hat. “Well, anyway, you did a great job, pal. Thanks for the help.”“Ya know why I did it.”“Haha, yeah. Don’t worry, I already scheduled your bro’s consultation. It’s in three weeks. I’ll send ya a link to verify it.”Axe frowned when he heard how long he would still have to wait, but that irritation faded to shock when he checked out the link. Hit hadn’t been kidding about his contacts. The dentist he’d booked was seriously a big name in the industry. It wouldn’t be strange to wait a year for a consultation with him. If Crooks’ mouth could be fixed, this guy could do it, and he could do it better than just about anybody else.“Thanks.”“Hey, don’t mention it. After your bro’s all good n’ healthy, maybe I’ll need your help again.”“S’ yers.” Axe returned with Geno’s tail. People gave him strange looks, but he ignored them. Sans was the only one who actually approached and dared to ask him about it. “You brought a souvenier,” he joked. Axe was surprised a mermaid could make a joke like that. As expected of Red’s mate.“Found Geno’s tail,” he explained briefly. The little blue mermaid’s eyes went wide. “That’s… for real?”Axe nodded. “Imma bring it ta Crooks. Maybe he can reattach it.”“Holy crap. I hope it works out.”Axe nodded and swam past, making his way toward the healing room. Sans conveniently explained to the others why he’d come back with a mermaid’s tail in his claws.Axe followed Crooks’ scent to the kitchen where he was starting to prepare dinner.“Hey, bro. Found somethin’ fer ya.”“Oh!” Crooks jumped slightly. He’d been too absorbed in his task to notice someone as stealthy as Axe come in. “You’re back already? I kept expecting you to call me…”Crooks turned around and saw what Axe was holding. He broke out into a cold sweat and swung his head around, checking if anybody else was around to see them. Crooks swam over to his brother and held his shoulders in a panic.“Axe!” he whispered harshly. “You should know better than to…?” Again, he cut himself off, this time lowering his face slightly to sniff at the severed tail. His eyebrows shot up and he released his vice-like grip, straightening up and holding his sternum with a flabbergasted look.“Oh my god.”“Can ya use it?” Axe grinned.Crooks nodded and took the tail carefully in his hands. “I can, and it will save me weeks of effort.”The lanky mershark went and quietly stashed the tail where the school kept additional healing supplies (stuff like hooks and fishing line to do emergency treatment if there weren’t any healers around), and then he returned to finish making dinner.Everybody ate quickly because of the exciting news that Geno’s tail had been found. The little red mermaid himself could barely seem to force anything down his throat. Knowing he would be able to swim again so soon was such exciting news, his stomach was all twisted up into knots.A bunch of people wanted to watch Geno’s tail get reattached, but Crooks insisted they have some space, so Geno was the only one who got to witness it. Crooks made the procedure look so simple. He held the severed tail and used some green magic, and it became vibrant and lively again. He held the severed halves together, used a little more green magic, and announced that he was done. It was like he’d done nothing more than apply a bandage!“Try to move it a little. It’s okay to take it slow.”Geno swallowed the knot in his throat and flicked his fins. They moved. He could feel them!Without trying to swim any more than that, Geno covered his face and cried.“I’ll give you some time,” Crooks smiled softly, making for the door.“Thank you!” Geno quickly choked out. “Thank you so much.”“It was my pleasure. Be sure to thank Axe too when you see him.”“I will. I definitely will.” Despite how easy he had made it look, Crooks was considerably worn out. Reattaching Geno’s tail had taken no small amount of magic. Dinner was already over, so he went to his room to rest. Strangely enough, Axe was waiting outside his door.“He seem happy?”“Yes,” Crooks nodded. “He was overjoyed. You did a wonderful thing, brother.”“Good,” Axe nodded. “I got somethin’ else fer ya.”“Oh?”Crooks took the phone Axe handed out for him. There was some kind of document pulled up, so he enlarged the screen to read it.
Scheduled… consultation… on November 22nd… for…!
Crooks looked at Axe with pink tears welling up in his sunken eye sockets.“Oh, Axe!”Overcome with joy, Crooks embraced his brother tightly. Axe chuckled and returned a gentle pat on the back.“I can’t thank you enough!”“Dun worry ‘bout it.”“Really!” Crooks insisted, his tears overflowing into the gentle current now, “Thank you.”“If ya wanna thank me,” Axe chuckled and trailed off. His eyebrows shot up as a good idea popped into his head. “I know.”He took his phone back from Crooks and started recording. “Dere. If ya really wanna thank me, do it so I won’t forget.”Crooks sniffled and wiped some of his tears away, then gave his best smile to the screen. “Thank you for finding a dentist to fix my teeth, Axe. Thank you so very much.”“Heh,” Axe chuckled. “Yer welcome.”He saved that video and uploaded it to the cloud as soon as possible. Like they said: people may forget, but the internet is forever. He would always have this memory.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Geno was still rubbing happy tears out of his eye sockets the morning after his tail was reattached. Crooks had advised he rest yesterday, but today he was finally swimming again. He felt a little weak still, but Crooks and Blueberry were accompanying him. As much as the healer was offering support and telling him it was fine to take it slow, the child was challenging him to push himself.
The entourage slowly navigated the main hallway, and Geno noticed Axe in one of the community rooms, working on a broken trap with a focused expression.
Geno felt his sockets heat up with tears for the umpteenth time that morning. He still couldn’t believe that the creature here he had found most off-putting had been the one to retrieve his tail for him. Really! The one that did nothing but stare creepily and send him near constant psychic waves of hatred (that Geno
never
understood the justification for and nobody else seemed to notice or care about) had gone out into the ocean and retrieved his severed tail for him.
Axe must’ve felt he was being watched; he lowered his hands and met eyes with Geno.
“U-um,” The red-tailed mermaid stumbled over his words. He felt guilt and gratitude in equal measures, and the threatening silent warnings from Axe threw him off balance further. “Thank you… for finding my tail.”
Axe glanced at Crooks, who had a hideous but pleased smile on his face, and shrugged. “Yer welcome.”
Crooks smiled, “Since I no longer have to work on your tail, you should be fully healed in time for me to leave for my appointment.”
Geno looked at the healer with furrowed brows. “Appointment? What’s that?”
Crooks tapped his chin with a spindly finger. “Let’s see… it means a meeting with a healer or a doctor at a specific time.”
“So, you’re going to meet with other healers? Like an ocean council just for you guys?”
With a start, Crooks realized that for as much time as he’d spent around Geno, he hadn’t brought any of this up before.
“Erm, no, not exactly. I’m going to get healed myself.”
Geno’s confusion deepened. He knew healers could heal themselves. Why would Crooks go to someone else for healing? Was
anybody
better than him?
“More specifically, I’m going to see a doctor. They’re like healers, except they don’t use magic as part of their treatment.”
Geno’s eyes went wide in disbelief. “What can they even
do
without magic?”
Crooks templed his fingers together and looked off to the side. “... Repair natural deformities and birth defects, I hope,” he answered quietly.
“O-oh...”
It was news to Geno that magic couldn’t fix those things, but it made sense when he thought about it. Besides that though, this was the first time he’d gotten any confirmation about why Crooks looked so… broken. Of course, both mersharks looked pretty off, and they were creatures from the dark and mysterious deep. The little red mermaid had sort of just accepted that that was how they looked.
… Now Geno was just wondering exactly which part Crooks was going to get fixed. What was normally ugly for his species and what was a defect?
“So, uh, what are you going to—” An absolutely seething warning flooded Geno’s thoughts from Axe’s direction, and he realized how rude of a question it was. Crooks was still looking at him with a curiously tilted head, so he quickly thought of some other way to finish. “—do to celebrate?”
The threats from Axe died down, and Geno breathed a silent sigh of relief.
“Oh. Well, I hadn’t thought of that yet. I suppose something will be in order.”
“Obviously, we gotta have a party,” Axe showed off his slightly off-putting smile. “Since yer gettin’ yer teeth fixed, ya should try all da foods ya couldn’t eat b’fore.”
Geno thanked Axe in his mind for the exposition and was surprised when the mershark briefly met eyes with him. Had he heard that? Geno hoped he hadn’t been unintentionally broadcasting his thoughts. He didn’t have the first idea how these “instincts” worked.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Crooks nodded, apparently oblivious to the private exchange. “There are plenty of things I’ve been wanting to try.”
“S’ fine ta take yer time n’ think about it. We got awhile.”
Axe had already asked Red to go along with Crooks to the surface. As deadly as Axe was, he could only protect Crooks so much outside of the ocean. The inability to breathe air or teleport was a big obstacle there. Luckily, Red covered all those weaknesses, and he could sympathize with Axe’s overprotectiveness.
It wasn’t easy for Axe to send his brother to the surface. Safe to say he wouldn’t chance it if this wasn’t something so important to Crooks. If it didn’t go smoothly, Hit was never going to get another boat on the water.
***
Meanwhile, over the next few weeks, Hit worked to make sure everything
would
go smoothly. Now that his mermonster friend’s appointment was coming up, he stopped by a certain workshop to check in on the final form of one of the things necessary for the whole ordeal. Hit knocked on a metal door with several antisocial signs and posters pinned to it.
“Hey, Alph,” he called pleasantly. “C’mon out. I gotcha some flowers.”
The door creaked open to reveal a cramped room, lit by numerous computer monitor lights, and a yellow lizard monster’s face. She had bags under her painted eyes that looked like she’d been working overtime and nights since the crucifixion of Jesus, and her eyes shot death lasers up at the grinning skeleton.
“You’d better not have, or I’ll stuff them in your eye sockets.”
Alpha was allergic to flowers, and pollen, and probably everything else associated with the outdoors. She was also a raging lesbian, which was the only reason Hit dared to flirt with her when he already had Dolly.
Hit just smiled wider and shoved a bundle of female porn magazines through the door crack. Some fucking bouquette alright. Well, they
were
flowers in a sense.
Alpha tossed the stack onto her desk and begrudgingly came out of her office, straightening out the red and black horizontal pinstriped blouse, trailing black mermaid skirt, and white lab coat she’d probably been wearing for at least a week.
“You came to check on those custom fish tanks, right?”
Hit nodded. “Figured I oughta. I’m sure you handled everything though.”
“Of course I did,” Alpha snorted, twisting her painted red lips into a frown. “I handle every mess you throw at me.”
Her heels clacked on the ground as she led Hit deeper into the workshop. Lined up among various other vehicles and contraptions were two large, glass tanks on wheels. The design looked simple, but a lot of technology was necessary to make something meant to hold
that
much water portable.
The tanks were partnered with a modified truck that had a long ramp stuck with many holes.
“It’s easy,” she explained, “even those meatbrains you usually drag around can handle it. Just back up onto the shore, lower the ramp into the water, and flip this switch to extend the cable that attaches to the tanks. The tanks slide into the water, seawater fills it up, and your shark creatures climb in. Flip the switch back to drag the tanks back in. When you’re ready to wheel them around by hand, twist this to release the cable.”
“It ain’t gonna tip over or nothin when we’re pullin’ it outta the water, right?”
Alpha rolled her eyes. “I didn’t build them with ramen noodles for axles, but it kind of depends on where you deploy them. Just hold it steady if it starts to sink into the sand. I can’t account for poor terraforming.”
“Lazy,” Hit chuckled. “Ya done shit like that before.”
“You gave me three weeks, asshole. For a portable fish tank! Forgive me if I didn’t feel like bringing my A game.”
“Yeah, I know, but it was important.” Hit sighed lightly. “Ya did a great job, Alph.”
“If you think so,” the lizard grinned dangerously, “I’m testing some new steroids, and I could use some living monster test subjects~”
Hit glanced down at the mad scientist who’d started panting dangerously, and he tipped his hat over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look.
He didn’t exactly like the lizard’s personal projects, but she did great work, and it was important to keep her satisfied.
That being said, Hit really hated people-trading—that was more Styles’ thing—but he wouldn’t hand Alpha over to Styles if he could help it.
“Oh hell. Fine.”
Most of the rival gang members he’d tortured had died or been incorporated into their group by now, but a few were still recovering. He could use those for now.
“I’ll have them shipped over by the end of the week.”
“Pleasure doing business with you,” Alpha’s lips curled smugly.
***
Crooks paced up and down the shore, wringing his hands nervously. Except for Asgore who was guarding the den and Geno who wanted nothing to do with the surface, everybody else had gathered to see Crooks off and give him a little encouragement before his appointment.
Red glanced at Axe who was staring unblinkingly at his brother. The meroctopus asked quietly, “Ya sure ya ain’t comin’?”
“‘Course I
want
to,” he replied.
Depending on how they decided to move Crooks, Axe might not be
able
to follow. And even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to help much.
They were in a more secluded spot than usual, a few miles away from the port town where Edge and Papyrus lived. Everybody assumed it was so that Crooks and Axe wouldn’t be spotted, so they didn’t question it.
There was a road here that led directly to the beach, and the shore was pretty smooth. A truck backed onto it while everybody quickly wished Crooks good luck.
The truck backed up until its wheels touched the water, and Hit and some guys got out. The guys got to work letting down the ramp, and Hit noticed the gathering going on in the water. He tipped his hat and offered a smile when they stuck their heads up.
“Nice ta meet the rest of the family,” he said pleasantly. He quickly picked Red and Sans out of the crowd, “And thanks. Edge would be dead if it weren’t for you two.”
“Do you know each other?” Sans asked.
“He’s my cousin,” Hit smiled.
“Oh!” Sans pressed down a comment about Edge never having mentioned a cousin.
This was Sans’s first time meeting Hit, and he got a pretty familiar feeling from him: a similar dangerous but friendly vibe to the kind he got from Red. He hoped it meant that Axe had made a reliable friend on the surface.
Hit’s people had rolled two large glass tubs into the ocean, and Crooks carefully climbed into one once it had filled with water. Axe looked at the second one, then looked at Hit.
“What?” The gangster grinned. “You wanna come and support your bro, don’tcha?”
Surprisingly, Hit was pretty considerate. Axe nodded and climbed into the second tank.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Red’s comin’ too.”
“Hm?” Hit looked at the giant meroctopus. His first thought was that the shark brothers wanted a bodyguard—someone they trusted who could get around independently on land. He had no reason to refuse a third passenger, so he agreed without dwelling much on it. “Sure, that’s fine.”
Red took his cue to give Sans a shy goodbye kiss and climbed up onto the shore. He stood face to face with Hit. The meroctopus was a little surprised to find himself looking up to meet eyes with the land skeleton. Obviously, it was because he was essentially sitting, and it wasn’t much of a difference, but still, Hit was a big guy for a land monster.
The mobster smiled subtly and drew in a slow, smoke-filled breath, exhaling the plume just as unhurriedly. Without breaking eye contact with Red, he nodded at the back of the truck. The tanks had just finished retracting.
“Welcome aboard, big guy.”
Red had nothing to reply to that, so he just nodded and got in the truck.
There were lights installed inside the truck. They were bright, and Crooks was squinting because of them. Red looked around and found a light switch, flipping it off.
“Oh!” Crooks blinked and rubbed his eyes. “That’s much better, thank you.”
“Wait, turn ‘em back on,” Axe ordered. Crooks lightly protested, but Red flipped the switch back on without much thought.
“Brother, why—” Before his eyes could adjust, the distinct sound of a camera shutter cut Crooks off. He frowned and blushed. “Axe…”
The brothers had snuck around deleting all the pictures that were taken of them. Without having to say anything, it was obvious Crooks wanted this one gone as well. But Axe shook his head and held his phone close, peering at the screen with his one good eyelight.
“I need it.”
“You do not.”
Crooks felt that there would be no need for Axe to remember what his teeth used to look like after they got fixed, but Axe disagreed.
Feeling like a spectator to this siblings argument, Red awkwardly turned the lights back off and watched them from the corner.
“Why are you being difficult? Just delete it. We deleted all the others.”
“Dat was so Alphys or someone else wouldn’t accidentally post a picture wit’ us in it online. We don’t want surface people knowin’ ‘bout us ‘til we know how dey’ll react, remember?”
Crooks scratched his cheekbone and looked away, “Well, actually, Edge and Papyrus confirmed that for us a while ago. They said widespread internet fame would probably be bad for us and we should just take things slow.”
Axe stared at him quietly for a moment, “... Dis’s why I need a picture of ya.”
“Assuming I look
better
after getting my teeth fixed, I’d just as soon you forget how they look now.”
Axe stubbornly shook his head, and Crooks frowned.
“Fine, keep it then. But I’m not happy about it.”
They rode in silence for a while after that, and Red miserably wished he’d brought Sans along.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Unlike Red who could continue being socially awkward until the sun died out, the mershark brothers recovered from their argument after a few minutes.“... So didja think more ‘bout wha’ ya wanna eat ta celebrate?”“Ah, I did a little.”Crooks cast a glance at Red and smiled softly, “Which reminds me, thank you for not telling the others about what Axe and I did.”Red tipped his head in confusion. He wasn’t the most communicative sort, so there was an abundance of things he saw and kept to himself, that wasn’t anything special to him. If anything, he was usually scolded for that sort of thing by Toriel and Undyne. Being thanked for it made him curious enough to question it. “What didn’t I tell ‘em?”“Erm, well,” The gangly mershark pressed his index fingers together, “you know... that thing it was strongly implied we wouldn’t do anymore after coming here?” Not only was Red not convinced, but now Axe looked curious too. Crooks let out a somewhat defeated sigh. “Eating people.”Axe blinked, “Did we eat somebody?”Crooks shot his brother a halfhearted glare. To be fair, not just Axe, but most people wouldn’t remember what they had for lunch three weeks ago.“A few somebody’s, actually.”Red still just looked confused. “It ain’t like there’s a rule that ya can’t, though.” Right, if it were against school policy, then Red had to say something—at least to Sans.Crooks mirrored the meroctopus’s befuzzled expression. “Is there really not? Everyone else is clearly against it.”“Maybe dey thought it was so obvious dey didn’t need a rule fer it,” Axe shrugged.The truck went over a bump and the sharks got sloshed around a little, gripping the edges of their tanks to stabilize themselves.“I suppose that could be it,” Crooks murmured. “I know at least Black would be upset with us for it.” Crooks thought idly about how their young rescuer had vouched for them partially on the assumption that they would change their behavior upon leaving their old environment. Neither he nor Axe had actually promised to do so, but it still felt a little like they were betraying everyone’s trust. “Either way, thank you, Red, for not mentioning it to anybody.”The meroctopus just shrugged. He couldn’t care less as long as it didn’t affect his mate, his kids, or the school. Despite the life he was living now, meroctopuses were known for being cold toward others. It was just natural for him to ignore the pain of people he didn’t know. “Anyway, about my celebration meal,” Crooks looked at Axe, “I couldn’t decide on any one food, since I haven’t even tried most of them yet. Would it be too spoiled of me to ask for a variety?”Axe stared. His little brother wanted to eat? That was just a miracle. He snapped out of his thoughts and vigorously shook his head, replying almost forcefully. “Dat’s fine. Surface people’ll trade food fer paper n’ rocks. Ya ain’t gonna waste none like dem, so it ain’t spoiled.”Crooks smiled softly and blushed, “I figure we can have a big party, a… a feast,” his pink flush intensified just by saying such an indulgent, selfish word, “—with everyone back at the den, and then, maybe you and I could do something special together.”Axe floated in his tank for a minute, a blank expression on his face. More cautiously than usual, he murmured, “...M’kay.” Red was still feeling like a third wheel, listening in without contributing anything. He was relieved when they reached their destination a few hours into the trip, but ahead of him were only more trials. It was nothing but scuttling surface dwellers from the moment the truck opened up to the outside. One just walked right into his personal space trying to get at the mersharks’ tanks, and he panicked, lashing out with a tentacle on a reflex. The poor human saw it coming out of the corner of his eye, but he had no time to avoid it. However, the magical limb lost all momentum when Axe savagely severed it with his crude metal weapon. Thanks to that, the human’s neck bones were properly aligned, but Red swore at the hot pain of having one of his legs cut off. Sure, it would grow back, but that fucking hurt!“Goddammit, you asshole!” Red cursed and pressed himself against the wall to get more distance from both the human and Axe, climbing up it halfway with the help of his suckers.Axe responded with an extremely dangerous smile and narrowed eyes. Don’t screw this up for me , the look in his eyes said.Hit had just come around the truck in time to see this scene, and his cigar hung limply from his fangs. One of his boys was sweating buckets, Axe was holding an axe with a twisted smile on his face, and it looked like he’d chopped off one of Red’s legs.“... The hell. Weren’t you guys friends?” Had they gone nuts after being trapped together in a box for the past couple of hours?“Red is rather shy,” Crooks piped up, smiling apologetically. “He doesn’t like people entering his personal space.”“Saved yer guy’s life,” Axe huffed, as if offended that he was being judged for his brutally violent behavior. He lowered his weapon back into the water.“It couldn’t be helped, but I’ll apologize anyway,” Crooks said softly to Red. “It’ll grow back on its own, but would you like me to reattach it?”“... Thanks,” he muttered.“No, don’t worry. I’m used to cleaning up after my brother.”Hit watched one simple application of green magic reattach a severed limb and whistled. He hadn’t known Axe’s brother was that good. Maybe dealing with dismembered body parts since he was a kid had been good training? Anatomical study or some shit?He was impressed, but they needed to keep things moving.“Hey, big guy, how’s about you come over here so my boys can work?” Hit gave the mermonster a friendly smile.Red nodded and found a space for himself out on the asphalt, which was cold thanks to the season, and the group of wary gangsters got moving. They wheeled the mersharks down the ramp and toward a multistory building made of tan concrete and glass. The place had a decently sized lawn with flower beds and some trees, so it didn’t feel crowded—even though they were actually in the middle of this city’s downtown.Axe protectively held onto the rim of Crooks’ tank, unwilling to let them veer too far apart. Crooks was preoccupied looking around at everything. He couldn’t see well, especially when it was bright out like now, but he could see the massive structure they were headed towards and how reflective it was.Red followed them closely enough to do his job as a bodyguard but warily distant from the gangsters pushing their tanks. Internally, he didn’t know whose sake he was anxious for at this point, or if he was just anxious in general.In the middle of the lobby, they stopped. Crooks continued to stare up at the lights and the architecture, and Hit caught up to them. “Right, so this is a hospital,” he started, though technically it was a surgery center. “Ya can’t have weapons in here.”Axe looked down at the twisted metal in his claws and grumbled. Reluctantly, he handed it over to a gangster with outstretched arms. Crooks also took out a gnarled, dangerous-looking shiv—probably made from an oversized fishing hook—that he’d apparently been hiding in his rib cage, and he handed that over to another gangster. “Since when do you carry a weapon?” Red sputtered. Partly due to Crooks’ normal conduct and partly because of Red’s conversations with Axe, he had this mental image of Crooks being some kind of saint. Crooks smiled peaceably. “It’s a cooking knife.”Red’s eyes narrowed perceptively. Liar. But that was good. Someone was lying to his face, and that made him more comfortable than anything else about their current situation. Lies, betrayal, and violence were the things he knew best how to deal with. He kept his mouth shut and reminded himself not to let his guard down just because Crooks wasn’t born with fangs or claws.Hit clapped his hands once to get everyone’s attention. “Alright. This’ll be where we part ways for a little while.” He gestured to a few hospital personnel who has just arrived. “These guys’ll take care of you for now. If there’s anythin’ else you need from me, just gimme a call.” Axe inspected the male nurses in their slacks, decided quickly that they were beyond harmless and nodded to Hit. “Thanks.”Hit tipped his hat, “My pleasure.” One of his boys held the door open for him, and they all filtered out. “We’ll take you to the waiting room now,” one of the nurses said with a healer’s smile. They came closer to push the mersharks’ tanks, and Red bristled defensively. Axe shot him him a flat, judging look.Still, he’d known in advance that this would be the problem with bringing Red along, so instead of berating the meroctopus just for doing what meroctopuses do, he warned the nurses. “Make sure ta give dis guy space,” he nodded at Red. The nurses smiled, “No problem,” and moved more slowly. Red’s eyes still followed them closely, but he did look a little less tense. He let the nurses get close enough to grasp the tanks. The tanks didn’t move even when the nurses pushed them though. Crooks was over eleven feet long from head to tail, and a shark didn’t have as much natural flexibility as people might think, so his tank was about that big too. It was narrower in width and depth, but still six feet deep and seven wide. Alpha had calculated for everything—including oxygen content in the water—so the tank had to hold that much. But that amount of water all together weighed more than some semi trucks—and there were two of those tanks. A great portion of the weight was offset by the simple technology called wheels and the more sophisticated technology called assisted forward drive. Getting them moving from a full stop was a high bar, though. Hit’s boys had had the assistance of the momentum from unloading the tanks off the truck, so they hadn’t had any trouble, but the nurses were struggling to get them moving. The nurses shared a look and doubled up on Crooks’ tank. They put their backs into it and pushed, and the wheels started to turn a little. They took a break and one breathed out a sigh. “We might need to call a few other people over,” one nurse said apologetically. “Sorry,” Crooks smiled meekly.“No, don’t worry about it,” the nurse waved. His coworker got out a small radio to call for some help. It clicked in Red’s skull immediately that he was about to be swarmed by strangers.
Nope.
He sucked it up and crawled closer to the center of activity, grabbing the edge of each tank in one hand and forcing them to move. The nurses backed up in surprise, staring up at Red. The one with the radio hesitated for a second before putting it away. “Oh, thanks.”“If you can push them, that’ll be a big help.”Red grunted, which wasn’t an answer. Crooks smiled appeasingly at the two nurses. “If you could please lead the way for him.” The clinic they were heading for was on the third floor, but that wasn’t a problem. A lot of heavy medical machinery had to be brought in here; the industrial service elevator could handle the weight of the tanks. The nurses led the way from there to the waiting room and then informed them that they would go to help the doctor get ready to examine Crooks. They pointed out some magazines they could pursue if they got bored in the meantime.Once the nurses left, the three deep ocean monsters were left alone in the carpeted waiting room. Axe’s fingers kept twitching since his axe had been confiscated. They were too used to holding a weapon, and they felt empty without one. It stressed him out, and his off hand scraped at his dead eye socket.He eyed Red rather fiercely. “Wouldja make me a weapon if I need one?”Red furrowed his brow. “What?”Axe flashed his empty palms, “Dey took my weapon. Were ya not payin’ attention?”Red frowned and tried to string his thoughts together out loud. “No, I mean—shit, I know that. I guess, uh, I can , but just… make your own?”Axe chewed his words. His glare was especially sharp right then, but he was staring at the edge of his tank rather than at Red. Finally, he grunted, “I can’t.”One eyebrow twitched up, and Axe was practically sweating under Red’s questioning stare. One of the absolute rules of the deep was to not reveal weaknesses—the creatures hunting you would find them even if you tried to hide them, but looking stronger would keep challengers from showing themselves in the first place. It was really hard for him, bordering on being physically painful, but Axe grumbled harshly and honestly.“I can’t use any magic dat ain’t inside my body. My control range is shit.”Red’s sockets went round and his eyelights shrunk as small as pinpricks. What Axe was essentially saying was that he had no magical means of attacking whatsoever. The thought that he had been surviving in the deep ocean with only stealth and sensing magic and a metal weapon was unthinkably risky. If that region hadn’t been so barren and he had been forced to fight more often, would it have even been possible? And he was protecting a weakling like Crooks on top of that!Wait, but maybe, “Since always? Or just since ya got your skull caved in?”Axe opened his mouth to reply ‘always,’ then became less certain of himself and shot Crooks a look.“Always,” his brother nodded. “And that was true for all of us, not just Axe. I suspect—rather than a genetic failing—that it’s a trained response to chronic malnutrition. I only thought of that after seeing that the magic of shallow water monsters flows more conservatively when the water is cold. Toriel told me it’s to preserve heat and energy. I think it’s the same sort of thing: a way of preserving valuable energy. It would be hard to unlearn at this point. It’s purely a reflex.”“Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Red stared at the gangly healer, then he looked at Axe in utter bewilderment. “And ya gave away your weapon?”Axe rolled his eye, “Obviously I ain’t happy ‘bout it. Will ya do it or not?”At that moment, the door opened up and a human man in a white coat leaned into the waiting room. Red quickly nodded at Axe for his answer.“Crooks? We’re ready to take a look at you now.”“Yes!” He called anxiously, and Red grabbed both of the tanks. The doctor held up a hand to stop him.“The examination room is a little small, and the nurses need room to move around. I’d prefer for just the patient to be in the room. Of course, there will be space for everybody in the surgery room if we get that far today. Will that be alright?”Axe stared at the doctor with a blank, unreadable expression. “... Got it.”Red maneuvered Crooks’ tank to the examination room, which really would have been a tight fit if he stuck around, and then walked back to the waiting room. Axe was keeping still and quiet, aside from the occasional twitch of his fingers or trembling of his eyelight, but Red could sense he was on the verge of snapping, so he sat himself down all the way at the opposite end of the room. A very tense few minutes followed in that waiting room. Meanwhile, in the examination room, Crooks anxiously wrung his bony hands. The doctor and nurses didn’t look tense at all. They went about their preparations with a calm and practiced work ethic. Finally, the doctor slid on a pair of gloves and some magnifying glasses and climbed up on a stool next to Crooks’ tank.“Could you open your mouth as wide as you can for me?”Crooks silently obeyed, and the doctor shined a light inside, taking a good, careful look at the situation in there. He nodded and put the light away. One of the nice things about skeleton types was that x-rays weren’t necessary. On the down side, without any gums, doing any work on the teeth had a high risk of just straight-up knocking them out, rather than simply adjusting them.“Alright,” the doctor spoke to Crooks in a friendly voice designed not to make him too nervous. “I’ll be honest, it’s pretty bad in there. If it was a less severe case, we were planning to have you wait up to a week before going ahead with the adjustments, but this isn’t a light case. If you had been born up here, fixing this would have been considered an urgent case—because it’s not cosmetic; this is a necessary medical procedure. That you had to suffer like this for so long… Well, it’s just tragic. But we’re going to fix it, okay? It’s not unfixable.”Crooks’ eyes started watering, “Really?”“Yes. I’m going to walk you through the general picture, and if you feel up to it, I want to take care of this as soon as possible.”Crooks nodded and listened closely to the doctor’s explanation.“Unfortunately, we can’t avoid a surgery here. You have six extra teeth, see, these three growing in behind your other teeth, these growing in front, and this one that’s mostly buried in the back of your jaw behind your wisdom teeth. Most of them are too long, so those would need to be filed down, but it looks like some have been crudely filed already. It also looks like you had one removed here?”“Yes. It was stabbing the roof of my mouth so my mother pulled it out. She’s also the one who filed them.”The doctor nodded in response. “I see. Obviously, you didn't get those healed since they would have just grown back the way they were before. It left some damage though. Especially the gap left by the tooth that got pulled led this one to be especially crooked. I imagine chewing is very painful?”“Yes,” Crooks murmured.The doctor hummed and nodded. “Normally, we try to fix whatever we can, but there’s so much going on in this case. How would you feel about removing everything and implanting magic prosthetics? They would connect to your magic over time so you would be able to feel them. We could also replace the whole area around your jaw here so that no bad magical memory would be left to negatively impact any healing magic. They would essentially become your new natural teeth.”The dim eyelights in Crooks’ small, sunken eye sockets sparkled. “Is there any reason I wouldn’t want to do that?”“Some people feel attached to their original teeth,” the doctor smiled and chuckled.“I do not,” Crooks stated firmly. “I would very much like to be done with them entirely.”“Alright then, we’ll go with that. It will be considerably painful, so you’ll be under anesthesia during the procedure. Would you like to be asleep or just numb?”Crooks wrung his hands. “I feel like I’ll become squeamish, so I’d like to be asleep.” And so, they called Red back to take Crooks and Axe to the operating room. The observers were allowed to be in the room as long as they kept to the back. Axe was extremely tense watching the doctors drill and saw into his unconscious brother’s jaw, but by the end of things, he had a new set of teeth that were manufactured levels of perfection. The effect… honestly, it changed his whole face. Axe made sure to take a picture while Crooks was still sleeping.While they hung around in the waiting room waiting for Crooks to wake up, one of the nurses came out and held a slip of paper out for Axe. He took it, expecting some information about Crooks or something, but it was an appointment slip with a date on it. “He’s got a follow-up?” Axe asked.The nurse smiled and shook his head. “That’s for you.”Axe blinked. “Me? Didn’t know ya did cranioplasties here.”“No, sorry, we don’t do that sort of thing.”He blinked again, then frowned. “So wha’s it fer?”“Next time, we can get your teeth straightened out.”Axe tipped his head to the side, “My teeth are fine.”Objectively speaking, Axe had crooked, jagged teeth. But they weren’t as bad as Crooks’, they didn’t hurt, and he could chew with them, so by Axe’s standards, there was nothing worth fixing about them. The nurse persistently tried to persuade him for the next several minutes until finally Axe promised he would at least hold on to the appointment slip.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After dropping off the ocean monsters, Hit and his boys hung around in the city until he got a text from the hospital staff. They could pick up their friends the following morning. It wasn’t funny or anything, but Hit couldn’t hold back a laugh. That was nearly the shortest amount of time he had imagined this could take, but it was just long enough for him to go and spend the night with Dolly.It had been… mm, what? Four days since he’d been home? All the extra errands he’d had to run had led to a considerably longer absence than usual. He was feeling ready for a game of ‘Is she thirsty, or will she kick me in the nuts?’Hit gave the order for half of the boys to stay here (just in case), and the other half to come with him back home for the night. As he made himself comfortable in the black leather back seat, Hit wondered what his little lady was up to right about now. *** It was early evening and getting kind of cold out. A dainty-looking human woman had dressed herself for the light chill in a fluffy brown mink coat, red gloves, and a gray, flower-stitched hat. She watched out the car window as factory buildings and warehouses periodically interrupted the sun set. After a while, the driver in the front slowed the car to a stop. Dolly threw open the door herself and grabbed her tommy gun off the seat beside her. Several other cars gathered around them, and a bunch of human and monster men unloaded. Dolly showed them all a pretty smile and pointed her thumb casually at where the warehouse they’d parked across the street from would be if they could see it past the columns of brick and concrete. “Ready to raise some hell, boys?”The men cheered and raised their weapons high, and their lady boss grinned wickedly. Yeah, this was just the thing she needed right now. I’m glad it’s not just me who wanted ta go out for a walk. Sound like they’ve got plenty of energy ta burn. Dolly waved for everybody to quiet down, and they moved across the street, finding cover behind some shipping crates. Dolly took the honor of firing first, shattering the nearest window in a rain of glass. Some bastards rushed outside, armed to the teeth (but with weapons that nearly made the lady snort—they were so outdated, at least two models behind), and Dolly’s boys started firing at them. Within the next few heartbeats, everybody had either found cover or become a bright red skin carpet on the ground. Dolly closed her eyes and reached out with her wildly unmanageable human magic. If she kept still and concentrated like Hit taught her, she could tell where the rats were hiding… pinpoint their killing intent toward her...She sensed that the firing was about to hit a natural lull, so she grinned and came out of hiding, letting a barrage of bullets loose. Dolly ducked down again right after, hearing less return fire this time.
See me, babe? This magic stuff ain’t such a big deal.
Through the virtue of being married to a monster, Dolly was one of the few humans who had been taught how to use a little bit of magic. Of course, it was only the most basic kind of skill; if someone wanted to kill her, she could feel their general location. It wasn’t like she could use magic attacks, heal people, or teleport. Even with Hit carefully teaching her, it had taken her three years to learn just this—and Dolly had particularly good magic sensitivity for a human. The shooting on the enemy side slacked for a second, and Dolly took the lead in returning fire. Enough of the rats had gone down that they decided to abandon their workshop and run. The mafia princess allowed them to scatter and waved for the boys to follow her inside. There were some workers left behind, guarding the half-sealed bags of dope they’d been packaging. They didn’t have any guns of their own, just knives and other improvised weapons. “Alright,” Dolly called, pointing to the corner with the nozzle of her gun. “Take a seat.” The workers clearly hesitated, looking around at each other for someone to make a move. She picked out the most defiant-looking man and shot him. As he dropped, she called out again. “I ain’t gonna ask nicely no more.”The men wilted and dropped their weapons, shuffling over to the corner to sit. Dolly waved most of her boys ahead to gather the goods and settled down with two other guys to watch the workers.The gathering took time, and it was boring. Dolly found her eyes wandering to the skylights in boredom. Fucking morons, doing this shit in a place so easy to spy on. She couldn’t see any movement, but Dolly felt bloodlust from one of the workers. Without looking to aim, and just focusing on that feeling, she fired a shot right through a man’s chest. There was a metallic clattering as the knife he’d been reaching for was knocked loose from his belt.Ignoring the obvious tension from the workers, she turned to one of the boys standing with her. “Are there any chairs in here or what?”He scrambled off and quickly found something, bringing it so the lady could sit. She leaned against the back and arm, propping her head up with one hand while the other aimed her tommy gun. She folded one stocking-covered leg neatly over the other.“No more funny business, alright? The next one ain’t gonna get the privilege of dyin’ in one shot.”There was no more movement from the workers, and soon the boys had everything loaded up. The lady rose from her chair and put on a charming smile. She tossed a business card at the workers’ feet. “We didn’t bring enough cars ta take you with us. If your bosses are just gonna kill ya, come see us instead. There’s always some kinda work.” She spun on her heels, “Otherwise, report shit, get hit.”They took the dope and left, leaving the forlorn workers to their own devices. During the drive back to their own warehouse district, Dolly’s phone started to ring. She looked down at the caller ID and saw the name Styles and two skull and crossbones emojis. “Geh—” she made a very unladylike sound and pressed to cancel the call. Not three seconds later, she was being called again by the same number. The lady rolled her eyes and huffed out a sigh.She held up the phone to her face and forced on a smile so her intonation would sound better. “Hiya, coz,” she greeted in an overly sweet voice.“Sister,” a curt, clipped voice replied humorlessly. “My subordinate was supposed to handle that business at the warehouse today. I heard you told him to take the day off… and to not report it to me until it was all over.”Dolly rolled her eyes aggressively and turned her painted lips into an overstated frown. She was glad the stern skeleton man wasn’t here to scold her in person.“I was bored,” she whined. “Sweetie went out on a business trip an’ it’s too quiet at home.”“Really now? Then hows about I tell my brother you’ve been taking on extra jobs?”Dolly leaned back and folded her legs, glaring at the sky through the window. “Whatever. He loves the way I can’t stand still.”She heard Styles release a breath of frustration from the other end of the line. “If I were him, I’d just be glad you could stand at all and keep you locked up in the house.”“Ya know, coz, girls won’t like ya if you’re too controlling.”There was a frustrated growling sound through the speaker that cut off quite abruptly. “If ya wanna get iced, at least don’t do it in my area! And don’t order my men around!” And he hung up.Dolly leaned back in her seat more, her mink coat sliding up her shoulders, and blew out a breath. It was because she’d snatched up a job on Styles’ side of things that she was getting chewed out for it. Seriously, how had Hit’s little brother ended up such a possessive bastard? When Hit showed his controlling side, it was sweet and sexy, not this.
I did the job right, didn’t I? He should just keep his mouth shut.
The driver kept going normally, and soon they had dropped everything off at the warehouses and were on their own individual ways home. Dolly’s driver pulled up in front of her flat, and she wished him a good night. It was a long way up to the top, but she liked to hum to herself in the elevator.As Dolly transitioned from the elevator to the hallway to her penthouse suite, her humming transitioned to full blown singing. The lyrics of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams left her lips (only slightly off tune) as her coat and shoes hit the floor. She didn’t care about being tidy now when she’d just gotten home, littering the floor with her clothes as she stripped them off layer by layer on her way to the bathroom.She turned the water on in advance so it would be hot when she got in, poured an abundance of bubble juice in the porcelain tub, then smoothly stepped out of her prosthetic leg and into the luxurious basin. The warm water seeped into her skin, somehow both relaxing and simulating her nerves. And, you know what? She was home alone, and she felt like having a party. “Hey Alexa,” she called, poking the toes on her good leg out through the bubbles, “Play Get Low.”Lil Jon’s raunchy rhymes blasted loud enough to shake her razor off the edge of the tub and onto the floor. It didn’t matter if she was lying in a tub butt naked, Dolly danced like a slave to that beat. She had closed her eyes to better be in her own little world, and gasped as hard bony fingers slid along her jaw, cupping her face by the chin and tilting her head back.Dolly blinked with wide, doe-like eyes, and grinned widely when she saw Hit’s smug face smiling down at her.“Hey, sugar! You’re home~”Out of courtesy, she didn’t jump up and soak his pretty suit with a hug.“Didja not hear me come in?” he chuckled.Dolly smiled and shouted at Alexa to turn the volume down.“So what’d ya do today?” Hit asked.“Eh, you know. Shopped a little online, chatted on the phone with my sister for like an hour, chilled, got bored, went out and did a job. I just got home. How about you, sweetie?”“Pretty much just lots of driving,” he sighed and smiled, “but I had ta be there. I was doing that thing fer those mermonsters. You know the one.”Dolly rolled over in the tub and started to get out, Hit lent her a gentlemanly hand for balance and smiled coyly.“That was today? So you’re done with the long distance stuff?”She looked really excited, and Hit’s smile faded a little when he had to shake his head.“I still gotta take ‘em back.”“Oh.”Dolly understood—she did. These guys were from way out of town, and Hit was really the only person they knew around here. He should be there to help calm their nerves. Not to mention, they sounded like some loose cannons, so something might pop up that he’d have to smooth over for them.“Hey,” Hit cooed, pulling a towel off the towel shelf and handing it to her. “I’m here for tonight. And if you’re lonely, you can come with me tomorrow. We ain’t doin’ nothin’ too serious.”The corner of Dolly’s lips turned up, and she wrapped the towel around herself, leaning against Hit and teasing the brim of his hat with her fingertip.“Eh. Let’s just get through tonight an’ see if I ain’t sick of ya yet.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Crooks had been worn out after his surgery, so he stayed asleep even after the anesthetic wore off. He opened his eyes sleepily the next morning once the sun started shining in through the windows. The lights had been kept off for him out of consideration for his light-sensitive eyes. Waking up like that… actually felt extremely familiar to Crooks, because the first thing he saw shining in the low light was Axe’s bright red ring of an eyelight, wide and focused as if he hadn’t just stayed up all night.
Of course, the situation wasn’t exactly business as usual. He was still in the surgery center (now in the recovery room), and Red was curled up in the corner of the room.
Crooks heard a quiet clink and looked back toward his brother. Axe had pressed his hand up against the glass tank. Crooks smiled at him and sat up. His mouth felt a little strange and heavy, but besides that it was quite numb. He touched his teeth delicately to feel how the surgery had gone. It almost made him nervous how different they felt, and he took a deep breath to calm that little voice in his head that wondered if anything had gone wrong.
Crooks heard another clink and saw that Axe had pressed his phone screen to the glass. It had its mirror function pulled up. Crooks surfaced and reached out for Axe to pass it over. He held the device at strange angles, rubbed his eyes, and kept looking again as if the reflection he saw would somehow change. When it didn’t, and he still wasn’t convinced, Crooks started prodding at his new teeth with his fingertips, like he wanted reassurance that the reflection was accurate. He took a long time to quiet his doubts. It didn’t really hit him until he realized one simple thing.
He
could
feel all the poking and prodding he was doing. It wasn’t that his new teeth were numb; they just didn’t hurt.
At that realization, the tears started to flow. Crooks was a silent cryer, so it didn’t wake up Red, but it was like a river. Axe let him cry it out as much as he wanted without interfering.
Finally, Crooks was the one who leaned out of his tank, wrapping Axe up in a hug.
“Thank you,” he sobbed. “Thank you. Thank you.”
Axe noticed that Crooks was still speaking with a lisp, and it made him chuckle. He also noticed that Crooks had remembered to record this for him. Axe smiled and patted his brother on the back.
“Yer welcome.”
***
Red glanced sideways at Crooks, who was wiping tears out of his eye sockets again.
“... Ya good?” he asked uncomfortably.
“I’m fine,” Crooks smiled back at him. “I’m very happy.”
Red hummed and faced forward, watching through the glass doors for Hit’s truck to pull up. It was still fairly early in the morning, and all they had to do was wait. It didn’t take too long, and Hit had apparently brought another passenger with him: a delicate human lady who didn’t look like she suited their gang’s company aside from her snappy outfit and lively red eyes.
Before loading everybody onto the truck, Hit came over to inspect the surgeon’s job and make sure Crooks and Axe were satisfied.
“You look good,” he grinned, biting a cigar between his fangs but resisting lighting it, since he was in the lobby of a hospital. “Everything go okay?”
“Yes,” Crooks smiled, “better than I’d hoped for. I don’t know how to thank you for all the help you’ve given us.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the mob boss waved, “your bro paid in advance. I’m happy as long as you’re happy.”
“Well, I am very happy,” Crooks assured him.
“Good. In that case, I’d like you to meet somebody.”
At her cue, Dolly strolled over to their group, and Hit wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“So these are the deep sea monsters you’ve been hanging out with lately,” she cooed. “Pretty fuckin’ metal if ya ask me. Where’d you get those scars, big boys?” she flashed a foxy smile at Red and Axe.
“Which ones?” Red muttered.
“Don’t remember,” Axe shrugged.
To both of their confusion, the woman didn’t press the question. She just grinned and gave them each a thumbs up. Hit chuckled.
“This’s my girl, Dolly.”
“Damn right,” the human woman leaned into Hit’s chest and peered up at him. “Are we goin’ to the ocean now, baby?”
“Sure.” Hit looked over his shoulder, “Hey, boys, let’s get everybody in the truck.”
***
Unlike on the trip inland, loud music echoed through the truck the whole way back. Since the only factor that had changed was Dolly’s presence, the mer monsters figured this was her doing too. There was an awful lot of heavy metal in the mix. Axe was the only one who was enjoying it, and frankly, it was giving Red anxiety. He couldn’t plug his ears since he didn’t have any--just miming the motion did nothing. Crooks tried to play some softer music from Axe’s phone in an attempt to tune it out, but that failed miserably. The smartphone’s tiny speakers couldn’t begin to compare to the truck.
Crooks tried knocking on the front of the metal carrier, but apparently the people in front couldn’t hear him over the music. Red endured it for as long as he could before snapping. With a snarl, he teleported on top of the truck, crawled to the front, and smashed one of his tentacles through the passenger window, turning the music dial down himself.
Dolly had insisted that this was a roadtrip, and she had wanted to sit in the front to control the music, thus she was in the passenger seat, and Hit had decided to drive himself. When Red’s tentacle smashed through the window, they both shouted some vulgarity rendered inaudible by the loud music. After Red had withdrawn to the back of the truck, Hit held his chest and lit the cigar he’d been clutching in his teeth. “Jesus,” he muttered. Next to him, Dolly was laughing hysterically.
“Thought I was gonna have a heart attack,” he told her.
“You’re so full of shit,” she grinned at him, giving him a playful shove. The truck had stayed perfectly under control the whole time despite the passenger window crashing in. Hit put on a show, but Dolly knew how cool-headed he actually was.
Rebel that she was, she actually turned the music back on. She did switch to something a little more middle-of-the-road, though, and the volume wasn’t quite as high. If the big octopus had any complaints with
Under the Graveyard
, the current song playing, she could only chalk it up to bad taste.
“Didja get any glass on you?” Hit asked.
“I think there’s some in my hair, but I don’t wanna muss it up.”
In the back seat, three large men were crammed shoulder to shoulder, uncomfortably tense and quiet, caught between a monster transport mission and a far more monstrous date.
***
By some miracle, they made it to the drop off point. Crooks had messaged ahead, so everybody (besides Geno) was waiting there to meet them. They were absolutely thrilled to see Crooks’ new teeth. Toriel pinched his cheeks like a proud grandma and insisted on a few pictures. Discussions about a celebratory feast were already underway. Of course, that meant a shopping trip at the surface town, since the mersharks couldn’t be satisfied by low-magic foods.
When everybody on both sides of the shore was about to turn around to head home, Crooks asked for a moment alone with the surface dwellers--to thank them again. The others nodded and swam deeper into the water, including Axe who looked back a few times.
“Like I said,” Hit told him, “I was just paying back a favor.”
“I know,” Crooks told him. “I wanted to ask you something privately.”
The gangster blinked. “Uh, okay. Shoot.”
“What would it take to fix my brother? Is it possible?”
“You mean that hole in his head?” Dolly asked.
Crooks shook his head. “That surface wound is just the visible aspect of something much worse. Closing it poorly could kill him.”
“Well, I can definitely look into it, but I ain’t a brain surgeon, so I can’t really say if it’s possible.”
“You just need something in exchange, right? Then you’ll look into it?”
Hit frowned and looked skeptically at Crooks. “You’re not wrong, but do you have anything to offer?”
True, Hit usually operated based on trades of equal value; charity work wasn’t his thing--except where family was involved. It was possible for him to trade with Axe because Axe had skills that Hit needed at the moment. As for Crooks, Hit had a mental image of him as Axe’s kindhearted, helpless younger brother.
In response to Hit’s skepticism, Crooks looked at Dolly. The wind on this beach had made it noticeable more than once since they arrived that one of her legs was prosthetic.
“Even with your resources, you haven’t healed her leg,” he stated.
“Well, yeah. ‘Course not.” Hit’s voice made him sound confused that Crooks was even mentioning it.
“Without the original to reattach, you can’t heal someone’s limb once it’s gone, you know?” Dolly told him. “And for people with strong red souls like me, even reattaching it is impossible.”
The brittle mershark steeled himself and looked back up at Hit. “In that case, the surface doesn’t have any healers better than me. I can heal a wound like that. In fact, I have done so, multiple times. I can regenerate limbs--even for red souls.”
Hit’s hand accidentally tightened around Dolly’s arm. It hurt, so she gave him a thwack on the head, despite being dazed herself.
“Are you shittin’ me?” he got straight to the point.
Crooks shook his head. “I’m serious. Since your healers can’t even do that, I’m sure they can’t help my brother. But they might know how to and simply lack the skill themselves. I’ll heal Dolly’s leg, so in exchange, bring me every scrap of information you can find on complex surgeries for monsters without physical brains. I’ll study them and do the procedure myself.”
“Sweetie?” Hit looked at Dolly with a tender and concerned frown. His position was clear, but the choice was hers.
Dolly smiled and pulled him down by his tie to give him a kiss on the cheek. She loved her huge, violent monster husband, who still thought she was the most beautiful woman on the earth even missing a leg. She didn’t regret having her little accident, but that was that and this was this.
“Well, doctor, if you think you can do it, I’d love to see you try.”
Crooks sighed in relief. He hadn’t known what else to offer these people if that wasn’t enough. “Alright. It won’t be done in just one session, so.”
“We can work out the details,” Hit told him. “You got a phone?”
“No, but text this number.” Crooks gave Hit Stretch’s number. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d used the kid’s phone. He would keep it secret, and then Crooks could surprise Axe with the fruits of his labor.
“Alright. We’ll stay nearby.”
Crooks left the gangsters at the shore and went to join his school. They went on a shopping trip before going home and having a wonderful party.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
To Stretch, his room was the best place in the world. On the other side of his pastel coral walls was a big family of cheerful, noisy people and shallow waters full of bountiful sea life and xenophobic mermaids. Above was the loud and busy world of surface-dwellers, and below was the quiet, endless, and terrifying deep. He’d seen a lot of the world for some half-breed mermonster kid; that’s why there wasn’t even an inkling of an urge to leave his room if he could help it.Going to the surface to get sweets? A necessary affair. Running errands for the adults in the school? That was just his role as the most mature kid around, and he accepted it. But lazing about in his room with his phone in front of his face and his tentacles splayed to all corners of the room was his ideal (and what Stretch considered his natural) state. He was one-hundred percent certain he got that from his dad.Stretch himself was convinced that he was even lazier than his dad. Even Sans got the urge to swim around and explore on a nice day. But the cephalopod genes were strong with Stretch, and he liked confined spaces the best.As the young meroctopus was enjoying his privacy, he frowned, subtly rolling over so his body blocked his phone screen from all of the room’s more convenient angles. “Mind knocking or something?” he drawled.Stretch usually kept his room dark, and in the shadows along the ceiling, a blood red ring lit up. Axe looked surprised to have been noticed by someone other than Crooks or Red. Truthfully, the way Stretch spread out his long limbs and let the sensitive suckers relax in the current gave him a surprisingly high detection ability, but that was a little secret just for him.“Lemme see yer phone,” Axe said once he’d recovered.“How about nah?”Stretch typed away in his internet browser, paying no mind to the awkward stare boring into the back of his head.“Please?”Stretch chuckled at the mershark’s quiet plea. “That’s better, but still no. I went to the trouble of making a promise, you know?”Crooks was having some secret meetings with people he was only in contact with via Stretch’s phone, and not knowing anything was driving Axe crazy. But, well, Stretch knew Crooks was planning a nice surprise for Axe, so he had promised not to spoil anything.“You look as on-edge as my mom,” Stretch teased, glancing at the tense mershark out of the corner of his eye sockets. “You can relax a little. He’s not doing anything dangerous.” Not when the guy can move quietly enough that you and I don’t even notice when he leaves. “I just worry when I can’t see ‘im,” Axe spat. He dug one hand into his ruined eye socket and chewed the nails on the other, practically grinding his teeth against the bones.Stretch glanced up at the guy again and breathed out a sigh. He’d seen all of their school’s deep natives get like this at one point or another. Unless they were sure everything was safe , they wouldn’t settle down; wouldn’t rest even for days, potentially. Part of him liked when Crooks got that way, since Stretch would wake up in the morning to find all of his chores done for him.Red and Axe just paced and bit and scratched like restless beasts, maybe because they were hunters by nature and trade.Stretch dug around under his bed and found his stash of sweets, tossing Axe a honey-flavored lollipop. “Try one. They’re great for my anxiety. Maybe it’ll help you calm down a little.” Nearly as soon as he’d finished talking, Stretch heard a sharp crunch and winced. The poor candy was demolished in one bite, and now Axe was just fishing between his teeth for the remains of the stick. The meroctopus sighed and dug out another candy.“Let’s try this again. This time, just suck on it. It’s supposed to be an exercise in patience, alright?”For better or worse, Stretch had built up a sizable stash of sweets, so he was prepared to keep one stressed-out mershark company for a little while. *** A large and burly wolf monster in a suit parked his car and carried a bag of groceries in his arm. Despite looking very much like the monster he was, he was doing chores fit for a housewife, which left a somewhat comedic impression.The monster himself wasn’t concerned about that, though. He was just grumpy that his boss had made him go all the way to the next town over just to buy snacks. There was a port town much closer to them, but that was where the infamous “white sheep” of the family lived, and it was off limits.What awaited the monster goon when he walked back to the beach was quite the unnerving sight. The boss’s lady was sitting on the pier with her skirt folded up and her prosthetic leg nowhere in sight. Instead, a single crutch was lying beside her. Half-emerged from the water was a huge, curled, and gaunt skeleton with tiny, haunting eye sockets. It’s fingers, like spindly bone needles, extended toward the little human lady.Now, the wolf monster wasn’t racist —hell, his boss was a skeleton—but that thing looked like an avatar of death fresh from the deepest regions of the ocean.Regardless, that creature was the miracle healer that was fixing the boss lady’s missing leg. Some people said there were gods living somewhere hidden in the ocean. This guy looked more like a demon than a god, but the wolf monster would call him a saint if he really could heal his boss’s lady.“I brought the snacks,” the wolf monster called out.His boss, another giant skeleton (though huge in a very different way) turned and grinned at him.“‘Bout time,” Hit called. “Hey, Crooks, take a break and eat somethin’. You look exhausted.”The ocean monster sighed and lowered his hands, the soft green light fading. It had been about a week since he had started coming to treat Dolly’s injury. Progress had been so slow at first that it was hard to tell if anything was even happening without a measuring tape, but the lady had a knee joint now that was almost complete enough to function. That was why Dolly had a crutch with her; she couldn’t wear her old prosthetic anymore.“A break sounds nice,” Crooks admitted.The wolf monster approached with the bag of snacks and started piling them up on the pier. They were all very magic-dense foods that most monsters would eat in moderation. Dolly, who was a human, and Crooks, who was whatever he was, gobbled them up like they were nothing. Though, to be fair, the wolf monster was pretty sure healing a severed limb took a lot of magic. Hit wasn’t feeding him just to be nice, though that was definitely part of it.“Hey, how much longer is this supposed ta take?” Dolly mumbled through a mouth of magical cookies. She swallowed them all in one gulp and licked the powder off her fingers. “It ain’t like I’m ungrateful, but starin’ out at the ocean every day for hours is boring.”“Is it?” Crooks smiled. “Sorry, but it will be about two more months before you can comfortably walk on it.”“Two months,” she echoed. She started giggling and kicking her free leg. Her toes didn’t quite reach the water. Hit looked at his little lady just being excited and smiled. “Hey,” he called Crooks’ attention, “You ever had booze before?”“What’s booze?”“You know: beer, alcohol. Never heard of bud lite?”Crooks searched his memory and nodded. “I believe I saw an advertisement for something like that on my brother’s phone while he was on the internet. It’s a beverage, isn’t it?”Hit chuckled. “Yeah. I’ll treat you after this is all over.”“As long as I get the research documents I need, I’d be happy to join you.”“Heh. You and your bro are definitely related. Don’t worry,” Hit winked and fished out a fresh cigar to light, “my guys are puttin’ a collection together as we speak. Would’ve had it done already, but it’s hard for people outside of the profession to even know what they’re lookin’ at. I had them ruffle the feathers of some eggheads; shouldn’t be long now.”Crooks smiled softly, “That is very good news.”Since his magic had recovered some after eating, he went right back to the intricate work of regenerating a human’s limb. *** It had been weeks since Crooks started disappearing every day. No matter how allert Axe made himself, he would inevitably lapse in focus at some point thanks to his old injury. It was almost supernatural how precisely Crooks had learned to slip away during those brief moments. On a related note, it was scary how convincing Red’s oldest kid could be. Just a few soothing words, a little food, and a ton of patience from him, and Axe had actually been able to emotionally compromise with Crooks’ voluntary absence. It seemed bizarre to him. In the first place, Axe’s experiences with meroctopuses before living here were not pleasant. They were little more than violent beasts once combat started, and it began the moment they discovered you. Red, who was constantly on edge, and Blackberry, who was so prideful it almost wasn’t cute anymore, made some sense, but Stretch was like the deepest, quietest parts of the deep, just without the lingering sense of dread. Axe briefly compared himself to Red. Sans had the very special ability to keep Red calm, and it felt a little like Stretch was doing the same thing for Axe. He almost wondered if it was some kind of mind control ability. Axe and other deep ocean monsters already had their own nonverbal way of communicating threats and danger. Were there mermaids who could project positive feelings to others? Because the thought was interesting, Axe wrote it down in his notes, but it wasn’t something he could figure out right away.He took a moment to look over the list of things he wanted to remember but had forgotten, in the section of his notes that he often didn’t remember to check.
Should I set an alarm ta keep checkin’ dis thing?
Telling Crooks was an option. Axe had always (to his recollection) believed his brother had a good memory, and the others in the school had confirmed it for him. Chara and Frisk had once tested him by secretly filming a conversation they had with him and then asking him a week later what they had talked about. Normally, a vague answer would be acceptable, but Chara had pushed the frail mershark for the specifics, and they had discovered that he could recite the conversation word for word if he had a reason to.The information had been surprising to Crooks himself more than it was for them. He had apparently lived his life believing that it was just customary to recount past events without detail, and that it was rude to point out when someone was mistaken. Thus, he assumed that he remembered things wrong on occasion (perhaps slightly less often than others did), and they were polite enough not to point it out to him. After all, prior to recording technology like cameras and writing, there had never been a way for him to absolutely confirm if his memories were correct.There was no doubt about it anymore: Crooks remembered everything. Most important things, Axe did his best to share with his brother for safekeeping, but there were still a few things in his notes that he wanted to be a secret for a while longer. So he went with plan B and set a daily alarm that would tell him to look over his notes again.With that out of the way, there was something he could go and cross off the list right that moment. He had a delivery to make.Red was currently pregnant with his third child. He wasn’t very far along yet, but the moodswings had definitely started. For right now, though, Axe found him in one of the community rooms, relaxing and watching his mate and Toriel teaching Blueberry to read from the corner of the room.Axe swam over, stopping just outside the safe-distance Red had silently declared.“Take dis,” the mershark muttered, unceremoniously tossing something small and shiny at the Meroctopus. Red caught it with his nearest tentacle almost without thinking. It appeared to be a shiny silver disk on a thin chain.“What’s this?” He picked it up in his hands and examined it closely. The ornament was way oversized for a normal locket, but just the right size for giants like Red or Axe. “S’ a present,” Axe said. “A lil’ late, but thanks fer comin’ ta da surface wit’ Crooks n’ me. An’ m’sorry fer pullin’ ya away from Sans fer a while.”“Uh… okay?” Red wasn’t sure what he would do with this thing, but Axe has gotten it specifically for him, so was it too rude to throw it away? Maybe he could incorporate the chain into a trap or something. There was never enough scrap for repairs.As Red was examining the locket, he noticed tiny hinges on the side and dug his claw into a crack to pop it open. There was a picture of Sans inside, protected by a sealed layer of glass. It was a candid shot of him smiling that Axe had probably stealthily taken without anyone noticing. Red stared wide-eyed at that picture and moved to put the chain around his neck immediately. “Hey, it’s too small.”“If it could fit o’er yer head, ya’d lose it swimmin’ around. Dere’s a clasp dere.”Red spotted the clasp that he’d missed in his excitement. “Oh.” He quickly figured out how it worked, and with his surprisingly dexterous claws, he didn’t have any trouble doing up the clasp behind his head. “Thanks. I like it.”“M’glad.”The exchange was short, and they ended it there. Axe started swimming back to his room for a quick nap, since he felt a headache starting and didn’t have any reason to tough it out. Chara spotted him on his way and swam over, dropping a pail of clam shells on their way.“Hey, Axe,” they called. He reluctantly stopped to hear the kid out. “When’s Crooks going to finish whatever he’s been doing lately?”Crooks wasn’t neglecting his duties, per say. He still made sure to give Geno his regular treatment, tidied the den up in the mornings, and cooked dinner for everyone in the evenings, but he didn’t do extra chores since he was out most of the day. Toriel had been quick to point out that those extra chores had originally been the children’s duty.“‘Bout two months,” he told them. Chara clicked their tongue and glared at the bucket they had abandoned behind them. “What’s he doing, anyway?”Axe shrugged.“You still don’t know?”“No idea. He ain’t said nothin’ ta me.”That was a lie--the part about him not having any ideas. Axe knew from his basic senses alone that Crooks was staying fed and he hadn’t killed anything. More to the point, whatever he was eating for lunch while he was out wasn’t the kind of food they could feel satisfied with in the ocean. That alone gave him plenty of ideas about what his brother was up to. But his ideas were just speculation, and he would keep them to himself. Especially since one of his most confident theories held that Crooks was trying to make connections and return the nice surprise Axe had given him. Ruining the surprise by figuring it out in advance would be rude, so he would keep his trap shut.“Since you stopped freaking out and stalking Stretch, I thought you heard something,” the human mermaid sighed despondently. “Well, whatever. Tell me if you find out, okay?”Axe shrugged, “Sure, if I remember.”The kid stuck their tongue out at him even as they rushed to grab the pail and finish their chores so that Toriel wouldn’t scold them. Axe was content to go to his room and nap until dinner.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Out of the blue, no pun intended, a messenger came to the den announcing an ocean council. The messenger didn’t say anything about what the meeting was for. The school wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but it probably didn’t have anything to do with them, or they would have been told so. They decided to send Toriel alone as their representative.
In two days, she made the six-hour swim to the meeting place without incident. But what greeted her in that coral and stone colosseum was a nightmare.
Regalia, up on her balcony, rapped her staff and spoke in a loud and clear voice. “Toriel, the allegations today are against your school. You are accused of harboring killers.”
“What?!”
“Silence please. According to the accuser, creatures described as “giant shark monstrosities” have been seen coming and going from your den. It is a fact that in recent months several smaller schools have ceased all communications and were found to have been missing, presumed dead. It has been stipulated that this is the result of the creatures you are reportedly harboring. May the involved parties move to the center and begin with their opening arguments.”
Toriel stood up and shouted, “Lady Regalia! I was not informed of the topic of today’s council!”
Regalia tipped her head. “No?” She looked out into the seats and found the messenger who had volunteered to inform them. He was avoiding eye contact, blatantly admitting his guilt. A few other mermaids around him were glaring at his behavior, for unknowable reasons. “Hm. That is against our rules. This council will be disbanded, to reconvene in three days.”
There was considerable protest from a small portion of the attending mermaids, but Regalia thumped her staff and left her balcony. Toriel sighed in relief before anxiety immediately washed over her. She didn’t believe their mersharks had done anything like wipe out entire schools of mermaids, but there was clearly someone among the schools who wanted them gone, even if they had to break the council rules. Their only mistake was thinking Toriel wouldn’t realize and point out that the rules had been broken, or that Regalia would ever permit such a thing.
Speaking of the capricorn queen, she found Toriel in the periphery halls of the meeting area and called her aside.
“I wonder when you made so many enemies, Toriel.”
The goat woman sighed at her old friend’s gentle teasing. “I cannot imagine,” she confessed.
Regalia showed her the slightest of smiles before her face settled into a frown again. “Was there any truth at all to those allegations? I am asking in a personal capacity, not as an arbiter.”
So “Anything she said here would not be used against her in council,” huh? Toriel shook her head. “It’s true that our school has accepted a few new exotic members recently, but I sincerely doubt they had anything to do with the unfortunate disappearance of those mermaids.”
“You only doubt it?” Regalia questioned.
Toriel smiled bitterly. “In any case, I think I have another suspect in mind for those disappearances.”
Regalia nodded, “Please, bring as much evidence and as many witnesses as you need when we reconvene. The accusing party will surely do the same.”
Toriel nodded the affirmative, and Regalia examined her curiously.
“Giant shark monstrosities?” She asked softly.
Toriel sighed. “I should say that they are mer, not simply wild sharks. They fled the deep ocean in hopes of a better life, and my school gave them a chance. One is a little unstable, but he hasn’t caused any problems so far. The other is the kindest, most benevolent child I have ever met, and a genius at healing magic. I do trust them.”
Regalia stared at the head of her staff and said nothing, thinking of her husband who used to hold it. “You always have been that sort of person.” Regalia would never open her arms to creatures like that for her entire life. She could not. The most she could do was judge them fairly in a professional capacity.
“Go,” Regalia said, “inform your school. I’m sorry to have kept you.”
Toriel nodded and swam off to where there was nobody else around. She didn’t feel perfectly safe swimming home alone knowing her policies had made enemies among the mermaids, so she took out her phone and called Sans, asking for a teleport.
“How did it go?” he asked after appearing in front of her. From the guarded look in his eyes, he must’ve had his own suspicions.
“Not well,” Toriel admitted. “I will tell everyone about it at dinner.”
Sans nodded, held her furry hand, and brought them back to the den in an instant.
***
Crooks dropped his sippy cup when Toriel explained what the ocean council had been called for.
“We did not!” he exclaimed. “I swear we have done no such things!”
Toriel smiled softly and nodded. “I did not think you did, but I am glad to hear you say so.”
“Ours is still the smallest school around, ain’t it?” Red asked with his mouth full.
Asgore chuckled. “Despite how much it has been growing recently, yes, it is. Other schools around us should have twenty members at least.”
“Then it’s fine,” Red closed his eyes and nodded. “Dey killed like a handful of mermaids at most.”
Axe didn’t recall one way or the other, but he felt a flood of anxiety from Crooks at Red’s comment. The healer was visibly frozen in his seat, and Axe directed a mild glare at the meroctopus.
Dis dense mothafucker,
he sighed internally.
“A… handful?” Alphys was the first to break the thick silence.
Undyne was glaring harshly, but all of it was focused on Axe; not a speck of her anger went toward Crooks.
I mean, I think it was me too, but fuck off fishface.
“Axe, Crooks, Red,” Toriel spoke slowly, “would you care to explain?”
Red, still unsure what he’d done wrong, but clearly feeling the silent warnings both of the mersharks were sending him, muttered something else dumb. “I mean, I didn’t see nothin’. I just smelled the blood on ‘em after, an’ noticed they weren’t eatin’ as much.” Red winced. As Crooks’ palpable anxiety increased, the silent warnings from Axe became clear animosity.
“Axe,” Toriel narrowed her eyes, deciding to focus on him rather than the petrified Crooks. “Explain.”
He laughed bitterly, “I would, but I don’t remember. M’ sure dere woulda been a reason, though. I ain’t psychotic.”
Toriel sighed. “I’m sorry, Crooks. You look stressed, but it seems like you’re the only one I can ask about this.”
Crooks directed a nervous glance at Axe, who just shrugged. “Tell ‘em, I guess. M’ sure we didn’t do nothin’ bad.”
The gangly healer took a deep breath and sighed. “A few months after we moved in, a mermaid from another school snuck into the den at night intending to kill Red while he slept.” There were gasps all around the table, so Crooks reluctantly kept going after a pause, “According to my brother at the time, he noticed and followed the intruder, and when they took out a weapon and aimed it at Red, who was asleep, he killed them. Red could have handled it himself--he wouldn’t have died--but we knew there was already tension between Red and some of the other mermaid schools. We thought it would cause problems if he killed them. It would be messy and loud and everybody would have known about it. It might have escalated the conflict. So, we thought it would be better for everyone if they just quietly disappeared. For the same reason, Axe also killed the accomplices who were waiting outside.”
Crooks clenched his hands in his lap, “After that, Axe woke me up, told me what had happened, and I helped him dispose of the bodies.”
There was silence around the table for a good several breaths. Finally, Undyne groaned loudly. “It’s fucked up that that happened, but I can’t really say you were wrong either. It would have been bad if Red killed them.” She glared at Axe, “but it still pisses me off that you killed a bunch of people and hid it from us.”
Axe shrugged. “Eh. Sounds like wha’ I woulda done in dat situation. I stand by dat decision.”
“You should have attempted reasoning with them first,” Blackberry huffed, folding his arms.
“Den
you
be dere next time,” Axe shrugged.
“U-um,” Crooks looked at the frustrated Undyne and pointed at himself, “are you not upset with me?”
The fish mermaid sighed and offered him a pitying smile. “Nah, dude. You didn’t kill ‘em, you were just trying to help, right? Besides, it made you sick enough that you lost your appetite. I’m not mad, I’m just sorry you had to deal with that shit.”
Crooks went stiff in his chair. Three people in the room immediately realized that the mermaids had misunderstood part of Red’s admission. Red almost opened his mouth to correct her, but he felt a wave of warning from Axe that was only a step down from killing intent, so he kept his trap shut.
“W-well,” Crooks stuttered, “Mm.” He couldn’t think of a damn thing to say to her after that.
Toriel let out a breath. “We will have to decide later whether or not to bring this up at the council. Geno.”
The little red mermaid sat up straight in his chair, startled to be called out during a conversation like this. “Yeah?”
“Personally, I suspect the cause of these missing mermaids is related to what happened to you. What do you think?”
He grimaced, suddenly feeling the hole in his skull more clearly. It was almost sealed, thanks to Crooks, but they still hadn’t started on his melted right eye. “I hope not, but it’s possible.”
“Axe tracked down Geno’s tail,” Stretch recalled. “Did you find any others while you were at it?”
“I…” Axe furrowed his brow.
“He wouldn’t have been the only one there,” Crooks offered. “I know who we can call that might remember.”
They had Axe call Hit and put him on speaker phone.
“What’s up?” they heard the land skeleton greet them by getting right to the point.
“Were ya dere when I found a red mermaid tail?” Axe also jumped right into it.
“Why? You settling a bet?” the mobster chuckled on the other end of the line.
“Jus’ tell me how many dere were.”
“Well it ain’t like I counted ‘em. If I had to estimate by the size of the crate you found it in, probably between one and two hundred?”
“Ya think dat covers da mermaids dat went missin’ lately?” Axe asked Toriel. She simply stared back at him in horror.
“How could you not mention this?!” Undyne exploded. “You found
hundreds
of chopped up mermaid tails and didn’t say anything?!”
“Uh, you got me on speaker or somethin’?” Hit belatedly realized others were listening in on their conversation.
“Hey, you, Hit man,” Undyne shouted at the phone.
“You don’t know what that means.”
“What did you guys do with those tails, huh?!”
“We dumped ‘em,” Hit answered. “Your shark pal all but threatened to kill us if we thought about sellin’ ‘em. The market for monster trafficking took a pretty big hit thanks to him. I got no idea what you sound so pissed about.”
“Hm.” Asgore stroked his beard, “It might be inconvenient for you, but would you be willing to testify at the ocean council?”
“Huh? Testify?” Hit sounded hesitant at best. In the first place, he didn’t even know what an ocean council was.
Sans cut in to explain the situation to him. “Unfortunately, the disappearance of those mermaids is being blamed on Axe and Crooks.”
“The hell? Why?”
“Racism,” Axe murmured.
Hit took a deep breath and let it out. “Well… shit. Court ain’t exactly my favorite place to be, but I wanna help you out anyway. I ain’t exactly waterproof though; I can’t be there in person if it’s anytime soon. Would need to throw together some tech for that...”
“It is in three days,” Toriel told him.
“Yeah, nope, even Alph can’t work that fast. Would they let me testify over the phone?”
“We could certainly ask,” Toriel replied. “Please make yourself available just in case. We will work the rest of the details out as soon as we can.”
“Yeah, good luck. My reach ain’t that far underwater, but call me if there’s anythin’ I can do up here.”
Toriel smiled, pleasantly surprised that Hit was such a helpful sort. “Thank you very much. We will do just so.”
***
The ocean council had reconvened. This time, practically half of the school was in attendance. The mermaids from other schools were having a difficult time calming down with predatory creatures like meroctopuses and mersharks in attendance. Toriel had come as their main speaker. For testimonies, they had brought Crooks, Red, Geno, Blueberry, and Sans. They didn’t intend to make Red speak if things were going well, since it would probably push him into a panic. Axe had also requested to come to keep an eye on Crooks, but they probably would have brought him either way. Undyne and Alphys also came along to spectate and support Crooks. The rest were back at the den under Asgore’s supervision.
Regalia swam into her position as the presiding mer, her staff, snow white fur, and lavender scales glittering in the sun filtering down through the open ceiling. She rapped her staff on the floor of her balcony to quiet the various mer. Those who had ended up sitting near the deep ocean monsters were forced to suck it up, quiet down, and sit.
“Today’s council is reconvening on the topic of the accusation toward Toriel’s school for harboring dangerous murderers. Have both parties prepared their arguments?”
“We have,” said a yellow rabbit mer seated on the opposite end of the hall.
“We have,” Toriel seconded.
“Both parties’ representatives may come to the center to give their opening arguments.”
Toriel and the rabbit mer left their seats to swim to the center of the hall.
“Jillian, you as the accuser may begin,” Regalia ordered.
“Thank you, Lady Regalia.” The rabbit mer looked out upon the many mermaids gathered and spoke in a calm, collected voice. “Recently, several small schools have gone missing from this area. Hunters from my school have also witnessed horrifying, mer-eating creatures living among Lady Toriel’s school. I accuse these creatures of directly causing the disappearance and probable deaths of these innocent mermaids, and I accuse Lady Toriel and her school of harboring these dangerous creatures.”
Regalia nodded and looked to Toriel. “Toriel, you as the accused may begin.”
“Thank you, Lady Regalia.” Toriel took a deep breath. Many of the mer in the audience looked obviously disposed against Axe and Crooks. The hostility made her nervous, but she placed her confidence in the evidence and testimonies they had gathered. “In response to Lady Jillian’s claims, I propose that the missing mermaids in question are dead, that my school has discovered the cause, and that the mersharks in my care have been falsely accused.”
There were audible gasps among the audience. Defending her school was one thing, but identifying the cause of the recent disappearances would be a big deal if it were true. That she asserted that they were in fact dead especially made people look nervous and listen attentively.
“Jillian,” Regalia said, “please provide any evidence and testimonials you have. Know that if any lies, falsehoods, or misinformation are given, your entire argument will be deemed false, and you will not be allowed to accuse Toriel’s school on this matter again. Should irrelevant information be provided, it will be discarded from consideration, and I will alert you to refocus. Do you understand the rules?”
“Yes, Lady Regalia.”
“Present your evidence.”
Jillian nodded at a coyote mer who swam forward. “Aspen, tell them what you saw at Toriel’s den when you were out hunting.”
The coyote, Aspen, tucked his neck and eyed Axe, pointing a dull clawed finger at him. “That. I saw that shark freak with the hole in his head. Glaring at me.”
“When did you see this?”
“Couple of months ago.”
Jillian thanked him and sent him back, then she called a crocodile mer up instead. “Croger, you frequently hunted with five other members of our school, is that correct.”
“Yes.”
“Those members were?”
“August, Yale, Katz, Nigel, and Doren; a wolf mer, whale mer, rabbit mer, dog mer, and fish mer, respectively.”
“And the current state of your hunting group?”
“There are only three members including myself. Three more are missing.”
“Which three?”
“August, Yale, and Katz.”
“And when did they go missing?”
“Not long after Aspen says he saw those things at Toriel’s school.”
“What were the circumstances when they went missing?”
“They decided to go out for a swim at night around the vicinity of Toriel’s school.”
“They told you this?”
“August told me so, yes.”
“Thank you, Croger.”
Jillian sent the crocodile mer back and looked at Regalia. “Those are all of my testimonials, Lady Regalia.”
It wasn’t a lot to go on, Toriel thought. She suspected Jillian was planning to fill in the holes in her case by cross-examining Toriel’s own witnesses. Speaking of,
“Toriel,” Regalia called, “you may now cross-examine the accuser’s witnesses.”
If she wanted to deny that her school had anything to do with the deaths of those three mermaids, now would be the time to point out the holes in the testimonials given. There were several already that she could think of to exploit. However, the fact was their accusation on that front alone was correct, and it would be revealed when Jillian cross-examined Crooks. They had agreed as a school not to hide what had happened that night. Lying as the accused would see them immediately judged as guilty, but disallowing Crooks as a witness would cripple their defense. In the end, they had decided to be transparent about things.
Axe had already expressed that he was willing to take the punishment, whatever it was, as long as Crooks, who hadn't hurt anybody, got off free.
“I choose not to cross-examine the witnesses,” Toriel said.
It was practically an admission of guilt already, and the murmuring in the crowd attested that they knew that. Regalia even furrowed her brow at Toriel.
“Then you may present your own evidence and testimonies, as long as you abide by the rules. Remember that you may not be deceptive and you must speak the truth.”
“Thank you, Lady Regalia. I call Sans as witness.”
Sans gave Red a pat on the shoulder and swam up to the center.
“Tell me what happened five years before Crooks and Axe joined our school.”
Sans shrugged, “The water around the school was pumped full of some kind of chemical that made us sleepy, and I was kidnapped by human surface dwellers.”
The crowd gasped and muttered among themselves. Most people here knew and trusted Sans, which was why they had started with him, even though his own experience with poachers had been years prior. Regalia rapped her staff on the ground to quiet them.
“What happened when you were taken?” Toriel asked.
“They tied me up. I passed out for a few hours because of the drugs. When I woke up, they started talking about taking my baby away from me. I was about eight months pregnant at the time.”
“And after that?”
“After that my mate found and rescued me.”
Toriel nodded. “Thank you Sans. Go back. I call Geno as a witness.”
Geno swam up to the center. He felt self conscious with people muttering about his injuries, but he held his head high.
“Please summarize what happened to you and your school before you joined mine.”
“Human poachers flooded the water with sleeping drugs and brought everyone onto their boat.” Geno spoke in a low voice. The matter was still fresh for him, and remembering it made him angry. “They continued to drug us while they held us and cut off all of our tails one by one over a couple of days. They killed us after taking our tails. They got to me last. The pain sobered me up enough that I could use my attack magic, and I brought the ship down. Then I passed out and woke up in your school.”
“How many people were in your school?”
“Forty-one including me.”
“Thank you,” Toriel sent him back. “Lady Regalia, there’s a witness I’d like to call who isn’t from my school.”
The presiding mer nodded, “You may call them.”
“Actually, this witness is a surface dweller. I will need to call them with this.” She performed a brief demonstration of how her phone worked by video calling Sans.
“It’s unusual,” Regalia murmured. “I will allow it, but permit me to also question your non-present witness.”
Toriel called Hit. He answered the face call and grinned into the camera, tipping his hat. “Ladies.”
“State your name, please,” Regalia told him.
“Name’s Hit.”
“Hit, you have been called as a witness in defense of Toriel’s school. Do you understand the rules?”
“No.”
“You are not permitted to lie, deceive, or mislead. You must answer questions with true, complete, and relevant information. Do you agree to abide by these rules?”
“Yeah.”
“In that case, since this sort of long-distance testimony hadn’t been done before, please step back so I can see your whole body.”
“You sure? You won’t be able to hear me as good.”
“I simply want to verify that you are a surface monster.”
Hit shrugged and set his phone down on something, walking back until they could see his whole body. It looked like he was inside a nice-looking hotel suite. Regalia took a look at his legs, his clothes, the harsher gravity and lack of bubbles, and she nodded.
“Indeed. You are a surface monster. Please come closer and explain the relationship between you and Toriel’s school.”
“Me and some of her family have exchanged favors.”
“Could you be more specific?”
Hit smiled awkwardly. “I had Axe help me haul some stuff outta the water in exchange for settin’ his bro up with a good doctor. The other one’s supposed to be a nice surprise, do I have to say it?”
“Sorry, but I ask that you do.”
Hit sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Crooks is healing my girl’s leg in exchange for modern medical research on complex head injuries so he can heal his bro.”
“Please forget you heard that,” Crooks whispered to Axe, blushing pink. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.”
“So dat’s da deal ya made. Heh, dat’s sweet.”
“Axe,” Crooks whined.
“Yeah, yeah, I heard ya.”
Regalia nodded in response to Hit’s explanation, apparently satisfied. “Toriel, you may begin questioning the witness.”
Toriel nodded. “Hit, tell me about what Axe fished out of the water when he was helping you.”
“Sure sure. The relevant stuff, right?”
Regalia frowned. “Yes.”
Hit chuckled, “Sorry. Anyway, we fished up a crate full of mermaid tails.”
“How many?” Toriel asked softly.
“One crate. Somewhere between one and two hundred tails.”
Toriel ignored the subsequent murmuring in the crowd and turned to Regalia. “Does that number match the number of mermaids that have gone missing lately?”
“To my knowledge, one hundred fifty-eight mermaids have gone missing in the past few months.”
“Those are all of my testimonials,” Toriel replied.
Regalia nodded. “Jillian, you may now cross-examine the accused’s witnesses.”
Toriel swam back and the rabbit mer swam forward again. “That surface dweller said someone named Axe found those mermaid tails. Is he present?”
“He is,” Toriel told her.
“I would like to call him up as a witness.”
Toriel nodded and waved for Axe to come to the center. Several mermaids shuffled out of the way, giving more space than was really necessary, and Jillian backed up a few tail flicks as he approached her. Axe stopped at a reasonable distance, and the rabbit took a deep breath with her hand on her chest. Toriel was impressed despite herself that she was going to go through with the questioning.
“Would you agree with the previous assessment on the number of mermaid tails found in that crate?”
“Dunno.”
“You don’t know? Please answer yes or no.”
“Can’t. I don’t remember findin’ dat crate.”
The audience murmured, and Jillian furrowed her brow. “Are you saying that the previous testimony was wrong?”
“Nah,” Axe shook his head and pointed at the hole in his skull. “I got memory issues. I forget shit all da time.”
She latched onto that immediately, “Is it possible you targeted those mermaids and put their tails in that crate?”
Axe rolled his eyelight up and held his chin. “No,” he decided.
“How can you be sure?”
“Da amount of time I’d need ta hunt down an’ kill dat many mermaids woulda had me outta da den ‘nuff ta been noticed.”
“Who in Toriel’s school might have noticed if you were absent for extended periods of time?”
“My bro.”
“Is he present?”
“Heh, yeah, dere’s only two of us up here.”
“His name?”
“Crooks.”
Jillian nodded. “Please go back. I’d like to call Crooks as a witness.”
The mershark brothers traded places in the center.
“Crooks, are you confident you would notice if your brother was away from the den alone for extended periods of time?”
“Yes, I am.”
“And was he, at any point in these past months?”
Crooks directed an unsure glance at Regalia. “How accurate am I supposed to be here?”
“As accurate as you can be,” the presiding mer replied simply.
Crooks nodded and took in a deep breath. He then proceeded to list every time Axe was away from the den alone for half an hour or more ever since they had moved in.
“... besides that, there were other occasions, but none longer than thirty minutes…. Would you like me to list those as well?”
Jillian stared at the giant mershark, baffled and utterly skeptical. “How can you possibly remember all of that accurately?”
“I just can. From my perspective, it’s strange that you can’t. You don’t have a head injury like my brother does.”
The rabbit chewed her lip, but she must’ve known she wouldn’t get anywhere with this questioning if she didn’t move forward.
“Were you or your brother involved in causing the missing mermaids incident in any way?”
Crooks frowned, but he knew he had to answer. “We were.”
The crowd gasped, and Jillian’s cool frown grew slightly sharper, angrier. “Please elaborate.”
“The three missing mermaids from your school were described to be a wolf mermaid, a whale mermaid, and rabbit mermaid. I did encounter three mermaids matching those descriptions.”
“Tell me under what circumstances you encountered them.”
“I was asleep for most of it, but I remember what my brother said happened at the time. According to him, a wolf mermaid came into our den when we were sleeping. Axe noticed and followed him around to find out what he wanted. That mermaid stopped in front of Red’s room and summoned a magic weapon, and then my brother killed him from behind.” Crooks closed his eyes, remembering the state of the body he had helped dispose of. “I remember his neck was snapped cleanly. It should have been a quick and painless death.”
“What about the other two?”
“Axe found them loitering around outside the den and killed them as well. They died the same way as the first… almost. The third, the whale mermaid, Yale you called him, had the time to notice and resist, I assume, since his injury wasn’t quite as clean. Still quick, though.”
“At what point were you involved in this?”
“After all three were dead, Axe came and woke me up to help dispose of the bodies.”
“Dispose of them how?”
Crooks shut his mouth tightly, responding more slowly and quietly. “Dispose of them in a way that they wouldn’t be found. We didn’t want any evidence that they had died in the vicinity of our school, since we knew Red was already being targeted.”
“How did you dispose of them?” It was quite clear that Jillian was losing some of her carefully constructed calm, now that she knew exactly who to blame for her missing family.
“Is that quite relevant?” the poor healer choked out.
“Did you cut off their tails and stuff them in a crate?” the rabbit scowled.
“We did not! And those three are the only three my brother has killed ever since we joined Toriel’s school.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because he would call for me to help hide the evidence! And because I would smell the blood on him regardless! Because we’re brothers who’ve gone through
everything
together!”
Crooks gasped quietly and covered his mouth. “I’m terribly sorry for shouting,” he whispered. Then he frowned, “But your questions have started to sound quite accusatory.”
Jillian also took the chance to compose herself somewhat.
“And what about you? Have you killed anyone since joining Toriel’s School?”
“I’ve never killed anyone at all. Despite how I must look to you, I am a healer, not a hunter.”
Off in the stands, Axe finally registered Sans’s small hand on his forearm. He stared down at the tiny mermaid who looked up at him in concern. Slowly, Axe released the death grip he had on his empty eye socket. He’d whited out for a second there, watching that bunny bitch float there and accuse Crooks. The mershark took a deep breath and relaxed the murderous smile stretching his cheeks.
Back in the center, Jillian sighed. “So do you believe that surface dwellers are the ones causing the recent disappearances?”
“I do,” Crooks said, much more calmly.
“Do you have any idea what their motivations might be?”
“Yes. It’s only a rumor I heard from land monsters, but there seems to be a myth that eating a mermaid’s tail will bestow someone with immortality. From my experience before coming to the shallows, I can attest that there is no such phenomenon, but I can also imagine people who are desperate enough to try.”
Jillian’s ears drooped, but she kept her face fairly passive. She sent Crooks back to his seat and turned around to face Regalia, speaking softly. “I have no more questions.”
The presiding mer nodded and addressed Toriel, “Do you have any last questions for the witnesses, Toriel?”
“I don’t.”
Regalia faced the audience. “Does anyone else have evidence they would like to submit?”
All who attended an ocean council had some chance to be heard, even during a court case like this. The ocean council was not a surface courtroom, and the primary differences were these: Anyone present could be called as a witness, and verdicts could extend to crimes beyond what was originally posited.
“From the evidence provided, I find the accusation that the mersharks Crooks and Axe of Toriel’s school are responsible for the recent disappearances of mermaids to be false. I hearby advise all in attendance to be wary of surface dwellers and to pay attention to changes in the water. Evacuate and seek help from another nearby school if you detect anything that may be a surface drug.”
Regalia lowered her head. “I find the mershark Axe of Toriel’s school to be guilty of killing the three mermaids August, Yale, and Katz of Jillian’s school. I don’t judge any of these three killings to be acts of self defense. Tentatively, the killing of August can be called an act of protection on behalf of the meroctopus Red of Toriel’s school, but the rest was excessive force. As punishment, he is to be confined to the area of Toriel’s den for three mating cycles--mermaid mating cycles,” the goat mermaid coughed and quickly corrected herself. “Should he leave his confinement, barring extreme circumstances, within these three mermaid mating cycles, he will be banished from joining any school of our council.”
Regalia looked at Jillian last. “The mermaid August of Jillian’s school is also guilty of attempting to harm or kill a member of Toriel’s school. He himself is no longer with us, but I will issue a firm warning not to let such a thing repeat itself. If it was not clear before, all rules protecting the members of our schools extend to
all
members, mermaid or otherwise. Our policy that all members of a school must agree before taking in someone new assures that every member of a school is their precious family. Please keep that in mind.”
Regalia swept her eyes over the audience. “Does anyone protest this judgement?”
The Coyote mermaid, Aspen, swam a little closer to the center. “Lady Regalia, the punishment for killing a mermaid is supposed to be banishment from their school, isn’t it? Why is that thing only getting confinement?”
Regalia nodded, accepting the criticism. “I did afford him some leniency. You understand that, as a principle, we do not support the death sentence. It abhors us as a species, do you agree?”
“Y-yes.”
“Indeed. Further bloodshed helps no one, so we should focus on those who remain. Mermaids who are banished from their school always have the chance to join another, if they are accepted. However, I personally find it doubtful that a mershark would find another school besides Toriel’s willing to take him in.”
“Well, that happens sometimes, right?” the Coyote tried. “They just have to make do on their own then, or do enough charity work to get the punishment lifted.”
“That’s true. However, Axe has sustained a serious head injury.” Regalia faced the mershark, her gaze as professional and unreadable as ever. “Axe, could you survive alone?”
“More or less, s’long as I could visit my bro n’ stuff.”
“Would you continue to abide by our rules?”
“Dat no killin’ thing? No way. I’d break it on purpose if I didn’t already forget by den.”
“Do you remember killing August, Yale, and Katz?”
“Nope. ‘S off n’ on, though, so I might remember later.”
“Was there any punishment for killing where you are originally from?”
“No. Back dere, I’d a’ been thanked fer dis.”
Regalia sighed softly. “It’s my judgement that taking away Axe’s pillars of support will do significantly more harm than good for all parties involved. The young, the old, and the injured should receive support. I think it’s especially important for someone from another race who is still adjusting to our ways. Do you still disagree?”
Aspen couldn’t protest more after hearing that much. Sure, it would be open season on Axe if he was banished from Toriel’s school, but the coyote had forgotten that that road went two ways. His school would probably be the first target.
“N-no… I don’t.”
Regalia nodded. “Anybody else?” The room was so silent that even the bubbles seemed still. “In that case, this ruling is final. With the cooperation of those present, I would now like to discuss detailed countermeasures against surface poachers. Toriel, could you please call your surface monster friend again? His insight would be most valuable.”
The motherly goat mer held her chest and sighed out in relief. “I would be happy to.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The council meeting following the trial was remarkably tense. The issue of surface dwellers systematically kidnapping mermaids to butcher them was a matter of extreme importance, and the majority of mermaids present found themselves ill equipped to deal with it.
Toriel’s school had the most information to offer about surface dwellers by far. They were the only ones to have survived encounters with poachers and the only ones to have friendly relations with surface monsters. They were also alone in having access to the internet. Their position quickly flipped from being accused as criminals to being the worried mermaids’ well-informed saviors.
The ordinary mermaids’ eyes were opened to so many things in the next few hours. They learned that monsters could have children even if their types didn’t match, that meroctopuses could help mermaids navigate on land, that mersharks were naturally monster-eaters but could be kept satisfied by surface foods, and on and on. It became a cultural exchange that overloaded a few of the narrow-minded people present.
Different cultures had unique magic for producing food, communicating without words, moving without being seen, healing, cooking, and lovemaking. And humans who mostly lacked magical techniques nevertheless could accomplish some feats of healing that were beyond any magic.
A solid plan couldn’t be made without having insider knowledge about the traffickers that even Hit didn’t know in detail, but at least everyone left the council hall with a mind better prepared to deal with unfamiliar circumstances. Toriel felt satisfied to lead her school home on such a note.
***
During the trial, Red scanned the crowds of tense mermaids with his sharp red eyes. It was ridiculous that he was here and not back in the den. There was no way he would be out among this many people if his testimony didn’t potentially involve the lives of Axe and Crooks.
Because Red was pregnant.
It was late winter now, and Red was expecting to give birth in just a week or two. The last two times he’d carried kids, his usual attitude had changed for the worse: becoming more aggressive and irritable. Toriel and the others knew how far along he was and had more or less built their defense so that his testimony wouldn’t be needed, in case he couldn’t endure staying any longer. However, observing the crowds here, it was strange. He didn’t feel overwhelmed by them.
The usual sense of suffocation was absent. In its place was a sharp alertness and cool, calculating judgement. Red wasn’t listening to the proceeds of the trial at all in the end; he was just endlessly simulating how to kill everyone in this room and get his school out safely--starting with Sans.
At one point at the trial, Axe started leaking murderous intent like how a volcanic vent expulsed fire. Red’s entire body tensed itself for battle at that moment, but the cause turned out to be a prosecutor heckling Crooks during his questioning. Red sighed and went back to surveying the audience.
He sat through the trial peacefully, but that peace was short-lived. Perhaps he was better prepared to deal with stressful situations in order to protect his unborn child, but as soon as he was alone with his school again and the potential danger was gone, he just felt irked by everything. It was the kind of mood where he didn’t trust himself around his mate and children, so he secluded himself in his room and refused to come out for several days.
Probably only the Mersharks had any real idea how he was feeling. With Stretch and Blueberry, Red would sneak out at night to hunt for his meals, but now he would receive gifts in the middle of the night of plump, freshly cooked fish. For the moment, he was too riled up on isolationist instincts to consider the thought and kindness that went into those gifts, but he certainly ate them and knew who had left them.
***
Since the ocean council ended safely for Toriel’s school, winter took a turn for the colder. At a time when everyone thought they should be welcoming in spring soon, the temperatures dropped to a recent record low, which led to Stretch’s current situation.
“... Do all of you have to be here?”
Stretch’s room, his fortress of safety and solitude, was crammed full of people.
“It’s gotten really cold this winter, hasn’t it?” Sans, the one who started this mess, said. “Red’s almost ready to give birth, so even I can’t go bother him. I was just going to tough it out on the couch, but then I remembered you and Blackberry are warm-blooded too.”
“Black ran away when I tried to catch him” Blueberry mumbled.
“He outran you?” Stretch’s eyes widened slightly.
The little blue fish shook his head and flushed. “No. He sprayed ink in my face and he was gone when I could see again. I don’t know what’s so bad about a little cuddling.”
“I’m sure he just couldn’t stand the thought of getting trapped for the entire day,” Stretch grumbled. There were a total of six small mermaids using his tentacles as heated beds.
“Well, you’re not a busybody like Blackberry,” Chara laughed. “You weren’t gonna go anywhere today anyway, right?”
Asriel snuggled his furry face against a warm orange tentacle as he stretched his furry arms out. “Isn’t it fine? You used to share a nap pile with us when you were smaller.”
“This isn’t a pile anymore. You’re all just on top of me.”
His complaint was ignored by the mermaids who were happily warming themselves.
“It sure is nice that deep ocean mer are warm,” Chara said.
Frisk tilted their head at that and mentioned that they had held Crooks’s hand during the summer and it was cold.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure those two are cold blooded like us,” Asriel agreed.
“But I was doing chores next to Crooks this morning and he was definitely warm!” Chara insisted.
Stretch tapped absentmindedly at his phone. “Well, it would be hard to survive in the deep if they weren’t warm blooded.”
Blueberry grinned and held up a finger. “You guys are too slow. I already noticed and asked about it. Crooks told me that mersharks can control their temperature. So, they’re cold when it’s hot and hot when it’s cold.”
“... Oh so that’s it,” Chara muttered.
The room was quiet with the mystery unexpectedly solved. Only MK kept burbling gleefully while Frisk held him.
“I’m jealous,” Stretch grumbled.
Meanwhile, in one of the community rooms, Alphys was curious about the same thing. She turned away from her chores to look at Crooks.
“But doesn’t m-manually regulating your body temperature use a lot of energy? What did you do d-during the famine?”
“You mean during my entire life?” Crooks kept his eyes on what his hands were doing. “We moved slowly to avoid losing energy, and we used efficient stealth magic to not get attacked at our worst.” He looked up toward the ceiling where light shined down through little gaps and holes. “I was surprised by how fast I could move after living up here for a while and eating properly.”
“H-how long does it take you to swim to the town where Edge and Papyrus live?” Alphys wondered.
“About two and a half hours,” Crooks told her.
The dinosaur mermaid slumped her shoulders and replied awkwardly. “Th-that’s actually pretty slow.”
Crooks sighed, “I don’t expect to ever excel in any physical activities.”
Alphys was quiet for a while before bringing up some conflicting evidence. “Didn’t you almost beat Blueberry in a game of tag?”
“I don’t believe so? From what I remember, he swam circles around me.”
Alphys frowned, recalling an image of Blueberry literally swimming circles around the giant mershark, who somehow avoided being tagged for more than a minute. “In the end, a-are you fast or are you slow?”
“Does it matter? It’s just a game.”
“A-a game… I mean, tag is a game, y-yeah. B-but it’s a game that teaches the kids to swim fast, so it’s also s-survival training, right?”
“Survival training…” it seemed like there were dark circles under Crooks’ eye sockets for a moment as he pictured something. Then he wiped away the look and smiled. “I see. That’s survival training. How peaceful.”
Alphys wrestled with herself on whether she wanted to pry deeper into that or not. Ultimately, she found herself wondering what could be wrong with that.
“I-is it that bad? Running from danger is a smart thing to do, r-right?”
Crooks smiled softly. “Alphys, please watch me closely.”
She did. She leaned her head forward slightly and focused on watching Crooks. Yet, somehow, she realized he wasn’t where she was looking anymore. While she turned her head around, searching for him, she felt long, thin, bony fingers wrap around her shoulder and half her chest from behind.
“What now? Would you run? You’d have to stop again at some point.” Crooks only held her gently, and he let go when he’d made his point. He went calmly back to his seat and picked up his work again. “Running away is just a waste of energy.”
Alphys had to admit Crooks had gotten chills to run down her spine. The deep was probably a more terrifying place than she’d realized. It wasn’t like she could physically ever go down there, but it was still frightening to think about.
“W-well, we can’t actually swim down to the deep in the first place,” Alphys chuckled to reassure herself.
Crooks smiled warmly at her. “I can worry less thanks to that.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Crooks exhaled deeply, his ribs compressing and his gills fluttering just under the surface of the water. Realistically speaking, he had pushed himself harder than he should have to quickly finish regrowing Dolly’s leg while still treating Geno every night when he got home. He felt like he had lost weight lately, despite all of the magic-dense surface food he’d been eating. Regardless, he hadn’t spared any effort to perfectly reconstitute each of the human’s delicate toes.
“There,” he said softly. “Try standing on it.”
Dolly grinned and pushed herself up. Her balance was good and she didn’t feel any light-headedness. She stomped her new foot on the deck a few times, confirming that it had sensation but wasn’t abnormally painful.
“Well how's about that? It’s good as new,” she beamed. “To be honest, I was expectin’ to need more rehab after gettin’ it back.”
“Weakness is common when reattaching severed body parts that have been inactive for a while,” Crooks explained to her, “but you shouldn’t have any problems with a completely new limb.”
Dolly trotted over to Hit and jumped up to hang with her arms draped around his neck. “Hey, sweetie, you remember what we talked about?”
“‘Course,” Hit chuckled, wrapping one arm around her waist. The mobster looked to Crooks, “So if I remember right, I promised you a drink, didn’t I?”
“You did, but I think I’ll pass. I’ve read up on the stuff since you mentioned it, and I don’t think I want anything to do with it.”
“Aw, come on, it’s fine in moderation.” Crooks looked like he was going to refuse again, and Hit hushed his voice and practically begged him, “Please? Just one drink. A sip is fine—you don’t even have to finish it.”
Crooks sighed. “Fine. Just one.”
“Perfect!” Hit beamed. “We’ll do it tomorrow. Bring your bro with you too, alright?”
“Absolutely not!” The healer shook his head. “Axe is in no condition to be drinking alcohol!”
Hit hummed. “Yeah, alright, I’ll make an exception for him. He can have juice or something, okay? Just bring him.”
“What are you planning? I hope it isn’t something flashy.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the mobster grinned. “It’s just a little family tradition thing we do when someone does us good.”
“Well, if you say so. Honestly, the medical research you gathered for me was enough as thanks.”
“Have I mentioned you’re a lot like you’re brother?”
“You have. And since we’ve been together for our entire lives, it isn’t surprising.”
***
The next day, Crooks brought Axe with him to the shore.
“M’ I gonna find out wha’ deal ya made wit’ Hit?” Axe asked.
“No, that’s a secret,” Crooks said. Internally, he was relieved that Axe seemed to have forgotten it had already been revealed once. “I think they’re just having a small thank you party for us.”
“Mm, like ta make us wanna keep doin’ deals wit’ ‘em?”
“Perhaps.”
Axe shrugged, “S’ fine by me.”
So they went to the meeting place and Hit and Dolly were waiting for them on the dock. They had some blankets set up for them to sit on. Nice glasses were laid out, including some that were clearly bigger than what humans would usually use. There were also jugs of various alcohol ready to go, as well as, comically, several packs of juice boxes.
“Hey, ya made it,” Hit smiled and waved at them.
Dolly held up one of the packs of juice boxes over her head, “We brought juice~”
The mersharks swam closer to the docks and Axe absentmindedly accepted the juice box Dolly handed to him.
“So I only need to have one drink, right?” Crooks confirmed.
“Yeah, one’s enough,” Hit nodded. “If you wanna switch to juice after that, that’s fine.”
“I don’t have to drink alcohol?” Axe questioned, pointing at himself.
“It releases inhibitions and worsens magic control,” Crooks said coolly. Axe shut up and poked his straw into the juice box. It was comically small in his huge hands.
Hit poured out three glasses of scotch and finally deigned to explain himself. “This is a ceremony-type thing, so you don’t actually gotta drink unless you wanna go through with it.”
“A ceremony,” Crooks echoed.
“Yeah.” Hit set his hat on the blanket beside him and fished a cigar out of his coat pocket. “Basically, you fixin’ up Dolly’s leg was a big deal. We gave you what you asked for for it, but we still feel like we owe ya—y’know, in the back-and-forth favors forever kinda way. Basically, what I’m gettin’ at is—”
“We wanna call you family!” Dolly bounced, interrupting Hit mid speech.
“Yeah,” he grinned, lighting up the cigar. “That.”
The gangster took a puff and pointed the burning end at the two mersharks.
“We take family real seriously. First thing, you’re the one who earned the in, Crooks, but if you join, your whole family joins with you.” He shrugged, “Or at least they’re invited. Secondly, there’s a hierarchy.”
“I’m invitin’ youse to be my brothers,” Dolly beamed. She reached over and hugged Hit’s arm. “That means I’ll be your big sister. Since I’m married ta Hit, he’ll be your brother in law. And since my honey’s the son of the boss, that puts you pretty high up.”
Hit picked up for her, “Unless you got a reason not to, you oughta follow orders or requests from people higher up than you. And you can give orders and requests to anybody lower than you. Just keep in mind that we’re all family, so don’t go too far. We don’t exploit each other and we help because we wanna help. In other words, no more payment will be necessary. We share all our prosperity and failures, and we protect each other.”
Crooks shared a look with Axe, then he looked back at Hit and Dolly. “Yes, I know what a school is,” he said. “But I’m surprised. I knew the surface had small family units, but I didn’t know there were schools too.”
“Large or small, it’s called a family up here,” Hit told him, drawing on his cigar. He exhaled a dark red cloud of smoke, grinning with his sharp teeth. “Or you could call us the mafia, but I don’t recommend you go around sayin’ that.”
Axe googled the word. “So you’re criminals,” he said, not that it surprised him.
“Smart ones, with dignity and self respect,” Hit replied, leaning back on one arm while Dolly stayed affixed to the other that held his smoke. “Laws are good. They keep crazy shits from settin’ off bombs wherever they please. They keep the world more hospitable in general. And, since we’re friendly with the people who make and enforce those laws, we get the privilege of operating outside of them, as long as we ain’t stupid about it.”
“We deal with bodies and drugs and general mayhem,” Dolly grinned. “It ain’t really for the faint of heart, but we got soft family too and we protect ‘em even if they can’t really contribute. But that’s family, right?”
Both Axe and Crooks understood it. The mafia was essentially a deep ocean school on land. The biggest difference was probably the prosperity that allowed them to uphold their ideals.
Crooks hesitantly asked a question. “Does this mean our schools are merging, or is it just us two?”
Hit shrugged. “Well, we weren’t sure how close you were with the rest of your school. If they’re important family to you, they can join, but they ain’t your blood, so their ranks will be lower unless you do a ceremony like this to make ‘em honorary blood. Even if they don’t join, we’ll help you protect them when we can, as long as you want that. And just because you join our family doesn’t mean you leave your school.”
Crooks nodded and apparently sank into thought. “I think it should be just us two for now. Mermaids are very faint-hearted and sensitive, and I think Red is trying to distance himself from violence, even if it’s hard for him. Red’s children all have strong conventional morals, so I don’t think they would want to participate.”
“Wha’ ‘bout Geno?” Axe pointed out.
“Geno is the opposite, I’m worried he would lose himself in the violence. Besides, he’s still recovering from his injuries.”
“Just you two for now then,” Hit cut in. “The rest of your school will be considered people under your protection.” He nudged Crooks’ glass closer to the edge of the dock. “After we all have a drink, it’s official.”
Crooks picked up his cup and Axe held his juice box at the ready. Dolly and Hit knocked their glasses together for a little cheers.
“Welcome to the family,” Hit grinned, tipping his cup back.
Dolly chugged her glass until it was empty and held it high in the air, “To my cute new little bros! Cheers!”
“Cheers,” Crooks chuckled, tipping his cup back.
***
The next morning—or, afternoon, rather—Crooks sat up in bed with a nasty headache.
“I’m home?” He muttered, recognizing his room. He quickly spotted a familiar red ring glowing in the darkness. “I don’t remember what happened after my second glass. Did I pass out?”
“Nah.” Axe said, “Ya kept drinkin’ for a while. Hit called ya a light weight since ya got drunk right away.”
Crooks blinked at that news. “I see…”
The mershark recalled what he had researched about alcohol consumption. How it made people behave in ways they usually wouldn’t—speaking and acting without inhibition—and that occasionally people could forget all that happened while they were drunk. Having a missing gap of time where he was still active and doing things made him more anxious than he would’ve expected.
“Did I do anything strange?”
“Yeah. Ya complained a lot.”
That
was
strange for Crooks.
“What did I complain about?”
“Life, more or less. Our childhoods, our species, how shit it all was.”
Crooks faked a cough. “I see. I’m sorry about that.”
Axe shrugged and didn’t talk more about it. Maybe he had already forgotten most of it. Crooks couldn’t release the topic so easily though. He’d never known how frightening it was to forget what you had done.
He couldn’t even remember why he had had more than one glass to begin with. Alcohol was a terrifying substance.
“Are you sure that was all?” Crooks asked once more.
“Of course m’not,” Axe shrugged. “I wasn’t drinkin’ since I wasn’t allowed ta, but I blacked out at some point anyway. I ’member bringin’ us home since ya couldn’t swim straight, an’ I remember da start of da drinkin’, but da middle’s a mess.”
“I see.” Maybe he had no choice but to forget this time. Maybe that was for the better.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“This place is perfect,” Crooks spat, nearly beaning Axe in the head with his cup as he waved it—though Axe managed to dodge it, and Crooks didn’t seem to notice. The sober mershark backed up more to be safe. “But the people here are just stupid!”
“Uhuh,” the equally drunk Hit mumbled a bored reply.
“You people have everything you could possibly need, and nobody’s grateful! Morons left and right keep making new problems where there shouldn’t be any! Surface dwellers hunting mermaids, mermaids pointing and shouting ‘demon’ at everything that isn’t a mermaid. Do you want to know what it’s like in the deep ocean?”
“Not particularly.”
“Terrible! Of course, there are different levels that are all called ‘the deep,’ but ours was the farthest down. There’s no food there! We used to survive on dead things that floated down from above, but it's been practically barren for generations. Oh, but the
meroctopuses
kept coming! Ages ago, we formed schools just to protect ourselves from those maniacs! But even though we could hunt them if we were in a group, there still wasn’t enough food. Once you're hungry enough, anyone starts to look edible. We would even kill our friends and family during hard times; there was no way schools of strangers could cooperate with each other. Do you see how idiotic those mermaids are? Fighting with each other when everything is perfectly fine! A few people go missing, sure, but it’s the ocean!”
“Mm.”
Crooks ran his spindly fingers down his face, groaning. “Do you
know
what happens when a school gets completely isolated?”
“I’m gonna guess it’s murder.”
“Family members have no choice but to
mate
with each other to avoid extinction!”
“See, that was my second guess.” Hit stared idly into the bottom of his glass and glanced enviously at Dolly snoring away.
“My parents and their parents and probably their parents too. I have
no idea
how long it’s been happening. And then
I’m
expected to follow suit? Are you kidding me? My joints hurt, my bones are brittle, my spine aches, I’m weak, ugly, my eyesight is fuzzy, and I could barely eat with how awful my teeth used to be. What kind of abomination am I supposed to make? Not that I can! I have no mating organs!”
Crooks tipped his bottle back and downed the rest of it in one go.
“Sucks, man. Humans and monsters can’t have kids, so I feel ya. By the way, what the hell’s a mating organ?”
Next to Hit, Dolly rolled over and lifted her head up. Apparently she wasn’t completely out.
“Ain’t you got a perfect memory or whatever and some crazy good healin’ magic?” she grumbled.
“Worthless talents,” Crooks grumbled. “I couldn’t waste magic on healing when I was starving. It was more efficient to let the poor bastard die and eat them. I saved someone’s life once and she ended up trying to kill me later.” Crooks refilled his cup and sipped at it. “And my memory wasn’t ever useful until my brother’s injury—something I would rather never happened in the first place. I’m fairly certain he’s
still
smarter than me, actually.”
Axe watched his brother rant from a few feet away, realizing that Crooks had forgotten he was there. He sucked quietly at a juice box and let his presence continue to go unnoticed. This was a rare opportunity for his brother to stop bottling things up, and he didn’t want to interrupt.
It was hard for people to tell from his usual attitude, but Crooks was wholeheartedly a cynic. Shocking as it might or might not be,
Axe
was more of an optimist between the two of them. Anyway, since Crooks usually bottled up his concerns, Axe was curious if he would let anything unexpected slip out.
Dolly somehow sat up, dragging a beach blanket around her shoulders. “So have you an’ yer bro fucked?”
Did Hit prefer girls without a shred of delicacy? Maybe not, since he was rather clearly trying to drink in peace and distance himself from the conversation.
Crooks frowned and took a big gulp from his refilled cup. “No,” he said quietly. “This stupid, broken body ruined it. Otherwise, I would have been eaten by him by now.” He paused, looking up at the sunset. “Actually, life isn’t so bad lately. I don’t want to die as much as I used to.”
Crooks wanting to die? It was because Crooks
didn’t
want to die that Axe hadn’t killed him after they gave up on having a child. But maybe that was just something Crooks said knowing Axe would surely follow him. Axe smiled silently. How long had they both been living only for the other’s sake? It felt nice.
It was at that point that Axe decided to quietly pull his phone out.
“Hey, I’ll drink to that,” Dolly found a new cup to fill and lifted it.
Hit grimaced and internally wished she would go back to sleep; that she would stop encouraging the drunk shark to share all the dark and dirty details of his life. And why the hell was the other one filming it?
Speaking of, Dolly glanced behind Crooks and saw Axe eavesdropping and keeping records. She smirked at him and looked back at the healer, speaking in a more suggestive voice than before.
“So you weren’t equipped ta go all the way,” Dolly rested her chin on the hand holding her glass. “But how ‘bout it. Ain’t he hot?”
“He’s…” Crooks frowned and bottomed his drink. “Everyone was ugly in our school, but I’m used to him, so I think he looks comforting. I can’t say he’s handsome and I know I’m not either.”
“So would you do him? The internet and I can teach you some tricks for matin’ without natural tools.”
“No.”
Dolly blinked slowly, then she tipped her head back laughing. “Damn. Cold. Why not?”
“I don’t even know anymore,” Crooks filled his cup up and swirled it absently. “I used to want him to fall in love with someone else and start a family. I can’t have kids, so he has to be the one to do it.”
Dolly wagged her finger at her new little brother. “Fallin’ in love ain’t about havin’ kids someday, Crooksy, it’s about lovin’ someone who already exists.”
“That’s poetic and all, but no. I wanted kids. They’re… having children was an important part of our culture. The only good way to die was to be eaten by your mate or children, and people who could only stay childless were called cursed. It wasn’t uncommon for people to lose their minds in the deep, so living a long life wasn’t really encouraged.”
Dolly sighed through her nose. “Fine. I get that traditions can be weird. But what if yer bro don’t wanna find someone else or have kids?”
“It’s clear that he doesn’t,” Crooks replied curtly. “And we left our entire species behind when we came up to the shallows, so there’s nobody else he could possibly mate with. Unless it turns out we’re miraculously compatible with another species like how mermaids and meroctopuses are.”
Dolly smiled sweetly. “So, clearly ya care about him. I’m still tryna figure out if you’re attracted to him or not.”
Crooks sighed and filled up his glass again. He locked eyes with Hit and Dolly. “Don’t repeat any of this, okay?” He looked over his shoulder at Axe. The healer’s dim eyelights were fuzzy and out of focus. “You too. Don’t tell my brother I said this.” Crooks faced the docks again and took a deep drink from his cup. “I love him.”
The human widened her eyes and sneakily glanced at the other mershark. Axe’s entire face had turned pink and his ring-shaped eyelight was bent into a big heart. His hands were trembling as he quietly sipped on his already empty juice box, recording what would probably end up being unwatchably shaky film.
Crooks continued, “I mean, how could I not? There’s nothing good or attractive about me, but he’s never even
looked
at anyone else. Even when I actively try to push him away, he just smiles and takes it. He kept up that one-sided love for
years
. He risked dying multiple times all for my sake.”
He stared down into his cup. “That kind of selfless love scares me. I feel like I’ll be left all on my own someday. Or worse, maybe someday he’ll realize I’m not as good as he thinks I am and move on. I didn’t want to let myself get invested. If we couldn’t just mate each other and die, there would be plenty of time for him to learn to hate me.”
Dolly glanced at Axe, wondering if he would join in to reassure his brother, but he was still in spectator mode. In fact, it looked like his brain may have completely checked out of the situation. She took it upon herself to keep being his wingwoman.
“What even is there ta hate about ya?” she chuckled.
“
Something
, surely,” Crooks spat. “He only ever says that I’m perfect.” A pink dusting settled on his cheekbones. “While that’s romantic and flattering, it just sounds like he isn’t thinking very deeply or realistically about it.”
“Can we talk about anything else?” Hit groaned.
Crooks tapped his chin, missing once or twice. His small, sunken eyes lit up in sudden remembrance, “Oh! Red is going to give birth soon. Did you know that?”
“Red’s the big one with the octopus legs, ain’t he?” Dolly mumbled. “Good for him.”
“It’s news to me,” Hit replied, eyebrows raised. “You seem happy about it.”
“Of course!” Crooks held his arms up high and spilled some of his drink into the ocean. “I’ve always wanted to see a clutch of healthy babies be born into the world! I’ve delivered so many…” he trailed off and held his forehead, looking ill all of a sudden. “Ugh, nevermind. I’m looking forward to it.”
Crooks took another sip from his glass and swayed more. He was only a few moments from passing out, and it was clearly visible. Axe finally snapped out of his stupor. He swam forward and gave his brother a pat on the shoulder, directing him back toward the den. Before they left, Dolly waved pleasantly at Axe, mouthing “good luck” to him.
Axe’s face flushed red and he ducked under the water.
***
Sometime the following day, after Axe had forgotten the previous night, his alarm went off to double check his notes. He saw one telling him to check out his recordings, heard what Crooks had confessed, and his brain promptly overloaded. The emotional toll was too much for him to even process, and he ended up forgetting what he had watched immediately after watching it.
After that, he decided to nap away the awful headache he suddenly had.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
There existed a secret video in Axe’s phone that he listened to privately every night when his alarm went off. Considering the contents of the recording, it must have been made the night he and Crooks became part of Hit’s family. Surely Axe had
viewed it every night since then, but it only started to stick a week later.
In that video, Crooks would confess that he loved Axe. His consistent denials were because he wanted the best for his brother and didn’t think he was it, and also because he was worried about the future he couldn’t know. Normally, Axe was an analytical person who would pick holes in the logic of reasoning like that, but in this instance, he could only stare at the shaky video with flushed cheeks and a lovestruck grin.
He was happy. He couldn’t remember having ever been so happy before.
But this video was a secret. Axe didn’t trust himself to remember the contents if he couldn’t watch it every night, and he wasn’t confident he could convince a sober Crooks to come to terms with his long-buried feelings within a single day. If Crooks was still convinced Axe would be better off with someone else, he might even delete the video. Axe couldn’t let that happen.
So, the video was secret, and Axe kept acting the same way he always had. He was happy enough for now just knowing his cherished love was mutual.
***
“Mwehehehe,” Blueberry giggled cheerfully. His arms that were stronger than they looked pinned a warm tentacle to his chest and prevented the owner from fleeing. Today, it wasn’t Stretch, but Blackberry, who had failed to leave the den early enough in the morning. Or rather, Blue had simply woken up earlier in order to catch his twin.
“Why…” Blackberry’s triangular teeth parted as he gently murmured. Then he suddenly put strength into his voice, “Why are you like this?!”
“You’re warm,” Blueberry said brightly. “It’s cold, so we should cuddle.”
“And like I told you last week,” the young meroctopus was struggling to contain himself, “you share the same genetics I do and are perfectly capable of producing your own body heat!”
Indeed, that fact was proven when Blue followed Black to the deep and didn’t even mention feeling cold. Rather, it was proven by the fact that he was radiating heat right now. Blue simply never became a target of cuddling for warmth because he was tiny compared to the other living heat sources in the school.
Blackberry flailed his tentacle, but Blue refused to let go. It was no longer possible to shake him off without getting outright violent about it, and Black couldn’t hold onto his pride while stooping to that level.
“I don’t want to sit around doing nothing all day!” Black complained. “I want to patrol and hunt and train!”
“But I want to spend time with you,” Blue countered.
“Then come with me. Don’t just keep me here.”
The electric blue mermaid hesitated. “... I can’t follow you if you go to the deep again though.”
Physically, he could follow, but Crooks’ brief tales of what went on down there had scared him off from trying and that hadn’t worn off yet.
Blackberry sighed. “I’ll stay in the shallows, alright? Now let go.”
Blue thought about it for a moment before relaxing his grip. “Okie dokie, lead the way!”
The younger twin sighed deeply and led the way out of the den.
“So what sorts of things have you been doing lately?” Blueberry asked, swimming alongside his brother.
“Our younger sibling will be born soon,” Black replied, scanning the surrounding waters with his cat-like eyes. “I’ve been learning the hunting times and routes of the nearby schools, introducing myself, and memorizing all their names and faces.”
“New friends?” Blue’s eyes sparkled “I want to meet them too!”
Blackberry narrowed his eyes and reached up to feel his scar. “It’s to make the area safer for our little sibling while they’re small. And so that I can quickly deal with anything that might go wrong. Whether that be reporting aberrant behavior or recruiting allies in the case of aggressive wildlife.”
“I can’t wait to meet them,” Blue hummed, flicking his tail cheerfully.
Blackberry watched him and sighed. “We’re both six, but you’re such a babybones still. Even though sometimes you act suspiciously crafty.”
Blue puffed up his cheeks, “I am not crafty! And I can’t help growing up slower than you. I’ll catch up someday!”
“No, you’ll stay a runt just like dad.”
“I will not!”
“Will too. Ugh, now you have me doing it. Can you be serious? We’re on patrol.”
Blue made an unhappy sound but kept his mouth shut. And then, unexpectedly, they saw someone swimming alone in a shifty sort of way.
It was a meroctopus in the distance, with light green tentacles and the torso of an arctic fox. The fox appeared to be scavenging for clams since there were a lot of them buried shallowly under the sand around here. It was hard to tell because of the distance, but it was probably around the same size as Stretch or Undyne. Nowhere near as big as Red, but still bigger than Blackberry who was closer to Alphys’s size.
“Black,” Blackberry heard Blue’s whimpering voice and turned to see a heartbroken, teary-eyed look on the little mermaid’s face. “D-did you get a mate? You were going to have a secret meeting without me?”
He didn’t even entertain that comment as a joke. “Of course not. I suppose I’ll go ask who they are and whether they plan to stay in this area for long.”
As he swam forward, Blackberry recalled his mother’s warnings that other meroctopuses weren’t likely to be friendly. Regardless, he convinced himself that approaching would be fine since he had trained diligently.
“Hello, excuse me.”
He barely got a few words out of his mouth and the stranger panicked, taking more distance and clearly entering a combative stance. The stranger bared his teeth and growled as a show of force. Black decided to stop approaching and maintain their current distance.
“There’s no need for that. My name is Black and I live around here. I wanted to ask—”
Enough magical spears to encircle him sprung up from the sand, all aiming slightly inward to pierce his chest and skull. Black ducked into the natural gap that formed within the attack and broke the tops of the spears with a punch just in time to rush out and avoid the follow up aimed at where he should have been trapped.
Black’s face was cold. “If that’s all you have, you’re outmatched. I advise you to stand down since it wasn’t my intention to fight you in the—”
first place
.
He couldn’t finish, as he had to catch another spear shot directly at his face. Black crushed the magic weapon with a midnight blue tentacle. When the crackling light dissipated, his expression was livid.
“This uncivilized bastard, giving us a bad reputation!”
Blackberry held his hand out and copied the stranger’s technique from just before, creating a cage of magical spears. The stranger obviously recognized its own technique and ducked down to avoid having their head or heart pierced, but when they tried to break the tips of the arrows to escape like Black had, their claws bounced off harmlessly.
Black went farther and summoned the next set of spears, ready to pierce the stranger if he got out of line, and then he elected to swim closer.
“Like I said,” the young meroctopus threatened menacingly, “there is a
qualitative difference
between us. I’m trying to have a conversation here, and I strongly recommend you comply. Unless perhaps you’re a barbarian incapable of speech?”
The silky white fox ears on top of the stranger’s head hung down in a mixture of defeat and irritation. “I can talk,” he muttered. “S’ this yer territory?”
Black tilted his head thoughtfully, “You could say it’s my mother’s territory.”
The stranger looked confused. “Ya here to challenge her then?”
“No, and we’re getting off topic. I only wanted to ask why you came up to the shallows and how long you intend to be in this area.”
“I needed quick food, so I came up ta grab some clams. That’s all.”
“You’ll be leaving immediately after that?”
The stranger nodded rapidly.
Black thought for a minute. “Do you intend to come again another time? For example, if you need more quick food.”
He shook his head just as rapidly.
“Fine.” Black dismissed all the spears he’d summoned and nodded at the ground. “Gather your clams and then be on your way. Try not to cause any more trouble while returning.”
When Black backed up, the stranger crouched suspiciously on the ground and gathered a few clams. He kept his eyes on Black the entire time and warily watched him chatting with a small mermaid. When the stranger’s arms were full of clams, he pushed off the sand and swam as fast as he could in the opposite direction of those two until he was out of sight.
“That guy was weird,” Blue voiced.
“Well, it wasn’t an enjoyable first meeting with another one of my species,” Black muttered, sounding dissatisfied.
“Isn’t our species a hybrid though?” Blue wondered. “We just
look
like a mermaid and a meroctopus. They aren’t exactly what we
are.
”
Blackberry hummed. Before, he would have argued that Blue was the only one who showed obvious differences from an ordinary mermaid and that he himself was a model meroctopus. But if
that
wastrel was a standard meroctopus, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be associated.
“Let’s just patrol a little farther and then we can move closer to the den to train.”
“Okay,” Blue sang, dropping the previous topic easily. “I can meet your friends next time.”
“They’re not my friends, they’re our neighbors.”
Blue wasn’t convinced, and he hummed to himself happily while Black continued to rebuke him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“And so,” Alphys rambled, “Undyne is floating there—just a mess—a-and MK has her phone in his mouth. A-and I don’t realize, so I’m looking at all the pictures she’s sending me, and I’m
so confused
.”
Toriel covered her mouth and laughed. “Did you go and check on her?”
Alphys blushed and hid her face behind her hands. “I thought she was trying to start something, so I just sent her a terrible selfie back.”
The mermaids shared a laugh and continued idly gossiping in one of the community rooms, and Crooks peeked around the doorway.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked softly.
“N-no,” Alphys giggled. “C-come on in.”
“Do you need something, Crooks?” Toriel asked him.
“Not exactly.” He pressed his fingers together shyly. “I’d like to ask a favor, that’s all.”
“Please, ask,” the capricorn smiled. “We would be happy to help.”
Crooks drew in a deep breath through his gills and determinedly locked eyes with the ladies. “I would very much like to help when you’re delivering Red’s clutch!” he said.
Toriel blinked. “You have experience as a midwife?”
He nodded. “Healing was a rare magic in our school, and children were precious, so expecting mothers started calling on me for that sort of thing. I’ve never been a midwife for a meroctopus though.”
“N-neither have we,” Alphys admitted. “Red doesn’t like people going near him when he’s stressed or in pain. H-he’s always gone off on his own to give birth.”
“Of course, Sans is allowed to approach him, but he drew the line with us,” Toriel shook her head ruefully.
Crooks blinked and slowly lowered his arms. “I see.” He turned around to swim back up the hall, “Then I’ll ask him directly.”
Alphys jumped up and reached out worriedly, “B-be careful! He m-might lash out!”
Crooks peeked his head back into the doorway again and smiled reassuringly. “I’m happy you’re worried for me,” he told her. “I’ll be careful. I’ve seen plenty of raging meroctopuses before, so I mostly know how to deal with them.”
Crooks left for Red’s room where the expecting mother had holed himself up. The inside was dark to the point that light was absent, but Crooks could easily navigate just by his sense of smell and the flow of the current.
“Red? It’s Crooks. I’d like to ask you something.”
Two blood red pinpricks poked holes in the absolute darkness. The sudden glare was accompanied by low growling. All things considered, it was quite a tame reaction, so Crooks continued speaking.
“I want to help you deliver your clutch,” he said. “May I?”
The red lights crouched lower and seemed to slink further back into the dark.
“No,” Red shut him down immediately, but Crooks wasn’t giving this one up so easily.
“What if something went wrong? Wouldn’t it be good to have me right there?”
“Nothin’s gonna go wrong.”
The two stubborn mer butted heads, metaphorically speaking. It was a tossup at this point who would come out on top.
“Don’t just brush it off. Shouldn’t you do everything possible to protect your children?”
“My babies are
perfect
,” Red snarled, “and I don’t need help.”
“I can make it hurt less.”
“I can handle it.”
Crooks frowned. The tips of his spindly fingers twitched. “I see,” he said slowly. “Excuse me.”
Crooks swam back up the hallway, and this time he peeked into Stretch’s room. As expected, a whole pod of mermaids were resting inside, using the poor boy as a heating pad. Actually, it was colder up here in the shallows now than it was in the deepest parts of the ocean. The temperature down there didn’t change from season to season. Crooks had never frivolously wasted so much magic on keeping his body temperature up before. One advantage to being large-bodied was that his homeostasis was easily maintained.
But he didn’t come here to offer his services as a radiator. Crooks passed his greetings over to the children and then focused his gaze on Sans.
“I need to talk to you about something. Do you mind?”
Crooks let the question hang slightly. Sans immediately picked up on his meaning and groaned while leaving his cozy spot.
“Yeah, sure. I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Thank you.”
Crooks led Sans to an empty community room. There, he templed his fingers, tapping them sheepishly, and lowered his gaze to the sand.
“Actually, it’s about Red.”
Sans frowned slightly, “Is something wrong?”
Crooks immediately shook his head, “No, nothing like that. It’s just, he’ll be giving birth soon, and… Did I ever mention I used to act as a midwife?”
“Not that I recall.”
The healer wore a pitiful face. “My school had a difficult time having healthy children. We didn’t always trust each other, so we never used to have a job like midwife, but after my healing magic was made known, mothers would ask me to treat their newborns so often that I simply started attending their births.”
Sans’s smile was tense. He wanted to comment that Crooks was definitely qualified for the position, but he felt like that wasn’t where this talk was going. He instinctively held his tongue. Which was good because he might have bit it in shame if he’d said anything.
“There were so many that were beyond saving. So many who wouldn’t take a breath no matter what I did.” Crooks locked eyes with Sans and smiled softly. “It would mean the world to me to deliver a perfectly healthy clutch.”
Sans couldn’t meet eyes with Crooks right then. He gazed off to the side and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Sans had clearly never given the guy enough credit: he was
sly
. So sly that Sans’s heart was already with Crooks even if his head knew that the shark was deliberately appealing to his emotions. Either way, it was a desire that was easy to understand, and Sans couldn’t reproach Crooks for it.
“I’m sure it would, yeah.” The mermaid muttered. “Be honest with me here. Are you talking to me because Red already turned you down?”
The mershark’s posture noticeably stiffened. He sighed, hanging his head, “Yes. I thought you would be able to change his mind.”
Sans chuckled. “I might be able to. I could give it a try, at least.” Crooks’ expression brightened considerably, and Sans carefully added more. “I’m not sure what you’re expecting, but it probably won’t be anything like delivering a clutch of mersharks. In the first place, there’s only going to be one tiny kid. Honestly, it really doesn’t seem like a big hassle for Red, so I get why he turned you down.”
“Just one?” Crooks cocked his head and muttered, “That can’t be right… Is that what happens when you mix species?”
“Yup, that’s what happens,” Sans shrugged good-humoredly. “You still want me to ask him?”
The mershark nodded with absolute certainty, “Yes, please do.”
“Alright then.”
Sans and Crooks swam back to Red’s room together. Crooks hung back while Sans peeked into the doorway.
“Hey, Red,” he called softly. An unhappy grunt echoed over in response, followed, after a contemplative pause, by purring.
“Hey, Angel. You’re not s’pposed to be over here.”
“I know. I had a question to ask.”
“M’kay.”
“Could you let Crooks be your midwife when you give birth? It would mean a lot to him.”
The healer waited with baited breath, his bony hands clutched above his sternum. He could tell the silence was dragging. At least it wasn’t the instant refusal he’d gotten before.
Eventually, Red grumbled, “You think I need a midwife?”
Sans chuckled helplessly. “No, of course you don’t. You’d be doing Crooks a favor.”
To put it bluntly, Red was in a terrible mood. His little one was making a fuss and chewing and scratching wherever it pleased (as expected, meroctopuses really should come out inside of eggs), and he hadn’t been able to sleep well. He was tired, hurting, and irritable; he was in one of those irrational moods where he didn’t even care if it was a healer like Crooks, he didn’t want them near him. The only person he could be a little happy to see was his mate, but Sans had only come to ask a favor.
Red had already turned Crooks down once, and then he went to Sans? That was annoying. It was even more annoying that he almost wanted to say yes when it was Sans asking. But why was Sans asking in the first place? Didn’t he think Red was good enough to give birth on his own? Red was an excellent mother! He could probably handle three or four biting gremlins at once, not to mention an ordinary clutch of smooth eggs. Come to think of it, how soon after this could they have their next kid?
Red’s mind spun around in a confused mess, but Sans’s voice brought him back.
“Red? Is it no good after all?”
“... S’no good,” the giant grumbled from his dark hole.
If Crooks tried to get close to him while he was hurting like this, Red would probably snap his scrawny neck on reflex. After that, it would be a miracle if he, Sans, or their children weren’t immediately assassinated by Axe. A happy day shouldn’t be like that. He had to minimize the risks as much as possible.
If that smartass wanted to see a birth so bad, he could wait until Undyne and Alphys’s next kid--or just have one himself, if he could find a mate.
“Alright, I get it. Thanks for thinking about it.”
Red barely held in a pitiful whine as his mate swam back up the hall.
Sans realized he now had to comfort Crooks, who looked obviously downcast.
“Sorry about that. We gave it a shot.”
“Yes, you did,” the healer replied softly. “Thank you. I’m sorry for being a bother.”
“It’s fine.” The little blue mermaid rubbed the back of his head and looked up at the shark with sleepy eyes. He spoke in a slightly hushed voice, “You know, if you’re quiet enough, you can probably watch without being noticed.”
Crooks’ mouth twisted down at the corners, and he held his arm straight out in front of him, twitching his fingertips, “I considered that, but I can’t really see much past here.”
Sans shrugged, “Why don’t you film it? It’ll last longer, and you’ll be able to zoom the camera in close.”
The mershark’s small, sunken eye sockets sparkled faintly, “That’s a brilliant idea!”
“Yep,” the lazy mer smiled casually. “But, uh, you should really get those eyes looked at. You’re pretty much blind, y’know?”
Crooks blinked, “I don’t think it’s that bad. I’m just a bit nearsighted.”
Sans smiled awkwardly. “Buddy, I’m telling you this because nobody else has: you’re not ‘just a bit’ nearsighted.”
The empty counterargument Crooks almost put forth died in his throat in the face of genuine, well-meaning honesty. He wrung his hands, “Alright, I’ll look into that.”
Sans smiled. “Oh yeah, and while we’re here, I could use your help with something.”
“Of course, whatever I can do.”
“See, Red and I… we’re both pretty much terrible at coming up with names.” The little mer shrugged. “It’s my turn again, but I could use some help brainstorming. Let me know if you think of any ideas, okay?” He winked and swam off.
Crooks felt his cheekbones turn pink with magic as he realized the unthinkable consolation gift he’d been given.
“I… I will think of a wonderful name!” he called to Sans’s back.
Three days later, Red gave birth. Crooks was able to be there, although he wasn’t allowed to attend. He filmed the event from somewhere hidden. To a mershark like Crooks, it seemed normal that it didn’t take long and was quiet, but there were other things that hinted at the gulf between species. The single offspring that was produced through interspecies mating was nevertheless healthy and strong. Nothing on its tiny body was broken or malformed, but it was unthinkably small for something that came out of Red.
The new little halfbreed had a round face and straight, flat teeth. His magic was the dullest, palest blue-gray. Although he didn’t have Red or Black’s triangular teeth, he did have their sharp claws, so he wasn’t as soft-looking as Stretch or Blue.
Crooks looked at the tiny, ghost-like creature sleeping quietly in Red’s embrace and tried to think of a name. At that moment, he heard Red speak.
“Alright, Angel. What’re we gonna call this one?”
Sans chuckled and seemed to glance around the area as if he was looking for inspiration. Or, Crooks realized, as if Sans was looking for
him
.
“About that. I asked someone to help me brainstorm earlier.”
Crooks took that as his cue to reveal himself. He swam out from his hiding place in the shadows and sand and looked shyly at Red. He wouldn’t say that Crooks wasn’t allowed to help name the child at this point, right?
The meroctopus didn’t put up any fight about it though. He just nodded and gave a quiet, “alright,” and that was it. Crooks wasn’t sure what he was thinking about, but he sensed an unwillingness or an inability to argue. Crooks didn’t think too hard about it and was just happy to have permission.
“So,” Sans drawled, “what’d you come up with?”
Crooks looked fondly at the curled up infant. With his naked eyes, he couldn’t actually see it from where he was, but he recalled how it looked on Axe’s phone screen. (One of these days, Crooks would get his own and not have to borrow the one his brother relied on.)
“How does Dust sound?” Crooks smiled sweetly.
Although the mershark couldn’t make out Sans’s expression, he clearly felt a wave of worry and disappointment.
“You wanna call him Dust? Isn’t that too morbid?”
Monsters on the surface lacked matter in their bodies and turned into dust when they died. Although mer monster bodies were denser, they would still turn into seafoam on the sand in a couple of days if they were left alone. There was an obvious connection to death in that word. The fact that Crooks suggested it as a name made the mermaid tilt his head.
“Is it just because his magic is a dusty color? They don’t all have to be color-themed, you know?”
“I don’t understand,” Crooks frowned slightly. “What’s wrong with the name Dust?”
“It's just a little too close to death” Sans told him, rubbing his arm uncomfortably. “Isn’t it better to give a kid a happy name?”
“But everyone in your family has names like this,” Crooks mumbled in helpless shock.
“What do you mean?”
The healer rolled his wrist as he listed off names. “Sans means ‘without’; Red is the color of animal blood; a Stretch is something that isn’t feasible; and Blueberries and Blackberries are snacks that surface people casually devour by the dozen. Isn’t it normal to have a dim and gloomy name?”
Sans was starting to feel an acute gap between his way of thinking and the way Crooks thought about things. Already, he was wondering if he made a mistake, but he kept the dialogue open anyway.
“Those are all kind of up to interpretation… Was giving kids dark names the custom in your old school?”
Crooks nodded. “Yes. For children, names like that stir pity and affection in the people who hear them. And a person who grew up well could have the most terrible or ridiculous name ever and still be able to say it with pride--because they’ve grown beyond their name.”
In reality, Sans had everything anyone could want; Red was a pure-blooded meroctopus who restrained himself from excessive violence; Stretch was thriving; and Black and Blue were both bright and proud children. A name was the very first benchmark for someone to overcome; you were supposed to own it and introduce yourself with your head held high.
Sans shook his head. “Mermaids usually just pick random words or sounds that seem nice.” He looked at Red and nodded toward Crooks. “Do meroctopuses have a naming culture like that?”
Red didn’t take his eyes off the sleeping baby he was coddling. He absentmindedly flicked a tentacle. “Dunno. I just named myself after my color.”
Sans hummed. He looked at his newest child, worried for a bit, and then sighed, deciding to just let it go. “Fine, I guess Dust will work. Red, you wanna veto this?”
“S’ just a name. Don’t think too hard about it.”
Sans shot his sleeping infant a lopsided smile. “Sorry, kid. Dust it is.”
Crooks was too happy to have named the child to worry if he’d picked a bad name for the cultural environment. He felt like he would purr if he could, but he settled for beaming and blushing pink.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was cold outside, very cold, but Asgore’s garden was as vibrant and colorful as it was at the height of summer. Not many people put in the time for this sort of thing, but a branch of healing magic did exist to nurture simple oceanic flora and fauna. The old goat mer had a talent for it, and he was putting it to good use. After all, there were plenty of energetic young monsters in the school now, so he was living his best life as a retired hunter.
While humming and feeding little dustings of magic to the garden and its tiny tropical denizens, Asgore spotted something out of place. There was something pale amidst the colorful display. The old man tilted his head and reached his arm deep into the twists of coral and kelp. He gently wrapped his fingers around the foreign object and pulled it out. In his hand, he found a tiny meroctopus, with pale blue tentacles and round red eyes.
“Now how did you get out here?” the old goat asked, giving the child a friendly pet on the head with his forefinger. Dust calmly accepted the touches, looking neither pleased nor irritated. “It is not an easy feat sneaking past your mother. Although we seem to have a lot of folk around who can do that these days.”
The child just stared at him, not yet able to understand his words. Asgore smiled and sighed lightly through his nose. “I suppose I had better bring you back inside.”
Asgore delivered Dust to Red, who was shocked to learn that the baby had gotten out on his own. After some very close, tireless observation on Red’s part, it was found that the child was capable of something like a shorter-ranged version of the teleportation magic he and Sans used. As far as Red could tell, Dust had been trying his hand at hunting in Asgore’s garden whenever he got the slightest bit hungry. Luckily they’d noticed before the tropical fish population was depleted.
“So, he can just do that right from the start?” Red stared at his newest child helplessly, and Dust stared passively back.
“That’s not too strange,” Sans told him. “When monsters use the same kind of magic frequently, it starts to shape them as a person, and then it’s more likely that their children can use it. At the end of the line, kids are just born knowing how to do some things. That’s how you get schools and species that have their own magic specialties. Hell, that’s why there are land monsters and ocean monsters.”
Red looked positively helpless. He had been stressed all the time worrying about his first child, and he had calmed down somewhat for his next two, but Dust turned the dial all the way back up.
Sans saw the look on his mate’s face and made a suggestion. “Let’s have his siblings help us keep a watch on him. I’ve never seen him teleport, and I bet he’s been instinctively waiting until nobody’s watching. We might be able to keep him from wandering off. And if not, at least we’ll know when we need to go looking for him.”
Normally, Red would want to carry as much of the burden as possible, but this was quite literally an impossible task for a single person. “... Yeah, alright.”
***
Black and Blue were on shift, gathered around their youngest sibling, never letting their eyes leave him so he wouldn’t teleport away. This was the first time they had the chance to observe him so closely, and they were taking the opportunity. Blue stared with wide, curious eyes while Black held his chin in contemplation.
“... He’s strange,” the darker twin finally said.
“Strange how?” Blue asked absently. “Besides how he doesn’t blink much.”
“He’s too calm for a baby.”
Blue shrugged. “The only babies you knew were me, MK, and Rus--barely. I bet Stretch was calm like this.”
“... I feel like he wants to fight me.”
“It’s more like he’s wondering if he
could
fight us. Mostly you.” Blue puffed up his cheeks. “How rude. I could be a threat.”
The twins were so-so at sensing presences and territory marks, but they were good at feeling out emotions with their instincts. Dust also had that capability, so although they were only staring at each other, it was like they were having a very slow, shallow conversation.
“It’s also weird that his eyes are a different color from his tentacles,” Black mentioned.
Blue looked at him and pointed at his own face, “Your eyes are the same color as mine, you know?”
“Hm? Oh, right. I guess that’s normal then.”
The twins lapsed into silence for a minute and then spoke at the same time:
“Was I really this small?” “Were you ever this tiny?”
Blue paused. “Mwehe, that’s a cute image. I don’t remember any time when you were smaller than me.”
“I bet mom and dad have some pictures.” Although Black said so, he didn’t particularly want to look at them. He just figured Blue might want to, so he mentioned it.
“Maybe. Did they have phones back then?”
Black blinked. “Hm. That’s a good question.”
Then they just quietly continued their staring match with Dust, since they weren’t supposed to look away at all. Stretch came to relieve them after about an hour.
“Uh, I don’t think you were supposed to take your shifts at the same time,” he said.
“It’s okay,” Blue told him. “This is Black’s shift. I’ll watch him more later. I’m trying to spend time with my new baby brother!”
Stretch shrugged. “Alright, I guess.”
All three skeleton mer’s eyelights shrank when they looked back and Dust was gone. Technically, Dust had disappeared on Black’s watch. He was as impressed as he was furious and embarrassed. The meroctopus proceeded to comb every inch of the area around the base for his little brother. Blue followed him, calling out for the baby like they were playing a game of Marco Polo.
Since Stretch’s shift was delayed, he went back to lazing around on his phone.
***
Now that Crooks had gotten so many time-sensitive tasks off his list, he was finally finishing the last bit of healing that had to be done to Geno’s skull. While his magic shifted through its inner contents, he noticed a structure that had been outlined in one of the research documents he’d gotten from Hit; it was a noticed, but unstudied, anomalous magical structure. Its effects were unknown, and no treatments existed either, apparently because the level of magical control needed for an operation on one of these structures was beyond what any surface healers were capable of.
Well that’s not right
, Crooks thought to himself, casually unwinding the knot.
The healer sealed off the hole for good and smiled at his long-time patient. “You should be good as new now. I’ll let you get some rest.”
Crooks left Geno alone. The red mermaid was about to doze off, but he felt something tickling his face. He opened his eyes and saw nothing. He tried sleeping again, and again felt something brush against his skull. Geno swiped at his face and felt a jolt of pain travel up his arm. He shouted and sat up in shock, and on his hand he saw a microscopic jellyfish.
The jellyfish, so small it was barely visible to the naked eye, suddenly grew to about Geno’s size. He was a skeleton mer with hollow black eyes. Long stingers swayed out below his abdomen, and a veil-like bulb shrouded his skull like a hood.
“I would have believed you were just lucky until now,” the stranger said. His voice was deep and hollow. “But now you’re just brushing off my marks, huh? How are you still alive?”
“What? Who the hell are you?!”
Geno instinctively held out his hand to form a magical attack, but he remembered he was inside of the den. He grinded his teeth and forced himself to put his hand down, shouting that someone had snuck into the den.
Crooks came rushing into the room, having heard Geno’s shout and the noise. Toriel and Undyne also came over in alarm. They looked at Geno with concerned frowns.
“What happened?” Toriel asked.
“Do you know this guy?!” Geno pointed at the jellyfish mer who had appeared in his room. The stranger shrugged casually, and Toriel frowned.
Crooks swam closer delicately and put his bony hand against Geno’s forehead. “Are you feeling alright? Nothing seems outwardly wrong…”
Geno was purely confused by their reactions until the stranger threw him a bone.
“You’re the only one I’m showing myself to right now, kid. They can’t see me.”
Geno’s mouth hung open. “Who are you?”
“You should know me by now,” the stranger told him. “Eh, but nobody does. I’m Death. I marked you three times already; I really should be collecting your soul by now.”
Geno looked frantically to the others in the room and pointed directly at the strange mer who called himself Death. “Can’t you see him?!”
The others shared a look and Crooks spoke to them gently. “Please leave this to me.”
Toriel and Undyne nodded their agreement and swam off, and Geno shuddered, knowing they thought he was crazy. Crooks looked at him calmly.
“This person you’re seeing, what does he look like?”
Geno described death while the empty-eyed mer just watched, smiling.
“Has he said anything to you?” Crooks asked.
“He’s been saying something about me avoiding death three times?”
“That’s a very specific number,” Crooks mentioned. “What were the occasions?”
Death chuckled and told Geno, “First, when you got away from the humans who were butchering you. Second, when the mark in your head was removed. The third time was just now, when I touched you myself.”
Geno frowned, “What was in my head?”
Crooks raised his eyebrows. “Pardon?”
“Uh, he says the second time was when some mark in my head was removed.”
Crooks blinked. He, as the one who erased that strange magical structure in Geno’s head, knew a mark had existed, but he hadn’t said anything about it to his patient. Maybe he could feel that something had been fixed inside his head, or maybe…
“Really… Have I ever avoided death, according to this person?”
Death barked a laugh. “No. I don’t have to go out of my way to mark people like him. But he did pull his alpha and brother out of my reach. He’s almost as troublesome as you, red.”
Geno repeated what Death said to Crooks, who looked surprised. He frowned and asked, “I believe you’re here. Why can’t I see you?”
“Tell him he doesn’t want to see me,” Death told Geno. “People who have a weak connection to Life in the first place shouldn’t be looking me in the face.”
The red mermaid looked exasperated, but he repeated Death’s words to Crooks. The mershark hummed and seemed to accept that answer.
“This is mostly for your sake, Geno, but we should have someone besides you confirm this person exists with their eyes. Is there someone suited to that here?”
Geno looked at Death. He didn’t repeat Crooks’ words; the guy could hear for himself.
Death hummed. “Let’s see. Someone with a knack for dodging me or with a strong connection to Life? The best one here is probably this one.”
The jellyfish raised his palms and clouds of black magic rose out of them. They shaped themselves in the water and clearly depicted a small, energetic mermaid.
“I think that’s Blueberry?” Geno muttered.
“Sorry for the limited palette,” Death chuckled.
“I’ll go get him,” Crooks said, getting up to leave the room.
For a moment, Geno and Death were alone.
“So, am I supposed to die or something?” the attack mage wondered uncertainly.
Death shrugged. “Eventually everybody does. But you? You’ve overstayed your welcome, kid. I’ve never seen someone survive a mark before, let alone two.”
“I didn’t do anything special. I’m pretty sure everyone you marked was trying to live.”
“Well, I didn’t ask, now did I?” Death chuckled. “I don’t expect you to know how you did it. I figure I’ll just watch for myself and see what happens, red.”
Geno frowned. “That’s not my name. There’s already a Red in this school. I’m Geno.”
Death chuckled. “Well, nice to meet you, kid.”
And then, so suddenly that Geno didn’t do anything to avoid it, Death casually touched him on the skull. It hurt, but not as much as the last time, and even that pain faded as their contact was prolonged. Finally, the jellyfish mer pulled his hand back and showed a complicated smile.
“Huh. Weird. You
feel
mortal, but you still aren’t dead.”
“Could you not suddenly touch me if it’s supposed to kill me?”
Death shrugged. “These are just gentle touches. I’m sure I could drag your soul out if I gave it my all, but…” he just laughed, “This has never happened before. It feels like it would be a waste.”
Geno’s jaw dropped, realizing that his life was hanging by such a half-assed thread. “Don’t tell me you’re staying?”
“Only for the rest of your life,” the jellyfish winked.
Just then, Crooks returned with Blueberry, whose eyes immediately found Death when he swam into the room.
“Whoa! I’ve never seen a mer like you before!”
Geno sighed in pure relief that somebody else could see this guy.
Death chuckled and skillfully dodged the child that rushed in for a hug. Dodging so easily even at Blue’s speeds was impressive.
“Actually, you have, and she’d be real sad you don’t remember her.”
Blue froze and blinked. “Really?” He searched his memory but really couldn’t think of anyone. Death laughed instead of answering.
“Also, leaping at Death’s not really a good life policy. Might wanna keep your hands to yourself.”
“I’m Blue,” the child said brightly. His enthusiasm wasn’t dimmed, although he wasn’t being quite as much of a space-invader now. “What’s your name?”
“Death.”
“Death?” Blueberry tilted his head and pondered the name. “Are you from the deep ocean?”
The jellyfish chuckled. “Coincidentally, yes, but I think you’re missing the point. I am death, literally. I’m a god.”
Blueberry’s eyes widened. Even for him, it was hard to wrap his mind around chatting with a god.
“Really? I thought gods would be bigger.”
Death grinned, “Well you know what they say: it’s the little things that’ll kill ya. But it really doesn’t matter what size I am. My reach is as long as I need it to be.”
Though it was invisible to the mortal monsters, alongside the stingers growing from Death’s waist were much thinner, longer, more ethereal ones. Death had spread a magical net across the entire ocean. These threads weren’t deadly, though. Any soul who suddenly found themselves lost without a body would be able to see them and follow them to him. Visible to Death’s hollow eyes only, he was already surrounded by hundreds of luminous floating souls, many were monstrous but many were simply animal as well. One by one, as they brushed up against him, he sent them down to his brother.
The older death would only put misplaced souls on the right path. It was the younger death who would swim it with them until they were at peace.
And then, “Well, you know I’m here, so…” Death vanished from Blueberry’s perception. Geno could still see him, as Death was still
letting
Geno see him, but it was back to being just him.
“Wow! He can teleport like mom and dad! … and Dust!”
“No,” Geno sighed, then hesitated. “Well, maybe he can, but he’s still here.”
Blue looked confused by Geno’s words, so Crooks spoke to him gently. “Thank you for your help, Blue. You can go back and play now.”
“I’m gonna play with Black!” the kid beamed, darting off to track down his brother.
Crooks waited a moment to make sure they were alone before he said anything else. “... Geno, is the actual god of death planning on living here with us?”
Death chuckled at Geno’s unhappy gaze. “Yeah,” the mermaid sighed.
Crooks sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t mean to be rude, but… it feels like I moved out of a bad neighborhood, just for my old neighbor to coincidentally move into the house next door.”
“Hey, I resent that,” Death grinned, “I’m more like a landlord.” He shrank himself down and sat on Geno’s shoulder. The mermaid tried to slap him like a mosquito, but his hand passed right through the jellyfish like it was a ghost. Death seemed to be in full control of what could and couldn’t touch or see him.
“But yeah,” the god went on, “it’s getting pretty desolate down there. I’m not a huge fan either.”
“I don’t think you have the right to complain about it,” Geno grumbled.
Death looked up and raised a tiny eyebrow at him. “I don’t usually kill anybody, you know? I only kill the people who are supposed to be dead already. It’s just a more aggressive expression of my
actual
job, which is guiding lost souls.”
Geno hummed. Personally, he didn’t really care about the life or problems of the deity that was haunting him like some annoying ghost.
“What is he saying?” Crooks asked.
“Hm? Oh.” Geno shrugged. “He says he doesn’t like what’s going on down there either. Also, something about his job being to guide souls, not kill people.”
“I see.” Crooks’ small eyes brightened somewhat. “I’ll admit I’m glad to hear that. And, in that case… can you ask him why things ended up the way they did? Did we… do something wrong?”
Death grinned, but he couldn’t quite muster a laugh in the face of Crooks’ pitiful expression. “What, he wants to know if it’s divine retribution? Heh, well, maybe. That thing had to be
born
after all. She’ll probably ask me to kill it any century now. Everybody’s fuse burns out sometime.”
Geno furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about? What was born?”
Death only smiled, a playful smile that looked very off putting with his dark, empty eyes. “Hehehe… A nightmare.”
Geno looked at Crooks and could only shake his head. “I don’t know. He won’t give me a straight answer, but I don’t think it’s your fault.”
Crooks… truly didn’t look satisfied with that answer. He looked a little depressed, if anything, so Geno turned back to Death.
“Come on, don’t you think he deserves an actual answer?”
The god sighed. “Not really, but if he wants one, it isn’t that hard to find.”
Geno looked at Crooks pitifully. “Sorry. He says figure it out yourself.”
Crooks thought to himself. It was an unfavorable answer, but he hoped it implied that there was an observable, non-divine-punishment reason for the situation the deep ocean was in. Perhaps he would take a crack at that mystery for real… after mastering complex magical brain surgery. Geno’s head injury was great practice in preparation for treating Axe, but Crooks wanted just a little more experience before taking his brother’s life into his hands.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Recently, because Blue had gotten curious and asked Geno what an attack mage was, the red mermaid had demonstrated one of his attacks by blowing up a small undersea mountain. (See HTAF Asides Chapter 5.) Only three people were bothered by this: Geno himself, Toriel, and Asgore.
The Capricorn couple were past their prime, that was no secret. But that also meant they had witnessed a time that the younger members of the school never would.
They had seen the first and second generations of attack mages.
The first generation, developed to “protect” mermaids from other shallow water mer in the area, were deliberately bred for power. They were capable of strong magical attacks and barriers, and their healing magic was relatively weak. Toriel and Asgore were children when the attack mages were at the front lines.
The second generation was their offspring. Born in an era of peace, they never had to use their strong magic, but the old goats had known an attack mage or two in their prime. The second generation couldn’t use healing magic, but their attack and defense was even stronger. They could also focus to nearly double the total magic their soul produced for a few minutes, allowing them a few extra attacks before they ran out of steam.
Third generation attack mages weren’t rare, but most of them weren’t pure attack mages. Geno was, and as far as the goats knew, Geno couldn’t use any kind of lifestyle magic—no healing, cooking, cleaning, building, none of that. His green magic was dead. They had expected his attack and defense, a product of red magic, would be even further strengthened compared to what they’d seen in the past, but destroying a mountain in one shot was beyond their expectations.
The amount of magic necessary for an attack like that should have been impossible to produce. They were worried he had hurt himself doing so.
Toriel and Asgore found a chance to pull Geno aside later that night to express their concerns.
“Are you alright, Geno?” the old woman asked him worriedly. “I thought you would at least eat more for dinner after an attack like that.”
“Uh, no, I’m fine,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Asgore asked him. “Some of your wounds when we found you were because of losing control of your magic, were they not?”
Geno shook his head, letting out a small, helpless laugh. “That was my fault for trying to use magic when I couldn’t even see straight. I’m fine, I promise.”
Toriel sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. Forgive us for being so nosy.”
“N-no. It’s nice that you’re worried about me.”
“Could you have Crooks look at you, at least?” Asgore asked softly. “I would feel much better about it then.”
Geno stares at the old goat and nodded slowly. “Sure.”
He swam off to find the healer. On the way, he asked Death, “Hey, would you know if I was hurt? Can you sense that sort of thing?”
There was no reply, and Geno paused to look all around him, but the jellyfish was nowhere to be seen.
Did he finally leave?
Geno wanted to be happy about it, but it worried him a little. Maybe someone was dying right now? He didn’t know how the god of death, well, did his job.
Maybe I’m just especially lively right now and it drove him off. Hah, as if.
He shook his head and continued on to find Crooks. The shark was in his room, which looked… a bit different from the other rooms, at this point. It was full of stacks and binders of laminated papers, and the font and page sizes were increased so Crooks could read them comfortably with his large size and poor eyesight. The shark was curled up in a crescent shape on his bed, pouring over some of the documents.
“Uh, hey,” Geno called. “Am I interrupting?”
Crooks glanced up from his reading and smiled. “Yes. Do you need something?”
Geno scratched his head, “Sorry. Uh, Asgore wanted me to get a quick checkup.”
Crooks set the documents down on his bed and got up. Geno glanced at the pages and saw a few diagrams and a lot of medical jargon.
“May I ask why?”
“Oh. Yeah. He’s worried I hurt myself with that attack I did.”
“The one that blew up that rock? It was a big attack, but it isn’t like you aimed it at yourself.”
Crooks held his hand over Geno’s head, gently scanning his body with green magic. The mermaid shrugged.
“It’s possible to hurt yourself if the magic for the attack goes wild in your body.”
Crooks tilted his head and took his hand back. “I didn’t know that. Regardless, you’re perfectly fine.”
Geno nodded, “Yeah, it’s not common. Happens to kids sometimes. Thanks.”
“Of course.”
If it was a rare phenomenon, it made sense to Crooks that he didn’t know about it yet. After all, they used physical weapons to fight in his school, and the people here weren’t reckless with their magic either.
“What are you reading about?” Geno asked.
Crooks smiled at him, “Brain surgery.”
The mermaid could only stare in shock. “Is it for Axe? Do you think you could fix him?”
Floating amidst the cumulative medical knowledge of the greatest doctors and healers on the surface, some of which still only existed in the realm of medical theory, Crooks smiled. “I hope so. As far as practical application goes, the people who wrote these are so far behind that I doubt anybody else could… And it necessitates that I test their theories on less critical patients before I can say for sure.”
The collective knowledge of the surface dwellers was a great boon for Crooks. There were many smart people up there who put a lot of time and effort into devising new treatments for all kinds of injuries and illnesses. He would’ve liked to speak with them in person, but they were all very busy people and he couldn’t casually venture inland to meet them.
That said, their theoretical and scientific knowledge was all they had to offer him. They simply didn’t have the skill to put their magic where their mouths were.
Crooks picked the pages he’d been reading back up off his bed, furrowing his brow. “You know, it’s very strange to think like this, but I’ve been around a bit now, and… I hope this doesn’t sound egotistical, but I’m not sure there are any healers in this entire world who are better than me.”
Geno’s eyes widened in surprise, but he didn’t hesitate to agree. “I’d believe that. You're definitely the best healer I've ever heard of.”
“It’s a little unsettling, to be honest. Probably because I’m basing my standards on my own ability, but it feels like the rest of the world is severely lacking capable healers.” Crooks sighed. “What a joke it is that I was nearly eaten because my healing magic was ‘useless’.”
“Who tried to eat you?!” This was Geno’s first time hearing about such a thing, since, of course, there was a soft ban on talking about the deep ocean.
“My old school, who else?”
Geno just stared at the mershark in shock. He had pretty much pieced together that Crooks and his brother used to eat people, but he didn’t know they used to eat their own kind. And the idea that anyone could think Crooks was worth more dead than alive was inconceivable to someone who had his incurable injuries fixed by him.
Crooks saw the look on the attack mage’s face and smiled wryly. “I had a low position in my old school. The only reason I, as someone who couldn’t hunt, wasn’t killed after the famine started getting worse was because Axe protected me.” The healer curled back up on his bed. “It was simply a place with different priorities. Living a long life got you labeled as ‘cursed,’ and the injuries of anyone who wasn’t a young child were practically celebrated. At least, toward the end that’s what it became. Anyway, you didn’t hurt yourself at all with that attack. You can go let Asgore know. I still have studying to do.”
Geno hesitated in the doorway. Now that he thought about it, he had something else to ask, and the person who shouldn’t hear about it wasn’t around.
“Hey Crooks? Death left to do something, I guess, so… That mark in my head he mentioned, did it go away on its own, or did you fix that when you were healing me?”
The mershark shrugged, smiling bitterly. “It was far too easy, if you ask me.”
Geno realized that Crooks had already put the pieces together a while ago and had been keeping quiet about it. That was smart. Neither of them knew exactly what Death’s mark was supposed to do or how it worked, but it definitely had to do with a god directly intervening in a mortal’s life. Even if Geno’s ability to survive direct contact with the god of death had nothing to do with Crooks removing his mark, it was still an ability that could get him in trouble if it was revealed.
“Alright, great. Let’s never mention this again.”
Crooks nodded and smiled at him.
***
Death had left not long after witnessing Geno’s attack. More specifically, he had left after seeing the odd way his soul behaved, like a wellspring for red magic. He had his first clue as to how a mortal could resist dying to such an extent, and so he went to follow up on that lead with an expert.
He had to search for a while to find the god of magic. Sometimes he would be deep under the oceans, near the thermal vents. Other times, he would be observing the earth from the moon. This time, he was lucky enough to find the old jellyfish floating above an outcropping of rock on an island, charting the stars for the season as a hobby to pass the time.
The god of magic was a tall and slim figure. He was a skeleton monster, but obviously not modeled after a human skeleton. His skull was a smooth oval with dark crescents for eyes and a mouth. His palms were solid bone slabs with circles carved out of them. As for his Ectobiology, he was a moon jellyfish. His bell draped over him like robes, similar to Death, but it was colored like an iridescent purple and blue galaxy. His stingers were few, thick, and relatively harmless-looking.
Without greeting the other god, Death immediately asked what he’d come to ask. “What the hell is up with that kid’s soul?”
The figure stopped what he was doing and chuckled, slowly turning to face his younger companion. “You’re speaking to Magic, not Knowledge. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“There’s this kid,” Death told him, “a mermaid. He’s got a soul that’s more red magic than soul. It pulls magic out of thin air—and he just shrugs off my touches like they’re nothing!”
“I see.” The god of magic smiled slightly and turned to go back to his work.
“Hey! You’re the one who makes souls, I just guide them. Tell me, how the hell is a mortal like that possible?”
“
Because
it’s a mortal,” Magic said calmly. “They were made to be adaptable: compatible with any kind of magic, at the start, and producing it in small amounts. Through Life, they’re able to change and grow. I expected anomalies to appear the moment I handed my creations over to her.”
“An
anomaly
? Didn’t you hear me? That guy can’t die a natural death. One isn’t such a big deal, I can put in some effort for once, but you’re telling me this could become the norm? Do you want to work me to death?”
Magic chuckled. “Not so. Tell me, what other characteristics does this soul have? The way I made them, they can’t simply improve in one area without weakening somewhere else.”
Death blinked. “Uh, well, there’s too much red magic, so he can’t use any green magic. I’m not sure, but it felt like the other colors were weaker too.”
Magic nodded. “You see? It’s simply an imbalanced being, unsuited to living on its own, and merely unable to die. Such a thing is unlikely to become commonplace.”
Death was quiet for a moment, new thoughts ruminating in his mind. “What if this trend continues for a minority of them? They might really become unkillable, you know?”
“If they leave the domains of you and Life, we can just hand them over to War. Red magic is her domain. If they give themselves to it entirely, they will be at her mercy. If not, then you can still manage somehow. I don’t see an issue…So are you going to kill it?”
Death floated still above the waves, full of uncertainty and hesitation. “... I don’t know yet. Someday, obviously, but… I don’t know. I have someone else to talk to first.”
“Very well. Say hello to Life. And say hello to your brother for me, whenever you see him.”
“Yeah, I’ll tell him to take a break and say hi sometime.”
Death swam off and went hunting again. This time, he found who he was looking for easily. He could sense her from anywhere. She was floating in the shallows in the middle of a bright red algal bloom. Her bell hugged her like a transparent golden gown, and her stingers spread out below her waist like so many miles of thick lace. She had been basking in the sun in the form of a massive, intangible titan, but she shrank down to a reasonable size when she felt Death approaching.
Her top half had the appearance of a goat with Snow White fur, though she was largely covered by her bell. A golden glow irradiated off of her, and her smile was warm and bright.
“Hello, my friend,” Life said. “Have you come to visit this bored lady?”
“Hi again.” Death couldn’t help but smile genuinely whenever Life was happy to see him. Oh how they had feuded in the past, unable to understand each other. But after Life and Sky went their separate ways, she realized she had no true friends and was willing to try to get to know Death a little bit.
She found him more kindred than she had expected, and more of her mind than Sky had ever been.
“I came to ask you about a particular mortal. You sure did make a weird one this time.”
Life pouted. “Every one of my creations is unique. I thought you liked them.”
Death smiled warmly and then playfully frowned, going along with her game. “Yeah, it’s a really interesting one. But, do you know what you made? It doesn’t die like other mortals.”
The goddess of life chuckled into her soft white hand. “What? I made a slightly more resilient toy and now you’re afraid to break it?”
Death swallowed. Life’s chime-like laugh was the most beautiful sound he knew, and she had a way of seeing through him that still caught him by surprise to this day.
“Yeah,” he mumbled, implicitly ending the game with his genuine expression.
The goddess of life smiled and swam closer to him, her hands tucked playfully behind her back. “It’s alright,” she said. “They’re all presents that will pass through your hands at some point. You can watch it and play with it if you like it. If you get tired of it, you can send it back to me and I’ll make something new. As long as you continue to enjoy and respect my work, I don’t mind the details.”
Death smiled in a relaxed way. Some of the souls who were always gathering around him instinctively moved toward Life, as if begging to be given more time, just one more breath from the goddess, but Death snatched them with his stingers and they disappeared, sent to his brother.
At the same time, tiny, white, incandescent souls that had already been returned to a pure state by death's brother were popping into existence around the goddess of life. As they danced among her stingers like clownfish in an anemone, they were given uniqueness, self, and the breath of life. Then they would follow the invisible threads Life laid out to settle into their bodies for this incarnation.
Life and Death were both divine beings. It was no strain on them to perform thousands of complex tasks at a time. Life was putting love and care into every soul she reshaped, and Death was admiring the artistry of each one that came to him.
“Ah, I remember that one.” Life saw a weak, twisted soul float over to Death. It was scarred, damaged, and misshapen. “Another one of the hopefuls I sent to the deep.”
Life was always giving special gifts to the poor souls who were going to live down there, hoping they could pull themselves out of their grim situation. But they always came back like that, on the verge of breaking, her breath of life completely spent in such a very short time.
Often, Life’s art was surreally perfect at the moment she made it, but after living for a while, it just naturally… turned ugly, sad, or somehow more beautiful.
“A few made it out,” Death told her. Using his black-colored magic, he conjured simulacrums of the souls of Red, Axe, and Crooks. “They’re living with some mermaids in the shallows. The meroctopus took one of the mermaids as a mate, and they’ve had a few kids together.”
Golden tears welled up in the goddess’s eyes, and she held her snout. “I’m glad. I’m happy for them.”
Death slowly tilted his head. “What gifts did you give those three?”
“You’ll know when they die, won’t you?” Life giggled. “But, since you’re interested, let me remember… it should be loyalty, empathy, and bit of green magic compatibility. Did they manage to keep their gifts, or have they been worn away?”
Death looked at life with a crooked smile. “Just ‘a bit’ of green magic compatibility? I haven’t been there long, but they’re saying that guy is a miracle worker.”
Life shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I just gave it the ability to process green magic no matter how life twisted it. I didn’t give it any knowledge or talent. My gifts are small, especially when they’ll be living in bodies like that. So many of them are snuffed out and sent right back to me.”
Death nodded, accepting her word. He made the smoky replicas disappear. “By the way, one of them brought up ‘that’.”
Life frowned. “The last of the lamias’ neogenics program?”
“Yep. I didn’t tell them anything, but are we still just leaving it there?”
Life sighed deeply. “My friend, you know how I feel about this sort of talk.”
The goddess of life refused to prematurely kill any of her creations. Death was only justified in reaping a soul if their breath of life had run out before their biological death or vice versa. Or, if the timing of such an event was known in advance, but the natural death he had marked them for fell through not long before the deadline.
The creature in question met none of those criteria. It was living a life that gave these two gods many headaches, but by their ruling it was still a natural life. Death needed Life’s permission to kill it or else she would be angry at him for it. She would much rather force extra work on herself and the god of death than have either of them break their code, killing a mortal just because it was slightly troublesome to let it live its life.
Life could see that Death was frustrated, and she smiled at him softly. “Let’s just let fate run its course, alright? Don’t tell the mortals about it unless they’ve noticed it for themselves. Then, you can warn them so they don’t swim to their doom.”
Death shook his head. “Just admit you have a soft spot for that thing.”
The goddess of life pursed her lips. “It isn’t every day I get to make something so unique. And I suppose it must remind me of a certain man shrouded in black releasing mortal souls by the thousands.”
Feeling bashful, Death pulled his hood-like bell down over his hollow eyes. “Don’t compare me to that thing. And don’t phrase it like that’s an endearing trait, either. That thing is sick in the head.”
Life nodded. “As you say, but I still hope it can get better.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
At two o’clock in the afternoon, Papyrus entered the small traffic jam that naturally formed every day around this time outside of the elementary school. Faint music was playing over the radio that he hummed along with to pass the time. They were well into winter now, and Rus was halfway through the first grade. When he saw his dad’s car, he trudged up, dressed in a warm jacket, hat, scarf, and mittens. The thin layer of snow this morning had been banished from the sidewalks by sand and salt, and his boots were covered in the stuff.
“Remember to tap your boots,” Papyrus told him.
“I know.”
Little Rus climbed into the back of the car, hung his feet out the door, and kicked them together. Once the debris was adequately dispersed, he shut the door and buckled himself in. The cars waiting in line behind them were glad to have another spot open up.
Papyrus glanced at his son in the rear view mirror. “Did you make any friends today?”
Rus was swinging his feet while bracing his hands on the seat to keep himself mounted. He shook his head.
“What did you learn about in class today?”
“We’re subtracting two digit numbers now. And also using dots to smoosh words together.”
“Apostrophes?”
Rus shrugged.
“Well, that sounds exciting. How was recess?” The kid lowered his head and kept quiet. “Rus?”
“... I got pushed. Please don’t tell mom.”
“What? Are you okay? Who pushed you?”
Rush just shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“You need to learn the names of your classmates, sweetie.”
Rus was clearly in a pouty mood and not very responsive, so Papyrus sighed and decided to try tackling this again later.
“Well, it’s chilly today, so how about we drink some hot chocolate while we do your homework?”
“I want spicy chicken nuggets for dinner.”
The cheerful skeleton smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Alright, we can do that.”
A few hours later, Edge came home from work and they ate dinner as a family at the kitchen table. And a few hours after that, it was time for the little skeleton to go to bed. While Edge was helping the child with his bath, he noticed a scrape on Rus's elbow, because he winced when it touched the hot water.
“Did you hurt yourself?” There was gentleness in the sharp skeleton’s red eyelights. Seeing that Rus didn’t reply, Edge frowned. “Did somebody hurt you?”
Again, the child was silent. He knew better than to lie, but he didn’t want to confess. Edge exhaled through his nose.
“Did you tell the teacher on them?”
Rus shook his head, giving Edge a headache.
“We’ll talk about this later. For now, give me your arm.”
Edge used green magic to heal the small scrape and then they finished Rus’s bath. Edge sent him to bed, came downstairs, and immediately interrogated Papyrus.
“Some brat bullied our son today. Did he tell you anything?”
Papyrus smiled helplessly. “Another child pushed him on the playground. He didn’t know their name.”
Edge groaned and pinched his nasal ridge. “Why doesn’t he stand up for himself?”
“He’s shy. It’s not his fault.”
“He’s
too
shy. He still hasn’t mentioned any friends, has he? The only playdates he’s ever had, we set up for him because we knew their parents.”
“I think that’s still normal at his age… probably.”
Edge sighed roughly. “I’m going to talk with his teacher tomorrow. Somebody needs to be keeping a better eye on those brats.”
It was vexing, so
very
vexing, that Edge was an authority figure with so much influence and personal strength, yet he couldn’t keep his son from getting bullied at school. Somewhere, deep in the dark parts of his mind, it was like Edge could see his adoptive family looking at him with shark-like grins. They had their own way of dealing with situations like this; methods Edge would never dream of stooping to.
But he was worried. If his side of the family got word that Rus was being bullied, those misguided brats and their families wouldn’t survive ten steps out of this town. Edge needed Rus to stand up for himself more, or else someone much much worse would stand up for him.
The next day, Edge went to show his face at the school, and he gave Rus’s teachers and supervisors a good lecture about negligence. A few days later, when they found out who the bad apples were, he went to talk to their parents directly. Edge’s words and glare were biting and merciless, but it couldn’t be helped. If these people didn’t straighten out their children, they would all be in very real, very physical danger. Edge didn’t have any leeway to play good cop. Better they fear and resent him and live to tell about it...
Twenty-one years ago, Edge realized his family wasn’t right.
Edge’s father, Fell, was close friends with the father of Hit and Styles, Don. Both men had lost their wives to the same disease, a very rare condition among monsters that happened to be fatal for skeletons due to a lack of treatment options. They met each other while visiting their sick wives in the hospital and bonded over their suffering.
Edge ended up spending a lot of time with Hit and Styles, given that they were very close in age and had all recently lost their mothers.
Their families were very close for about three years, and then Edge turned five. He got diagnosed with the same disease his mother had.
Fortunately, three years was a long time in the modern medical industry. A treatment had been developed that didn’t exist before, and Don pulled a lot of strings for Fell to get his son enrolled. It was a dangerous procedure. It required a donation of healthy magical bone matter from a compatible source; in Edge's case, a one with a red soul. Skeletons had a natural tendency to congregate, but they were rare monsters when you got down to it. Naturally, Fell volunteered to be his son’s donor.
The surgery went badly. That day, without being aware of what was happening or why he was hospitalized, Edge lost his father, and Don lost a sworn brother whom he had shared heartache with. And to add insult to literal injury, the surgery had failed so miserably that they didn’t even obtain enough material to treat Edge.
So, while Edge was still just a young child who barely understood the situation, Don put himself under the chopping block for him, becoming his next donor. Somehow, they both came out of things alive.
Don adopted Edge as his third son, and he never did mention that he’d risked his own life for the boy. Edge grew up assuming his father’s death had saved him, and nobody felt like doing anything to damage the memory of a loving father. A year passed as Edge adjusted to the fact that these family friends were the only people he had left.
Styles was a year older than Edge, and Hit was two years older than Styles. That meant the oldest child was already old enough to have sensed the general vibe of the family he lived in, and he was quick to conform to it so as not to be an outsider.
The family had a dog. It was more of a guard dog than a family pet, and it slept in a doghouse out in the yard, leashed with a long chain. One day, Edge tried to play with that dog, and it attacked him. It scratched his eye socket, and its claws were strong enough to leave deep gouges in his face.
Before the poor kindergartener could do more than scream in pain and fear, Hit, a third grader at this point, pulled a gun out of his belt and shot the dog dead. He did it without blinking, with just a cold frown on his skull.
Hit pocketed the gun and crouched next to Edge. “Whew. Mutt sure did a number on your face there, cos. Let’s go inside; you need a healer.”
Edge was scared and confused. He threw a fit, complaining about Hit killing to dog he wanted to play with, and the hapless older brother could only stand there rubbing the back of his head.
“Jeez, alright. Come in whenever you feel like it. I don’t care.” He felt slighted.
Hit went back in alone, and by the time Edge stopped crying and went back inside, his natural red magic had already warped the wound and left permanent scars. Hit ended up getting scolded by their dad for not looking out for his little brother better.
“Ain’t my fault. It was the damn mutt,” Hit grumbled.
In response, Don set a hand on the kid’s shoulder and gave a menacing, but not damaging, squeeze.
“Young man, d'you think you’re allowed to use that kinda language in front of me? Show some respect.”
“S… sorry, pops.”
Don nodded and removed his hand.
“More importantly, you shouldn’t fight; you’re family. Because of that, we were too late to heal Edge’s injury.”
Hit glanced at Edge, “Sorry, cos.”
Don shook his head and looked down at Hit with sharp eyes. “Now, Hit, you’re nine years old already. You oughta know how much family is worth by now.”
Hit looked between his father and adopted brother in confusion for a moment before understanding settled in. Memories flashed by of his father dolling our physical punishments to lower family members who made mistakes. Thieves would lose their fingers, spies would get their eyes and tongues cut out, etcetera.
Hit looked up at his dad and took a deep, shaky breath, then he gave Edge a sheepish smile.
“Sorry ‘bout your face, cos. I’ll make us even.”
And with that, he took out his gun and rammed the butt of it against his teeth, knocking one loose. He tried to look unphased, but soon started bawling.
“Ow... f—darn… it hurts.”
Don gave his eldest an affectionate rub on the head. “Now there’s a good young man, Hit. Edge, d'you forgive your brother?”
Edge just stared at the both of them, and something in his soul felt... twisted and uncomfortable. Today was the first time he had seen the violent side of his adoptive family—or at least it was the first time he’d been old enough to process it. His young mind couldn’t analyze it so deeply, but he knew he didn’t like it.
“Hit… Hit, your face… why did you do that?” Edge started crying again.
Don got down on his knees and gave his youngest a gentle rub on the head too. “Because he loves you, Edge. When you hurt somebody you love, you hurt yourself too. Bein' family means sharin' every bit of pain and happiness with each other.”
Edge stared blankly back at the calmly smiling stranger.
That night, Edge couldn’t sleep and went wandering around the family mansion. He passed by Hit’s room and heard crying inside. Cautiously, he opened the door.
“Hit?”
There was a sniffle and the crying abruptly stopped. Hit got up from his bed and came to the door. He gave Edge a gentle rub on the head and smiled, though his tooth was still missing and it clearly hurt him.
“Hey… cos. Why ain’t you sleepin’?”
“Does your tooth still hurt?”
“Heh, nope, I’m fine.”
“But you were crying.”
Hit frowned. “I wasn’t cryin’. Anyway, you should be in bed.”
Edge was shooed away, so he went back to his room and tried to sleep.
Nothing else particularly alarm-worthy happened in front of Edge over the next year, but Styles started acting crueler and more violent. Of course, they never physically fought with each other, but they had a few arguments.
And the next year, Don had Edge start learning how to use a gun. Once he could shoot somewhat properly, a helpless animal was put before him and he was told to shoot it. Edge refused, vehemently, and the lessons with guns stopped. Don enrolled him in classes for martial arts and magical combat instead, insisting that Edge should know how to defend himself.
If training to shoot helpless creatures started at eight years old in this family, he thought he knew why Hit and Styles had started changing.
The teenage years were the worst. Edge didn’t have any proof, but the vibe his adoptive siblings gave him changed at some point. He was certain they had killed somebody. And they were obviously hiding things from him more and more often.
When he pried, Hit would smile at him and tell him he didn’t have anything to worry about. Styles would scoff and say, “As if you really wanna know.”
Edge felt estranged from his family for many reasons. But one day, he met somebody. It was the most normal thing that had ever happened to him, really. He had stopped into a convenience store after school to pick up some fresh academic supplies, and a very friendly employee there helped him find what he needed.
Edge was surprised to meet a skeleton in a place like this. He hadn’t known any lived in this city aside from his family. But the weirdest thing was the feeling this skeleton gave off. It was nothing like the feeling of danger and secrecy he got from his family and their friends. It was just… warm, pleasant… bright.
That skeleton, just by being a nice and normal person, eventually gave Edge the resolution he needed to separate himself from his family for good.
He didn't want to give them any reason to try and worm their way back into his life--especially not if that reason was his son.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hit owned a boathouse or two… or several. At the moment, he was standing inside of one that didn’t actually have any boats in it, despite being big enough for a couple of cruisers. There was a large portion of the floor where water from the ocean was allowed to flow in, surrounded by cement flooring. A big garage door closed it off to the sea.
Currently, field-issue hospital beds, curtains, and IV drips were set up around the edge of that pool. People of various species with head injuries of varying severity were being moved into the boathouse to populate those beds.
Hit glanced down at the mershark wading in the water and couldn’t help but overlap the healer with a vision of Alpha, the certainly very mad scientist under his employ, in his mind.
“... This ain’t gonna get weird, is it?”
Crooks glanced up at him. “Hm? Weird how?”
“Nothin’, just…” the mobster rubbed the back of his neck. “Can you let me know in advance if you're gonna torture these guys?”
Crooks blinked in surprise and then frowned in genuine offense. “My goodness, Hit! If you thought I was going to do something like that, why would you even bring me these people?! I’m doing medical research and the goal is to reduce any pain and complications as much as possible. This isn’t something I’m doing to mess around; it’s to save my brother’s life. Besides that, I’ve seen you torture people before!”
The mobster winced. “Alright, jeez, I’m sorry. I’ve seen a few too many ‘research projects’ turn into weird shit. And that back was different. Those people crossed the line. These bastards are just poor invalids. I ain’t heartless.”
Crooks shook his head. “Whatever you say. But anyway, thank you for setting this up for me.”
“Sure, no big deal.” Crooks was family now, of course Hit would lend him a hand. Besides, the better that shark was at healing, the better it was for Hit and everyone he cared about.
***
Dorothy groaned. She couldn’t see anything and she hadn’t seen anything for three weeks. It was her own rotten luck that she went grocery shopping downtown where there were too many alleyways and not enough cops. A gang fight had broken out and she had gotten caught up in the middle of it. While some men were fighting, one of them elbowed her in the head real bad. Since then, everything was dark and her ears hadn’t stopped ringing for hours.
She had been picked up by somebody, and she woke up a day or two later in a soft bed. She realized pretty quick that she was in a hospital, and she wondered if some kind passerby had brought her here. After listening in for a while, though, she realized that wasn’t the case. She was picked up by another gang, one that swooped in to stop the fighting and then locked up everybody involved, to keep the police from sticking their noses in to investigate. Dorothy was in some mafia-run hospital.
She didn’t know what would happen to her. Were they planning on healing her or killing her? Maybe she would be safe. After all, her head injury had rendered her blind; they didn’t have to worry about her seeing their faces. The idea of living the rest of her life without any vision was terrifying, but dying was worse.
A few weeks passed like that. Various doctors came and looked at her, different nurses came and went. Nothing they did ever fixed her head. It was mostly just medicine for the pain and internal bleeding. Dorothy knew she must’ve lost her job as a waitress by now. She wondered if her “rescuers” had told her boss what happened to her. She doubted it. She was probably just another Jane Doe gone missing.
Later, Dorothy was moved again. This time, she was brought somewhere where she could smell the ocean. Some kind of seaside hospital? What was really strange was that she could
still
smell the sea, and feel the sea breeze, from her hospital bed. She could also hear the occasional groans and shuffling of many other people around her. Dorothy guessed that she was in some big communal hospital room in a seaside town where all the windows were left open.
But why did it sound like there was water inside? The new doctor who was tending to her and the people around her was a man with a somewhat high-pitched voice and a lisp. For reasons she couldn’t understand, she heard splashing every time he came to examine one of the patients next to her. It was almost like he was swimming, but that was crazy. It didn’t make any sense.
For whatever reason, it seemed like Dorothy was lower on the doctor’s priority list than the other patients around her. She hadn’t spoken with the doctor personally yet, aside from when he introduced himself on the day she was moved in.
“Hello. Dorothy, I see? My name is Crooks. I’ll be taking care of you until you’re healed. It’s nice to meet you.”
Honestly, he sounded quite friendly.
After the first day or two, Dorothy heard one of the patients screaming. Her body seized up, though her options for self-defense were limited.
“Monster! It’s a monster!” the man screamed.
“Would you please quiet down?” Dorothy heard the doctor scold the man. “You’re disturbing the other patients. You’ve only just been healed, so you need to calm down and rest a bit more.”
Dorothy had a theory about what was going on here. According to her guess, the doctor was a monster. Maybe some kind of fish monster, wheeling around the room in a bathtub or something. That would explain the splashing and some of the reactions from the other patients. Maybe he had a scary fish-face, or maybe those patients were racist. Maybe they were still reeling from their injuries and ended up seeing things.
After about three days passed, Dorothy plucked up the courage to talk to her mysterious caretaker with the strange name.
“Excuse me, doctor?”
“Yes, Dorothy?”
She heard his voice from across the room, and then faint splashing and rippling noises as he came closer. She still couldn’t hear anything like wheels spinning. They could have been oiled really well. Or maybe, now that she thought about it, maybe they weren’t by the ocean at all. Maybe this room was full of sea water, and their fish monster doctor was swimming back and forth to his patients in a big pool. That would explain why it always smelled like seawater when there wasn’t always a breeze.
Anyway, Dorothy was surprised the doctor remembered her name. He was too far away when he replied to have read the chart posted on her bed.
“Just Dot is fine,” she told him. “I was just wonderin’ when my treatment's gonna start.”
“Ah, that. There are forty-six patients here besides you. I’ve been treating them in order of the severity of their injuries. I don’t want anybody to die before I have the chance to work with them. Since there are still people here with life-threatening conditions, you’ll have to wait. But it must be troubling, so I suppose I’ll treat the conscious people next.”
“Doc, does everybody here have some kinda head injury?”
“Yes, of course. I’m currently studying head injuries in order to heal my brother.”
“Your brother’s hurt?”
“Yes.”
Dorothy just bit her lip and nodded, letting the doctor get back to work.
The next day, there was a new voice in the room. This one was low pitched, dryer, rougher. This person spoke without hurry, and with a lazy style of speech filled with slurred words.
“This’s… a lot. Hit found ya all dese people?”
“Yes. It seems head injuries are hard to treat, so there were plenty of patients who had just been left alone until now.”
The doctor’s words reminded Dorothy of the silent three weeks in her previous hospital where all she had been given was pain medication. How long would that have gone on for?
“S’it helpin’?”
“I’ve learned a lot so far. I wish I had more monster patients to work with, though.”
Dorothy felt more confident in her guess that the doctor was a monster. After all, if he wanted to practice on more monsters, then the brother he wanted to heal was probably a monster too and, ergo, so was he.
The doctor’s brother stayed for the rest of that day. He was real quiet the whole time, and Dorothy almost thought he left, but the doctor called out to him when it was time to go home. It only dawned on her later that night that the doctor’s brother was conscious. It made her wonder what kind of head injury he had. There were plenty of vegetables in the room with her. If the doctor was planning on practicing on them for someone who wasn’t even bedridden, it seemed like overkill to her.
Hm, but most people would probably prefer a doctor who was meticulous and prepared.
The doctor’s brother didn’t come back the next day, from what she could hear. Dorothy decided to just ask the doctor about him. Partly because she was incredibly bored being blind and confined to a hospital bed.
“Hey, doc? Can I ask you something?”
The doctor spared her a faint chuckle. “Good morning, Dot. Yes, you may.”
“It sounded to me like your brother is awake and movin’ around. How’s he hurt?”
The doctor hummed, and Dorothy heard a dull clicking, like a pen tapping on a clipboard, perhaps.
“He has sporadic bouts of retrograde and anterograde amnesia and only sometimes does he later remember what he forgot. His fine motor controls were also damaged, but he’s able to manage it with some effort. Lastly, just… a great deal of pain. Migraines and such. Exhaustion.”
Dorothy felt her throat tighten. “M’sorry, doc. I’m sure you’ll be able to help him.”
“Thank you, Dot.” The doctor’s voice sounded brighter. “I have good news for you. After lunch today, it will be your turn to be healed.”
“Really?”
She’d been waiting so long she thought it would never happen. Dorothy spent the rest of the morning looking forward to seeing again. She was practically giggling when the doctor came by her bed after lunch.
“You seem excited.”
“Yeah,” Dorothy grinned and played with her feet, kicking under the blankets. “I’m real worried about getting back to my life and finding a new job, but I’m so ready to get outta bed.”
“I see. I will need you to keep still while I heal you, though.”
Dorothy restrained herself and stopped moving. “Sorry. Uh, is this gonna hurt, by the way?”
“No,” the doctor said reassuringly, “it won’t. It will feel a bit warm and you’ll feel some pressure inside your head, but no pain. And you’ll be awake while I work. Let me know right away if anything feels wrong.”
She nodded and laughed again in pure excitement. “I’m curious what you look like, doc.”
He replied casually, “Sorry, but I’m not very handsome. Not at all, actually.”
Dorothy imagined a scaly green fish face and nodded. “That’s fine. I’m really not feelin’ all that picky right now.”
“Alright, I’m starting. Quiet down a bit.”
The healing magic felt exactly like how the doctor said it would: it was warm, and it made her head feel bloated. Dorothy kept her eyes closed out of habit, and after about twenty minutes, she noticed that she could see again. Bright light was filtering through her eyelids, and it made her squint. A moment later, the doctor announced that he was done.
“Try opening your eyes slowly. Tell me if there’s anything wrong with your vision.”
Slowly, and with her hands blocking her eyes—because it really was bright all of a sudden—Dorothy peeked her eyes open. She saw the palm of her hand. Looking down, she saw her white bedsheets, glowing like snow on a winter day. Her eyes slowly adjusted, and she took her hand away from her face, squinting.
Dorothy froze in place, her lips slightly parted. She could feel her blood draining from her face, and her arms and legs went numb.
In front of her was a skeletal face; narrow, with grayish, brittle bones and small, sunken eye sockets. That wasn’t such a big deal, just a slightly creepy-looking skeleton monster. But the face was huge, and she hadn’t been prepared for a giant.
Dorothy blinked and gently rubbed her eyes, but they apparently weren’t playing tricks on her.
“Doctor?”
“Yes, Dot?”
Wow. Her fish person guess was way off. … Or not. Now that she could look around, Dorothy saw that there was indeed a big pool of water in the middle of the floor, and the doctor was swimming in it. Past his waist, the bones disappeared, replaced by a huge, blood-orange shark tail. If he was half fish, did that mean she was half right?
“I can see.”
“Well, I would hope so,” he smiled at her. It was a sweet, only slightly scary smile.
“Thanks a million, doc.”
***
Normally, after working hard at something for a long time, one would say “I don’t even know how long it’s been,” but Crooks knew. Time dragged out longer for him than for other people because his perfect memory didn’t compress similar or everyday events to save on space. He remembered every moment that had passed since Axe nearly died to protect him. Finally, after all that time, a small bud of certainty had cropped up in his soul: he could heal Axe.
“Be honest wit’ me. What’re da odds dis kills me?”
“None,” Crooks replied. Rather than excited, his sunken eyes were calm. He was facing this task as his greatest undertaking thus far as a healer. His emotions were waiting for him quietly on the operating table next to the rest of his tools. “I will seal the wound, restore your lost memories, and repair the damage to your nerves. I know your right eye has never worked, but if I get in there and see that it’s because of an injury during development and not genetics, I can fix that too. Are you ready?”
Axe stared at his brother, his thoughts turning slowly. “Can ya leave a scar?”
Crooks tilted his head. “I mean, I can, but why?”
“I want ya to,” he chuckled. “Leave it as bad-lookin’ as ya can without it affection’ me.”
“But…” Crooks looked at his brother sadly. To Crooks, his appearance was something he longed to improve but couldn’t yet. Axe, on the other hand, wanted to voluntarily leave a large scar on his body. He didn’t understand.
But it made perfect sense to Axe. He could learn a lot about a person based on how they looked at him. Would they see a scar and look at him with pity? Disgust? Contempt? Hunger? That opportunity to assess a stranger’s character was important to him--way more than his looks. Anyway, it didn’t really matter to him how ugly he was.
“Fine, it’s your choice, I suppose.”
The healing took twenty-six hours. Crooks had stockpiled magic-rich foods in the healing room, and he had asked Red to place a boulder in front of the door so nobody could interrupt them on accident. There were only six moments during the process where Crooks had enough leeway to take a short rest.
Axe slept peacefully through most of the process. When he woke up, the first thing he did was check on Crooks and then make room on the bed.
“Bro, ya look bad. Lie down fer a bit.”
Crooks had nowhere near enough energy left to protest. He flopped onto the kelp mattress like a dead fish. All the same, his eyes, looking even more sunken into his face than usual, thanks to the sickly dark circles under them, examined his brother cautiously.
“How do you feel, Axe? Any pain?”
Axe shook his head. “No. And my memories’re all back s’far as I can tell.”
It was a big statement, accompanied by big feelings, but the shark shoved them aside for now in favor of immersing himself in the sort of deep thinking he hadn't been capable of for months.
He took out his phone and used the camera function to take a look at his head. Both eyes actually worked now, so there were two ominous red rings staring back at him. Like he’d asked, Crooks had let a scar remain. Or rather, the injury didn’t look even the slightest bit better. Axe reached for the hole, but his fingers hit something hard and smooth, perfectly grafted to the jagged edges of his skull.
“I made a transparent seal,” Crooks explained, his eyes beginning to flutter closed.
Axe nodded. “Thanks.”
Crooks nodded off to sleep, and Axe took a deep breath through his gills. It had been so long since he'd felt this relaxed. For the past several months, he had always been wasting magic on manually controlling his fine motor skills so that he didn’t shake or stutter and so he didn’t lose more memories through the hole in his skull. That was no longer a problem, so all of his magic was his to use. He didn’t feel nearly as exhausted anymore thanks to that.
He felt good, like he could go back to his days in the deep of hardly ever sleeping and he would be fine.
Also, for the first time in ages, his head was clear. There was no need to wrestle every thought into submission long enough to get to the next one. His mind was cooperating with him. Axe quickly went over the past several months of memories to see what he might have missed out on or forgotten, and a grin stretched his face. He was set up pretty nicely to achieve his goals.
Even in a half-retarded state, I was still pretty decent, huh?
Step one, ensure Crooks’ happiness. Step two, take an earnest shot at his own happiness so that Crooks wouldn't worry. Step three, revenge against the deep ocean and whatever fate screwed them over so bad.
Axe chuckled and opened an internet browser on his phone. The Cheshire grin on his face was more insane than it had been the time he practically committed suicide to convince the mermaids to shelter Crooks. He didn’t have a perfect memory like his brother, but at least now his memory was functional. With his head finally straight on his shoulders, and with surface technology at his disposal, he would find out what went wrong with the deep. If it was a creature, he'd kill it. If it was environmental effect caused artificially, he'd ruin the lives of everyone involved. If it was simply the will of nature, then Axe would have it out with the gods. Since gods existed, they were capable of suffering, even if you maybe had to get abstract about it.
Oh, and the rest of his species? Anyone that saw Crooks as food had to go. The others, he could maybe ignore. But the members of his old school, he would never let off.
Axe glanced down at his brother, completely out cold while his magic recovered. The memory of what Crooks had admitted while drunk was no longer blocked behind a wall of shock, glee, and head trauma. Axe got off the bed and found a woven kelp blanket on a coral shelf. He draped it over his brother so that he would sleep more comfortably.
That memory was an amazing one, that was true, but Axe merely took it as a comfort. Because right now, he also remembered reading he'd done on the effects of alcohol on a person and the nature of love. You couldn't trust a drunk confession any more than you could trust one made in a life or death situation. The suspension bridge effect was called that because at any moments the cables could snap, leaving the fleeting feeling to tumble into the deep ravine of apathy. A single moment of passion was no basis for a functional relationship; daily thoughts and feelings were far more important.
Even now, Axe couldn't be sure that Crooks didn't intentionally remove any memories where Axe obviously expressed his love for his brother. It was very possible Crooks would do something like that, in another vain attempt to get Axe to fall in love with someone else before he fell out of love with Crooks. But when Axe was thinking about Crooks nearly every minute of every day, there was just no way to make him doubt his feelings or their permanency.
Whadaya know? I finally realized something I don't like about
him. Axe gave Crooks a very delicate stroke on the skull before lying down on the bed next to him, staring deeply at his brother's eternally gaunt face. He treats my love like it's frivolous, just 'cause it's simple. Ya can't pretend I'm the wishy washy one here, bro.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Oh, well this is a pleasant surprise,” Toriel giggles with her hand in front of her mouth, swimming to the side a bit to make room for Axe. “You usually nap right after dinner.”Axe shrugged, picking up one of the dishes and wiping it down. “Ain’t that kinda insensitive?” he drawled. The goat lady blinked. “Oh. I am sorry. I was not trying to be.”Axe handed her a clean dish to put away and chuckled. Toriel quickly realized due to the wry smirk on his face that Axe wasn’t the least bit bothered. He had simply turned her light tease back at her. “It is very good that you are feeling better,” she laughed. Chara heard voices and laughter, so they swam over to join in. The preteen mermaid saw Axe in high spirits and became curious. “So, are you going to start hunting again now that you’re healed?”Axe grinned and shook his head. “I’m under house arrest still, remember?” Not that he wouldn’t sneak out if he felt like it. There was no mermaid who could spot him if he didn’t want them to. But damn, he surprised himself with how good it felt to turn the R word on someone else. “Like you care.” Chara sat on the table and swished their tail. “What’s the real reason?”Axe chuckled, “I got other things to do.”The shark paused suddenly and set down the plate he was working on, reaching behind a small jar on the counter, “Heh, speakin’ of…” He pulled out an itty bitty meroctopus. It stared at him curiously for a moment and then started wriggling to try and escape his grasp, gnawing on his finger bones with sharp teeth when he found the mershark’s grip was too firm. “This’s the second time t’day ya came to spy on me, small fry,” Axe laughed ominously. “Ya should know that’s one too many.”Dust stopped chomping when Axe didn’t react to it, but his fangs were still firmly embedded in Axe’s finger. “Is he not teleporting?” Toriel asked. Axe’s red rings stared piercingly down at the slippery infant, and Dust released some of the pressure from his jaw, keeping perfectly still besides that, as if to play dead. “Lil’ gremlin already did dat n’ front of me once. ‘F I let him slip away again, den I lived past maturity fer nothin’.”Chara swam closer to look at the baby meroctopus teasingly. “So he can’t get away now?”Axe chuckled, “Not bad, right?”“That is very impressive, Axe!” Toriel was very enthused at the thought of not having to track this teleporting child down every other hour. Chara looked at the mershark curiously, “Does that magic work on anything that isn’t a baby?”“I ain’t got that kinda magic ta waste.”Stretch swam lazily into the kitchen and made a small sound when he noticed Dust in Axe’s hand. “Oh, there he is.” The orange octopus shrugged and turned around. “Looks like he’s in good hands. I’ll leave him to you for a bit. Thanks.”“Nuh uh, take ‘im.”Stretch sighed and reached out to take his little brother back. Dust let go of Axe’s finger. A single drop of pale blue blood floated out and turned into sea foam. “Blue?” Stretch murmured, looking curiously at the wound. Axe looked down at him. “Whazzat?”“Nothing,” Stretch shrugged. I swear it was red before. Axe decided not to care about it and stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth. “What are you doing!” Toriel exclaimed, setting down her dishes to pull on Axe’s arm. “You have a healer standing right next to you, even if I am not as skilled as your brother.”“S’ a habit,” Axe shrugged, letting the old goat have his hand. Chara leaned forward, their hands clasping the edge of the counter to keep themself from tipping off. “Come to think of it, do magic colors mean anything? Everybody I’ve met has just one magic color except for you, Crooks, Blackberry, and Dust.”“Dunno.”Axe had always taken magic colors for granted. He thought they didn’t mean much of anything. Now he was curious about it. As soon as Toriel had healed the bite mark on his finger, he dug out his phone and googled it. In summary, the people on the surface weren’t sure either, but they had collected a fair amount of data and supplied some solid theories. Over and over again, one thing in particular kept coming up that confused him and hindered his ability to replicate their tests. “How the hell d’ya see the color of yer soul?” he grumbled. “What?”Axe glanced at Toriel who was making a surprised face again. “Do you really not know how to call your soul out?” the goat asked gently. Axe shook his head. Why would anyone want to do something dangerous like that? One attack to the soul would probably kill anybody, right? “Hm. I do not remember, but Red might have been the same when he arrived here. It is really very simple.”Toriel demonstrates to Axe, her bright and plump green soul floating out of her chest, hovering above her hands. “Would you like to try?” she smiled. “... Later.” *** In his room, alone, in the dark, Axe called forth his soul. With a fragile shaky slowness, a blood red soul appeared in his rib cage and floated out. According to what he’d found online, usually, all of a monster’s magic would be the same color. Mixed magic colors would come about from breeding between species and between people of different magic colors. Axe’s curiosity on the matter was passing, since he knew why his magic changed color. Teleporting was blue magic, so stopping teleportation was also blue magic. Of course you could make your blue magic more powerful if the color of your own magic matched, so Axe had forcefully changed the color of the magical blood in his hand when he was holding Dust.It wasn’t a hard concept. Even the people in this school instinctively turned their magic green when they healed someone. It wasn’t as potent or as deep, but the principle was the same. So Axe was less interested in that than in the fact that he could hold his own soul in his hands like this. He remembered Red’s words from months ago when they were treasure hunting in the deep. It was possible to have a child just by wanting one and touching your soul to someone you loved, as long as the feeling was mutual. Incestual deformities still existed rarely among surface monsters. It took about a century longer for those things to manifest via soul sex than biological sex, but it still happened. There was no way Crooks would agree to have a child unless he knew it would be born healthy, so Axe expected never to use this knowledge. But it was still possible to feel sexual pleasure this way. There was no need to produce a child as part of it. Crooks had remained willfully ignorant about all of these topics. He was bitter and afraid, unwilling to be reminded that he was broken. Now Axe knew in detail a possible solution for his brother. He could teach him, if he could get him to listen. He stared mournfully at his blood red soul, preparing himself emotionally… Because there was a damn good chance that Crooks would go and find someone else to use this technique with. Step 1, Axe thought, putting his soul back in his chest, make Crooks happy. And he swam off to his brother’s room. ***“Hey, bro.”Crooks woke up to two red rings peering down at him through the darkness. “Axe?” It was the middle of the night, so Crooks was immediately on high alert. “What’s wrong?”“Nothin’,” Axe shook his head. This time, nobody was dead or dying or intruding into their den. “I got somethin’ important ta tell ya in private.”“Alright?” The healer propped himself up in his bed and looked skeptically at his brother. “I’m listening.”“S’ possible fer ya ta mate wit’ someone—fer kids or jus’ fer fun.”Crooks’ sunken eye sockets narrowed, and Axe knew he was already about to write the information off without listening any further. In order to hold Crooks’ interest, Axe took his soul out of his chest and displayed it in his hands. “B-brother, is that what I think it is?” Crooks asked shakily. “S’ my soul.”“Put it back!” Crooks hissed in a hushed tone. “Are you mad?! Put it away now!”Axe shook his head. “This’s how surface monsters mate. S’ how Red n’ Sans mated. Ya take out yer soul like this, touch ‘em together, n’ any monster can mate like dat. It don’t matter what kinda shape yer body’s in. Get it?”Crooks’ skull turned into a tulip bulb as every inch of it flushed bright pink. Axe put his soul back away and waited for Crooks to process. “That… that isn’t actually true , is it?”“Bro, c’mon.”Crooks lowered his gaze and thought. He sat there thinking for several minutes while Axe just floated quietly and waited. “You mentioned children, but...”“They’d probably be messed up,” Axe admitted. Crooks sighed, “Of course. So, do you have any other news to drop on me in the middle of the night, or can I sleep?”… Of course. News that solved one of his lifelong problems was “dropped on him”. How inconsiderate Axe was. How rude and thoughtless he was for wanting to give his brother a path forward in life.
This guy’s try’na do it again. Try’na push me away.
Axe smiled, irritated and dangerous. “... Sure, yeah. I do, actu’lly. In fact, I got a bone to pick wit’ ya, bro.” Crook felt his soul seize in fear of whatever conversation was about to go down. He thought, This is it. It’s time. His infatuation with me is finally broken. It was selfish, but Crooks was dreading it. “Ya think I don’t see how cold ya get anytime I bring up somethin’ like dis? Ya think I ain’t put two an’ two together? If I mention anything dat even comes close ta romance, ya treat me like m’ a stranger. Guess what? I don’t appreciate how ya think ya can make my feelin’s go away if ya jus’ ignore dem.”Axe swam closer until his face was millimeters away from Crooks’, forcing the lanky mershark to back up until he was against the wall, and then Axe trapped him there by placing his palms against the coral on either side of his shoulders. “‘Cause it means ya ain’t got a damn clue how I feel,” he snarled in a low voice. “Else ya’d know it ain’t gonna go away.”Crooks was faintly trembling, knowing he couldn’t stop Axe if he wanted to force anything—violent, romantic, or otherwise. But he was used to maintaining his composure under stress. “And? What is this right now? What do you want to do like this?”“I want ya ta listen. ‘Cause yer a bad listener, bro. Ya get stuck in yer head n’ think everyone else thinks like ya do too. I ain’t ya, got dat? No matter how trash ya think ya are, I love ya. No matter what a pessimistic, self-centered brat ya are, I love ya. Yer skills’re hot, yer thoughts’re stimulatin’, and yer flaws’re endearin’ ta me. Fuck it: yer not yer type—but yer my type. I’d do anythin’ fer ya without thanks or notice, but by the deep fuckin’ ocean, don’t try ta make me stop lovin’ ya. It ain’t gonna happen.”Axe backed up enough for Crooks to have some breathing room. Crooks looked into Axe’s confident red rings and slumped in defeat, doing his best to hold back tears that leaked out regardless. “So I finally got you upset with me and it didn’t even work?” He laughed helplessly. “Dammit.”Axe took a seat at the tail of Crooks’ bed and waited a moment for the healer to regain his composure a little. “So how come ya want me ta find someone else?”“Obviously because you can’t be with me.”“Why?”Crooks frowned, “Because you’ll just stay cursed if you’re with me.”“An’ why d’ya care ‘bout dat?”Crooks threw his arms up in agitation, “Because I care about you!” He saw Axe grinning, realized he’d swam right into a verbal trap, and slapped his hands over his mouth with a dull click. “I didn’t mean it like that,” Crooks hastily excused. Axe chuckled. “Does it matter how ya meant it? M’ happy ya care ‘bout me.”Crooks sighed and, from a safe distance, Axe demonstrated how to draw a soul out again. “Let’s jus’ make sure ya can do dis.”Crooks thought back to when they had discovered he couldn’t “perform” physically. It had been in the middle of a moment of passion and was utterly traumatizing. He shut his mouth tightly and nodded. Fortunately, his soul drifted out of his rib cage with no issue. It was pale green, which was immediately contradictory to what Axe had learned about magic colors. But, well, Crooks was a genius healer, so maybe his endless practice had tinted his soul. Crooks looked at the core of his being quietly for a moment. There was nothing wrong with it. It was just as healthy and pretty as any other monster soul. Instantly, he felt much more relaxed. But after the first moment of its exposure to the world, Crooks’ soul started glowing, as did Axe’s. They both stared in confused awe for a moment before their inexperienced minds naturally went somewhere strange. “... Axe, please leave.”“Huh? Oh… yeah, alright.”Axe quickly put his soul away and watched Crooks’ soul stop glowing. “G’night, bro,” he said and quickly swam out into the hall. Axe crashed into his own bed, burying his burning face in the pillow. He hadn’t given a single thought to how two souls might react to being in close proximity. After spending quite a while cooling off, he searched for the phenomenon online, just to find out how badly he’d almost messed up, but there was nothing on the topic. “Huh? That’s… weird.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
-Several Centuries Ago-
It was summertime. Down by the equator, the water was comfortably warm all year round, but it was particularly nice today. An ocean monster was lying on a rock that protruded above the waves, eyeing the nearby island shoreline.
He swished his long, snake-like tail, and manifested a tongue made of splotchy rainbow magic in his skeletal mouth, just to bite down on it in concentration. The paints he’d made from dried coral weren’t exactly plentiful, but he had been able to cover this entire outcropping in a beautiful mural with them.
This summer had been pleasant, and there hadn’t been any large storms to wash his work away.
“Finished!” Ink sat up and beamed happily at his art. “... For now anyway.”
Now that that was put on hold, the skeleton Lamia slid back into the water and immediately found himself bored. He wanted to do something new. Something fun. Something he hadn’t done yet. He consulted some friends to get ideas.
“If you’re tired of using coral and shells for paint, you can use your ink instead.”
Ink had expressive eyelights that changed their color and shape according to his mood, and they clearly expressed his stir crazy mindset.
“No! I want to do something fun, not go above the waves and puke on a rock!”
That
was last week.
“Then, do you wanna explore the island with us?”
Ink held his chin. “The island is always interesting, but I want to explore something farther away.”
“You could go find a mate.”
Ink blinked, then his smile grew wide. “That’s a great idea! But I’ve done that a lot too, so I’ve gotta make something really special this time!” He pondered intensely, then beamed. “What if I mate with a mixed breed?!”
“Just any old Lamia then?” His friends chuckled at him.
“Not a Lamia,” Ink grinned mischievously. “I bet, if I go to the deep, I can find some mer that stole the right to bear the clutch. And if not, I’ll probably find something else really cool!”
His friends shared looks of concern. “There might be something like that down there. But if you find it, won’t you be in danger?”
Ink blinked at them and showed them a sunny grin. “But I don’t care about that~?”
The deep was dark and cold, but Ink didn’t mind. His father was a meroctopus, so he could endure this kind of environment better than other lamia.
If I’m looking for the offspring of a stolen clutch, it’ll probably have meroctopus genes too, huh? Well, even if it’s just another half-lamia, as long as it has lots of colors, it’s fine.
It was the pride of the Palette clan to mix new colors—as many as possible. That was their way of fulfilling the lamia philosophy of neogenics: creating new kinds of life. Ink, as a member of that clan, held those same values.
The Lamia swished his serpentine tail to swim even deeper. The whole length of its ectoplasm body was decorated with splotchy rainbow stripes from waist to tip. It was far from the fastest locomotive organ in the ocean, but the journey was part of the fun, so Ink tried to enjoy the wait.
He swam around looking for a mate for several days, always observing the local life from a distance. With his ink of many colors, it was easy to camouflage himself and stay hidden whenever he needed to.
Ink was almost discovered a few times for being too careless, but once he hid himself, his would-be pursuers quickly lost track of him, and Ink would just silently chuckle while looking at their lost expressions.
He searched deeper and deeper, wandering and enjoying the unusual sights that interrupted the monotonous emptiness. Finally, he found something fun.
A meroctopus was using blue magic strings to catch fish. Ink had never seen magic strings before, and he had seen a lot of magic. On top of that, this meroctopus was so colorful! His tentacles were blue on top, red on bottom, and had yellow suckers. He had a skeletal top half made of yellow, red, and black bones.
Ink’s eyelights expressed his excitement at finding such a mer. How colorful would their offspring be!
Of course, Ink had to be careful with his approach. Meroctopuses had been known to steal the clutch more often than other mer, and what was the point if the new child didn’t wind up back with the clan?
Ink camouflaged himself and spied on the colorful mer. However, even if he couldn’t be seen, he still caused ripples in the water when he moved. The meroctopus noticed his magic threads shaking and knew someone was there.
“
You had better come out before I kill you.
”
Ink was taken aback by the mer’s extremely strange voice. It echoed and looped back over itself, cutting out and back in so that the words spoken were heard echoing in a strange order. It was like the words had to cross over a few different dimensions before landing here. Just listening and trying to make sense of it gave him a headache.
Anyway, seeing that he’d clearly been noticed, Ink shook the camouflaging magic off of himself and waved a cheerful hello.
“Hi there! I’m Ink! You sure are colorful aren’t’cha? Just like me!”
“
Another idiot Lamia. Just leave me alone.
”
Again, the meroctopus’s voice doubled back on itself, corrupting with some kind of static white noise, before emerging again with various pieces missing, repeated, or out of order.
“What? Could you say that again slower? It’s kinda hard to understand you.”
With an irritated expression, the strange meroctopus swam closer to Ink, glared at him, and spoke word by word, “
Leave… Me… Alone.
”
“But I just got here,” Ink shot back a purposefully naïve smile. “And we just met. And I want to know more about you! What’s your name?”
The strange meroctopus folded his arms with a condescending scowl and opened his mouth, letting loose a sequence of otherworldly sounds that Ink couldn’t make heads or tails of.
“... Do you have a nickname or something?”
“
Error.
”
“Error! I can say that one. So, Error, what’cha up to?”
“
Hunting. What does it look like?
”
“Can I watch?”
“
... No. Go away.
”
Ink mimed holding a hand by his ear as if he was having trouble understanding Error.
“What was that? I can stay and watch? Great! These strings are neat, by the way~ Is this blue magic?”
Ink’s eyelights settled on blue momentarily, and he tried to make some threads of his own. However, he only ended up with a blob that looked a little like a wad of yarn.
Error ignored him and focused on eating the fish he had caught. A grotesque three-pronged blue tongue emerged from his mouth and pulled his meal down his throat. Ink stared at that blankly for a moment before becoming excited again.
“Wow, what was
that
?! That’s so new!”
“
Leave.
” Error told him again. “
I’ve dealt with Lamias before. You only want to mate with me and then run off with the child.
”
Ink took a moment to digest the mangled sentence and grinned, “Well what’s wrong with that? I think you’d have some pretty neat kids!”
“
I don’t want any.
”
“Well that’s fine! You can just leave them to me!”
“You… I said no.”
“What? Come on, please? I want to carry your children~”
Despite the alluring voice and pose Ink used, Error was already swimming off somewhere else, which made the Lamia pout.
“Hey!” Ink called, struggling to catch up with the faster mer. “I can’t help but notice I’m not dead yet. Were you bluffing earlier?”
“
Why the hell are you testing me?
”
The strange meroctopus started to swim a great deal faster. Ink frowned, his eyelights morphed into yellow crosshairs, and he pointed a finger at his target. A small bolt of yellow magic shot out and stuck to Error’s back unnoticed, and Ink soon lost sight of him.
“Well he made more of a fuss than usual,” the lamia muttered. His eyelights soon sprang to life with unmitigated enthusiasm. “At least four colors, a new application of blue magic,
and
he’s mixed with something! My luck is amazing!”
Error had to be mixed. There was no way a pure-blooded meroctopus would talk with someone who was bothering them.
Ink took a second to calm down and catch his breath, and then he began pursuing his yellow marker at a comfortable pace. He finally caught up two days later, finding Error curled up in a gap between two rocks while he slept. He had some very bright colors mixed into his look, so he was easy to spot.
The lamia grinned mischievously and quietly crept closer: he dared to prank this dangerous creature, since he had the chance.
However, before he could get too close, he felt something brush against his bones and tail. Too late, he realized that the meroctopus had surrounded himself in an alarm net made of those blue strings. The moment he touched them, they wound themselves around him. No matter how slippery a lamia was, what could they do if they were cocooned by magic?
Ink heard a staticky sigh, and because his head was mostly uncovered, he saw Error stir awake. The first thing he did after opening his eyes was glare tiredly.
“
You’re obviously going to keep following me,
” he said. “
I’d better just kill you now.
”
Ink’s eyelights shrunk in fear and alarm. He tried to protest, but the strings wound themselves around his mouth, forcing it shut. Another string wrapped around his neck. It tightened, beginning to dig into the bone. Ink had a premonition of his head separating from his body, and he resisted.
The lamia’s dynamic eyelights turned green, and he pumped green magic into his cervical vertebrae, healing them as fast as Error was cutting through them, keeping the thread fixed where it was, unable to cut deeper. Error exerted more force, and Ink matched him. It was a battle of attrition.
Ink lost. He was the first to run out of magic. Error felt his thread begin tightening again and exhaled rather calmly. It was about time.
As Ink ran out of magic, something interesting happened. His eyelights turned white, his fighting expression relaxed into apathy, and he directed a cold, unfeeling gaze to the mer that would end his life. In particular, Error noticed that the blood that had been leaking from the neck wound, which used to be green, was now white.
“
There’s no way,
” he told himself, but his curiosity demanded to be satisfied. Error temporarily stopped tightening the noose around Ink’s neck, and moved some of the entangling threads away from the lamias chest. He directed one thread to reach inside. It delivered a tiny, minuscule pulse of gold-colored magic, and Ink’s soul briefly became visible. It was pure white.
Error held a hand over his eyes. He snorted, he laughed, and his mouth twisted into something similar to a smile.
“
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. What did you people
do
to yourselves?
”
Ink was still gagged, but from the look in his eyes, he wasn’t likely to reply if he could. His eyelights, his blood, his tail, his soul, everything was white. He looked ready to observe his own death without a hint of willpower.
Error took hold of the thread that was wrapped around Ink’s neck and tugged on it, releasing another puff of white blood into the water.
“
Pathetic.
”
The blank slate staring passively back at him observed that the hand not holding the thread was shaking slightly.
“
You’re pathetic.
”
Suddenly, Error loosed his grip, and the thread around Ink’s neck unwound. Soon, all of the threads faded away, and the Lamia was unbound. Still, Ink floated there: unfeeling; uncaring.
Error sighed and shook his head to clear it. He turned and started to swim away, leaving the empty canvas to get eaten by something else. Mechanically, Ink followed him.
Error stopped and glared over his shoulder. “
Don’t.
”
He resumed swimming, but the lamia was still following, so he stopped again. Error turned around and swam up to the lamia, speaking directly to his face so that hopefully he would listen.
“
Leave. Go home. While you still have my pity.
”
Unexpectedly, the doll moved slightly. Ink slowly raised his hand and opened his mouth.
“Sympathy,” it corrected in a lifeless voice and touched Error’s cheek.
The meroctopus had a brief moment to glance at the hand and reel back in horror, and the next moment everything went to static hell. He couldn’t think, his senses all stopped working, and his soul trembled in his chest, tossed around by some unseeable wave he was riding. It felt like twenty minutes or more in that hell before he finally grounded himself back in reality.
To Ink’s eyes, it looked like the meroctopus became blurry, bits and pieces of him popping in and out of view for a few seconds before he stabilized.
The moment Error had his senses back, he scowled furiously. “
Don’t
EVER
touch me!
” he snarled, and snapped the offending finger bones with his threads. Ink didn’t react to his broken hand.
Before the Lamia could do anything else crazy, Error swam off at top speed, and soon he was alone again.
***
Ink came back to himself a few hours later when his magic had recovered a bit.
“Oh stars, how long did I white out for?”
He looked left and right and saw no sign of the meroctopus from before, and his head was still connected to his body.
“Oh ow ow!” The pain from his cracked phalanges hit him like a wave, and Ink nursed the hand while tearing up a bit. Ink whined, “Sorry, hand. I’ll fix you as soon as I have more magic to spare.”
In the meantime, Ink tried to recall what happened after he ran out of magic. It helped distract him from the pain in his hand, which was a nice little extra.
“Hmm~ He must have stopped strangling me at some point. And it must have been him that broke my hand…” memories during his whiteouts were extremely fuzzy, so Ink guided his thoughts with some inferences. After a minute, he managed to grasp onto a memory. “He felt… comfortable. Weird.”
Ink held his chest, thinking about the soul inside.
The lamia shook his head and clenched his good hand into a fist over his chest. A look of determination washed over his face.
I don’t want to let someone like him get away!
Unfortunately, the mark Ink had placed faded a while ago. He had no way to follow Error anymore, so he just went back to searching the way he had those first couple of days. Ink explored the deep ocean, traversing vast dark emptiness to see several sights almost as interesting as Error, but he didn’t let himself get distracted anymore. Error was faster than him. Who knew where he could be?
Determination and stubbornness were the only things that kept Ink from returning home. In the end, he was lucky enough to stumble upon the multi-colored meroctopus again after a month of searching. Again, it was because Error had stopped to eat the prey he had hunted.
“Hey! Error! There you are! I’ve been looking for you!” Ink waved and called out to him, sprinting the last bit of distance between them with excitement.
The meroctopus looked to the sound of his voice and replied with obvious disbelief. “
You’re still alive?
” He looked back down at his meal. “
You’re lucky.
”
Ink plopped down on the dark, grainy sand next to him and pouted. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to find you? Weeks!”
“
Why didn’t you go home?
”
At the curt question, Ink quieted down and smiled. He flicked his tail playfully against the sand and sketched little circles into it.
“Because I like you, that’s why.”
Error sighed, low and full of static. “
That’s no reason to hang out in the deep ocean for weeks. You should find something else to like.
”
“I like lots of things! Everything!” Ink protested, sounding oddly proud about it, before quieting again. “But at the same time, you’re the first.” He grinned. “I’ve never liked anyone the way I like you. It’s like we’re soul mates!”
Error guwaffed in response: a barking, derisive sound. “
You don’t even know what that means.
”
“Of course I do!” Ink protested. He scooted closer to Error’s side, but the meroctopus slid away at the same pace. The lamia pouted and continued what he was saying. “Soulmates are people who are destined to be together~ To love each other always.”
“
You don’t know shit,
” Error replied. “
In the first place, You’re acting like this now, but you’re nothing but a blank, empty soul on the inside. You’re just being drawn to—
” he suddenly cut himself off. “
Doesn’t matter. I can’t help you, and I won’t mate with you. So go away.
”
“What was that?” Ink leaned closer and tilted his head.
“
What?
”
“It’s really hard to understand what you’re saying, did you know that? I think you said I’m being drawn to something. What do you think I’m being drawn to?”
Ink stared up at Error with curious, innocent eyes, and the meroctopus avoided his gaze.
“
You misheard.
”
Ink pouted and glared at the liar. They shared a rare bit of silence between them, and after a moment, Ink had to reach up and rub his eye sockets.
“Huh?”
He hadn’t noticed it before, but every now and then, whether it was just a small patch or his whole self, Error would flicker in and out of view. Sometimes, his posture would change just slightly. The only phenomenon Ink had to compare it to was whatever was wrong with Error’s voice.
“
You’re not uncomfortable sitting there?
” the strange mer asked unprompted.
Ink blinked and replied with the first thing he thought of. “Uh, the sand down here is rough, but it’s not bad, really.”
The meroctopus glanced down at him. “
That isn’t what I meant.
”
Ink’s mouth tugged at the corner and he furrowed his brow. “Then what did you mean?”
“
People usually feel uncomfortable when they’re around me.”
The lamia tipped his head. “Really? If anything, I felt the opposite. But your voice does give me a headache and looking at you is a little dizzying.”
Error held his forehead and sighed. “
That’s called feeling uncomfortable, you idiot.
”
“Oh, come on! That’s not a big deal when you think about it, right?” Ink laughed and playfully patted one of Error’s tentacles. For an instant, Ink watched him shudder in and out of reality, while Error suffered what felt like a few minutes inside of that static hell. When he came back, he snarled.
“
I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH ME! FUCK!
”
Error ripped his tentacle away from Ink and rolled it up under himself. Ink, for his part, was just surprised and confused.
“When?”
“
When you—
” Error stopped. “
You don’t remember. How do you think your hand got broken, dumbass?
”
Ink blinked and his eyelights flashed with understanding. “Ah. In my defense, that was like a whole month ago. But, you know, you didn’t break my hand this time. Are we making progress?”
The proud look vanished from Ink’s face when he felt Error’s threads constricting around his hand.
“Hey, wait—”
Crack!
Ink doubled over and nursed his broken hand, sweating. His eyelights turned green as he quickly started to heal it.
“I can’t believe you broke it again!” Ink hissed.
Error sat nonchalantly looking off into the ocean in the other direction. “
The only reason you aren’t dead is because you’re too sorry to kill.
”
“Don’t you think I’m charming?”
Ink managed to smile through the pain, and he even twisted his tail cutely, but Error didn’t even look, which made him pout again.
“
I think you’re sad, ignorant, and you don’t listen.
” Error pressed off the sand while Ink was still nursing his hand. “
Don’t follow me this time.
”
Ink tried to mark the meroctopus again, but it was deflected by some threads he spread around himself.
“Dang. That’s a lot of lost time,” Ink chuckled bitterly. He focused on healing his hand before swimming off in the direction Error had gone, but he found no trace of the mer.
***
It was another month of searching before the two coincidentally crossed paths again. This time, when Ink found Error, he was in the middle of an encounter with another meroctopus. The stranger had beelined for Error the moment they made eye contact, magic weapon in hand.
“
Fuck off,
” Error said.
The other meroctopus scrunched her eyes at the warped and staticky noise. She looked Error over again, apparently evaluating her chances in a fight, and then left without ever saying anything.
Ink saw Error sigh and turn to go in the opposite direction, and that’s when their eyes locked. The multi-colored octopus grimaced and Ink sent him an enthusiastic wave.
“You’re so hard to find!” Ink called.
“
Oh my gods, go home!
”
“I will if I’m bringing back a little baby lamia~” Ink saw Error grinding his teeth and quickly backpedaled. “Ah haha, just kidding. I think my problem last time was that I rushed it too much. I was thinking we should get to know each other a little better.”
“
Do you not understand what no means?
”
“Haha, sorry, I didn’t catch that. Your voice is doing that thing again~”
“
It always does that!
”
“Missed it again. Anyway, one more time, my name is Ink!” The lamia opened his mouth and expelled a bright pink cloud, which he used his fingers to sweep into a heart shape. “My dad was a meroctopus, and I kept his natural ability to make ink. It’s easy to remember, right?”
Error grumbled something and started drifting away, but he wasn’t going that fast, so Ink just flicked his long tail to keep pace.
“You’re too talkative to be all meroctopus. What was your other parent? Or was it one of your grandparents?”
“
Neither,
” Error grumbled, and kept swimming.
Ink stalled for a moment in the water. Then his eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Hey, does that mean both of your parents were meroctopuses? Or were neither of them meroctopuses? Or was it someone further up the line?”
“
Stars. Neither of them were meroctopuses, alright? There might have been one on my mom’s side, but I wouldn’t know. My mom was—
”
“A lamia! Pink clan!” Ink interjected, beaming.
“
How… Yeah, that’s right.
”
Ink chuckled. “The pink clan is the only clan that could carry someone like you under those circumstances. My pallet clan made most of the other clans, so I know ~all~ about them.” Ink frowned curiously and held his chin. “But if you were born from a lamia, you should be part of their clan. Why are you alone out here?”
“
Hah! That’s a joke, right? You’ve seen what happens when people touch me. How could I live with the pink clan?
”
“Ah.”
Error’s words reminded Ink that the pink clan was very touchy-feely.
“By the way, what was up with that? It looked kind of painful.”
“
Don’t ask.
”
Ink pouted. “Fine. Then what about your father?”
Error hesitated. “
Don’t ask about that either.
”
“They’re a mershark, aren’t they?” Ink folded his arms and nodded to himself.
“
Why a mershark?
”
Ink thought maybe Error was playing dumb with him, but he’d been so straightforward so far that he couldn’t picture it.
“Was I wrong? Mersharks have the best fine magic control, and those strings are ridiculously hard to make. I tried a bit while I was looking for you, but I only came up with a blobby worm thing in the end.”
Ink demonstrated his attempt at making Error’s threads, and it was quite sad to look at. There was no possible use for the inflexible blue lump that formed.
“Obviously, I’m a lamia, so I have some mershark in my ancestry, but that was a few generations ago. I thought you had to be at least half to be that skilled.”
Error looked at the lamia with a hint of respect for the first time. “
You’re wrong, but it was a good guess.
”
Ink smiled proudly and waited for Error to reward his good guess with the actual answer, but the meroctopus swam on silently.
“Hey, wait, so who’s your dad?”
Error stopped swimming and heaved a huge sigh. “
I told you not to ask.
”
“You really won’t tell me?” Ink circled around to the front and peered up at Error’s face. He looked frustrated, but also a bit uncomfortable. It fueled the lamia’s curiosity. “You’re one of the few meroctopuses who actually knows who his parents are, and you won’t even talk about it?” Ink held his chin. “It’s either something really incredible or really disappointing, isn’t it? No matter what kind of monster they were, I promise I won’t laugh.”
“
If you keep being annoying, I’ll leave you behind again.
”
The lamia’s face cramped. “Please no. I can’t lose another month. My clan must think I died down here already.”
Error swam around Ink, but thankfully he was still going slow enough to keep pace with. Ink heaved a sigh of relief.
“Alright, let’s change the subject. I like going up to the surface and painting on the rocks. I also like exploring; seeing new things and meeting new people. Do you have any hobbies like that?”
“
I’m…
” Error chewed his words, apparently thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. “
Just… practicing magic.
”
“Like those strings?”
“
Threads
,” Error corrected. “
Yeah. I want to make something out of them someday.
”
“Like what!”
Ink suddenly sounded much more enthusiastic. Error was slightly taken aback, but at the same time, having an attentive listener made him want to keep talking.
“
Like, uh, a den, I guess. A place where nobody will bother me, and where I can be comfortable.
”
“And you want to make it completely out of magic threads?” Ink asked.
“
Basically, yeah.
”
“Can you make other things with your threads?”
“
Hm.
”
They came upon a sheer cliff face, rising up out of the deep. Error sat down on a natural ledge jutting out from it and conjured some threads from his fingertips. He moved his hands to weave and twist the magic, and after a minute he had a little blue doll shaped like Ink.
Error showed Ink the doll, and the lamia stared at it openly. He held his hands out and made a “gimme” gesture, so Error dropped it for him. Ink held the doll in front of his face and took a deep breath. He exhaled a sudden dense cloud of colors, and then showed off the painted doll to Error proudly. It was a near perfect replica of the lamia himself.
“
In one go, really?
”
Ink puffed his chest up. “Do you know how many lamias there are who can make ink? I need to live up to my name!”
Error looked down at the lamia thoughtfully, but Ink’s cheerful voice penetrated his thoughts.
“Who else do you know? Let’s make them too!”
“
Is this fun for you?
” Error chuckled slightly. Ink’s tail would have crawled if he wasn’t used to the sound of static already.
The lamia nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! I love making things! Isn’t it fun?!”
The meroctopus focused on the doll he was weaving: shaped like himself this time. “
... It’s fun.
”
Together, Ink and Error made a handful of dolls. They made each other, Error’s lamia mother from the pink clan, and an angler mer that had made an impression on Error. Ink had to try several times to get the coloring right on the people he’d never seen before, but he didn’t mind. Finally, Error handed over a doll that wasn’t quite a meroctopus, but the only other thing Ink could imagine it would be was a jellyfish mer.
“Did you imagine this one, or are there jellyfish mer out in the ocean somewhere?”
Ink took it gently and observed it. This doll looked like a female goat mer, but with a jellyfish bell that covered her like a gown. More than a dozen thick, long, lacy tentacles dangled out under the bell.
“
Can you give her white fur and a gold bell?
”
Gold was a hard color to make because it was supposed to sparkle. If it was his magic, Ink wouldn’t be able to do it. The palatte clan hadn’t produced offspring with that color of magic yet. But if it was his ink, he was confident enough to take on any challenge.
“Sure!”
Ink took a deep breath and painted the doll. He tried a few times before the bell shined the way gold should, and then he offered it to Error.
“How’s this?”
The meroctopus took the doll and held it in his lap, staring at it.
“
... This is my dad.
”
By all accounts, Ink should have been thrilled to learn what Error’s other parent was, especially given that it was a kind of mer he’d never seen before, but he was too surprised to react properly. All he could do was stare at the doll and make a dumb noise.
“Eh?”
“
You wanted to know who my dad was. This is her. She’s the goddess of life.
”
“EHHH?!”
“
She and Sky lost the child they tried to have, and they had a huge fight over it. She ran away, and someone from the pink clan somehow found and seduced her. Then I was born.
” Error sighed, “
And
then
my dad and Sky ended their relationship.
”
“Wait wait wait! That sounds tragic and I’m sorry, but can we back up a little?! Gods are real?! Your dad is a god?!”
If that was true, then Ink was going to have children with a half-god! They would be the most incredible children the palette clan had ever had! … And yet the pink clan had beaten them to it by having Error! How vexing! But! Error lived alone out here, not with the pink clan, so it didn’t count!
“
That’s the gist of it. Looks like you believe me, huh?
”
“Of course I believe you. But how come more people don’t know about this? If gods can even have kids with us, why don’t we ever see them around? I want to meet them! Like, all of them!”
“
Just give up on that.
”
“But why?!”
Ink turned to Error with sparkling eyes and his fists clenched in excitement. Error winced at the expression that screamed ‘can’t I?’ at top volume.
“
It’s dangerous. Even I can’t meet my dad face to face safely. How would you?
”
“Well how did your mom do it?”
Error looked down at his lap. “
Luck.
”
He reached for the little magenta lamia doll in the pile and brought it onto his lap with Life. The doll of Error’s mother had a human upper half, with long, curly blue hair, brown skin, and a magenta snake tail. Neither of his parents were skeletons and neither of them were meroctopuses. A god and a mortal who both possessed an incredible ability to create life had simply had fun doing whatever they wanted when they made him.
“
If you see her and don’t die instantly, you become immortal instead. Maybe you could survive if you stuffed that empty soul of yours full of red magic, but even that’s just a maybe.
”
Ink pouted and picked up the Error doll; he felt weird being the only one not holding something.
“Are you immortal?”
“
Basically.
”
Ink hummed. He gazed past the ledge they were sitting on into the dark blue ocean.
“But you can have kids though, right?”
“
Maybe. There’s no way to know for sure.
”
“Of course there is!”
Error glanced down at Ink. The lamia was framing his face with his hands and smiling a sparkly smile. Error looked at that idiot with a flat expression.
“
The world may never know…
”
“Rude!” Ink slouched and folded his arms with a huff. “Hey, aren’t I charming? What gives? How come you won’t pay any attention to me?”
“
Are you really still asking that?
” He set the dolls on his lap back in the pile and glared down at Ink. “
No matter how ‘charming’ you are right now, you’ll leave as soon as you have my children. If I fall for you, I’ll lose you. You people are snakes through and through.
”
Error pushed off of the ledge and started swimming straight down. Ink gathered up all of the dolls in his arms in a panic and followed.
“Error! Error slow down! It’s not like that—I promise!”
“
I don’t believe you.
”
“No, I mean it! Yes, that’s why I came down here, and yes, I want to have amazing, colorful kids with you, but I’m not going to leave after that!”
“
I’ll bet that’s what my mom told my dad, too.
”
“I’m being serious!” Ink had to swim as fast as he could to not lose Error, and he was running short of breath. Still, he protested in between gasps. “I think I really, genuinely like you! I’ve never felt that way about anybody before!”
Error loudly scoffed, “
You don’t like me. Your psychotic clan bred out all of your uniqueness and personality trying to make you compatible with every kind of magic, and now your soul is an empty husk that feels nothing. You’re just drawn to the little spark of creation I have. That’s not love, that’s hunger.
”
“But it’s a real feeling!” Ink screamed. He slowed to a crawl as his tail cramped up. “And it’s my first one! Please, I’ll even let you carry the kids, or we can just not have any—just let me stay with you!”
Ink himself was shocked by what he was saying. How deep had his longing become without him noticing? Was it really because he was empty? Because Error had extra of something that he lacked? Ink was confused, but at least something about his desperate cry had made Error stop swimming.
“
... Do what you want,
” he murmured, and resumed swimming a bit slower.
***
Two years later, Ink and Error were in a half-submerged cave carved into a barren island waiting out a storm. Error was resting with his coal-black cheekbone on his yellow knuckles. He glanced at the lamia working with his rainbow tongue sticking out of his mouth.
“Why are these threads so hard to make?” Ink complained. Between his fingers was a handful of thick, lumpy blue strings.
“
There’s no point practicing that,
” Error chided with a sigh. He had already told Ink a while ago: the threads were a bloodline magic for gods.
“I’m bored!” Ink had climbed up out of the water so that the lapping waves wouldn’t bother him, and he thumped his tail loudly against the stone. The lamia groaned and snuggled up against a rock.
“There’s gotta be a trick to it, right? How can I make them like yours?”
“
Mine aren’t that great either, but it’s impossible for you to even reach my level. There’s no trick, it’s just bloodline.
” Error shrugged. “
You can’t pick your parents.
”
Ink pouted with greater intensity, before abruptly switching to a more wistful mood. His emotions were all simulated with magic; feeling whatever he wanted whenever was a given, as long as he had the magic to spare.
“Do you not get along with your dad? You sound sad every time something brings her up.”
Ink glanced sidelong at Error while asking an invasive question. He saw that the half-god was peering down into the lapping dark waves at the base of the cavern, and so he took the chance to be sneaky. Ink’s eyelights turned yellow, and he hyper-analyzed Error’s body language.
I miss her.
What Error actually said out loud, though, after a moment, was, “
There’s a lot of reasons. It’s complicated. Even without the emotional baggage, it’s hard for me to be around her. It’s incredible that I was born, but I’ve never been completely stable.
”
Ink nodded with his arms folded and his eyelights back to normal. He thought that was pretty obvious, what with the meroctopus’s voice and body that flickered in and out of reality.
Error conjured some blue threads and spread them out to opposite ends of the small cavern for a demonstration.
“
They have these up all the time, reaching everywhere, and they all converge at the source. Just getting close to a god means being tangled up in their magic. They can make way for mortals if they want to, but I’m more sensitive to their power. Just being close is already too much for me, even if they try to be accommodating. I passed out the last time I saw my dad. I don’t know for how long. She hasn’t tried to reach out to me since.
”
“It sounds like you want to get along better,” Ink mused, resting his cheek on his hand.
“
I guess.
”
Ink furrowed his face and pondered for a moment. “Oh! There’s this thing they do on the surface, you know? They tie two metal cylinders together with a string. If you talk into one end, you can hear it on the other. You could make a really long magic string and talk to her that way, don’t’cha think?”
Error turned to look over his shoulder just to give the lamia a disgusted look. “
Are you retarded? How would my threads reach that far? She moves all over the world as she pleases. We’d have to use her threads, and then I’d just end up fuckin’ comatose anyway.
”
Ink blinked with wide eyes and looked slightly bashful. “Erm, maybe it can be done without the string?”
“
If that’s ever the case, maybe I’ll try it,
” Error rolled his eyes.
At the mouth of the cave, the water continued to stir; mild aftershocks of the storm raging outside. It made the inside of the cave cold and humid, and the walls glistened with moisture.
“... Error, are you sure we aren’t soul mates?”
“
You’re not done asking stupid questions yet?
”
Ink blushed and twiddled his fingers. “Well, I mean, I can’t love anybody besides you, right? Because of my clan’s condition, I don’t feel anything for normal people… And courting a god would probably kill me. If you’re the only one for me—that’s basically a soulmate, right?”
The demigod took a deep breath and spoke slowly, trying hard to get his entire meaning across, since this was a serious topic. “
Listen, ‘soulmates’ isn’t just a turn of phrase. It’s a real phenomenon. Don’t just throw it around for fun.
”
“I know, you told me. But is that really not what we have?” Ink lowered his gaze to the floor. “I was happy to leave my clan and my old life behind just to be with you. Everything I ever cared about before seems so
boring
after feeling something real.”
Feeling a bit of pity for the broken soul who had been his only companion for the past two years, Error decided to break the reality down for him slowly. “
Soulmates are two souls that complete each other; that can’t survive alone.
You
would live on even if I died, but my soulmate would die with me.
”
Ink hummed and had an unusually focused look on his face. “You must know a lot about it, huh? How do soulmates come to be, anyway? And how can you tell if a soul has a soulmate?”
Error sighed and laced his yellow fingers, looking down at the writhing water. “
They’re very rare. Sometimes, souls put up a fight when Death comes for them. And rarely, they force him to get serious. Then, they come back to my dad in pieces. Life doesn’t make souls, she only changes them. She doesn’t like wasting any, but the broken pieces can’t become a new person. So, she keeps them. And when she has enough, she puts them all together.
”
“
Those patchwork souls are unstable. In order to let them support each other, Life releases them in matching pairs, close by. If someone dies early for no apparent reason, they probably unknowingly separated from their soulmate. But as long as they’re together, they share Life’s breath. In most cases, you can’t kill one without killing both.
”
Ink frowned. “Is there any way to know for sure? Like a mark or something?”
“
... You can see them breathing Life’s breath into each other when they’re in proximity. And the breath dries up when they’re apart.
”
“Which means…?”
“
Their souls glow when they’re close and shrivel when they’re far away.
”
Ink grinned and took out his pale white soul. “Let’s check!”
Error sighed. “
Like I said, we’re not soulmates.
”
He took out his own soul, a mixture of black, blue, yellow, and red, with a faint golden halo radiating from it.
“It’s glowing!” Ink cheered.
“
Mine always does that. Yours hasn’t changed, see?
”
Ink pouted and put his soul away. “You’re no fun.”
“
And you’re a moron.
” Error sighed and put his soul away. “
If I weren’t a demigod, I would have died early like most soulmates. I’m incomplete too, after all. I just channel enough life magic to force myself to stay alive.
”
Ink furrowed his brow unhappily. “You really don’t have a soulmate, right? Who else could be more perfect for you than I am?!”
Error rolled his eyes. “
I wasn’t born as one of a pair of souls, but conceived on a whim. Of course I don’t have a soulmate. And absolutely nothing about you is perfect.
”
“Nobody is allowed to take my mate!”
“
You never listen to me.
”
Ink grinned, “To be fair, you’re really hard to understand.” He nuzzled his face against the meroctopus’s sternum, and Error winced but didn’t shove him away. It was inconceivable, but he seemed to have grown attuned enough to the lamia that his touch didn’t scatter him to the seven seas. “But I’m the one who listens to you the most, right~?”
The demigod let out a grumble made of static noise. “
Either way, like I said, soulmates are meant to complete each other, but that doesn’t equate to love. Just because your head is attached to your neck, doesn’t mean your head and your neck are in love. It just means they need each other.
”
Ink pouted. “Well why the term soulmates then? It has the word mate in it! It obviously sounds like being lovers, right?!”
“
I dunno. Ask my dad. She’s the one who probably came up with the name.
”
“You can’t even see her, so how am I supposed to?”
“
Dying is one option.
”
“But then how would we spend time together?” Ink blinked up at him with puppy dog eyes.
Error flinched and gently separated their two bodies with his threads, setting the lamia a few feet away. “
If it bothers you, then don’t die.
”
“Haha, do I have a choice?”
The half-god hung his head. “
... Are you an idiot? I said don’t die, so don’t.
”
Ink grinned at the obviously upset mer. “I’ll do my best, but everybody dies! Maybe I can convince your dad to send me back to you in my next life?”
“
...
” It looked like Error wanted to say something, but he didn’t, even as the minutes dragged by and the storm picked up in intensity.
“You make these buzzing sounds when you do that, you know?” Ink drawled, gently patting his log tail against the cave floor.
“
When I do what?
”
“When you’re not sure if you’re gonna say something or not. What is it?”
“
What do you want to do before you die?
”
Ink grinned brightly and held a hand against his sternum. His blank white soul glowed inside of his rib cage. “I want to become more colorful!”
“
Impossible. What else?
”
The lamia pouted and hid his soul again. “Then I want to see more colors.”
Error hummed, an unpleasant, disorienting sound as always. “
Kids, right? You still want them?
”
“I always will, but I fear leaving you and feeling nothing again way more than I want kids.”
The half-god sighed and dragged a hand over his skull. The stormy water lapped at a few of his tentacles.
“
That’s so fucked up. Alright, I’ll make a deal with you. If you accept, I’ll have kids with you, otherwise, I won’t.
”
“I accept!!!”
Error caught the lamia that came leaping at him with pink hearts in his eye sockets in a web made of blue threads.
“
You haven’t heard it yet! It’s messed up, alright? It’s a really fucking bad deal!
”
“Well tell me already,” Ink grumbled while squirming to escape the net.
“I’m going to make a place where nobody can die. When I do, come live there with me. After a hundred years, if you leave that place, time will catch up with you, and you’ll die on the spot. That’s when I’ll have kids with you. Then I’ll know you won’t leave me.”
Ink, still trapped in the web, reached his arms through as far as he could and wiggled them, as if asking for a hug. “I accept~”
“
At least pretend to care about your freedom.
”
“I don’t care about anything~. Having kids and everything else is all just entertainment. But if I can spend an eternity with you, I wonder if I might start to care about things a little? So when is this place going to be ready?”
Error opened his mouth, and his blue, three-pronged tongue extended out and deposited a little blue cube into his hand. The cube appeared to be made from tightly woven threads, smaller than Error had ever made them before, and it glowed with a golden halo.
“
I already made it, bit by bit, over these last two years.
”
Ink looked on curiously enough that he barely caught himself when the threads holding him disappeared. Meanwhile, Error set the little cube on the floor of the cavern. It expanded to fill the whole air pocket in just a heartbeat, and the two mer were pushed back into the water.
“
Obviously, I didn’t make this just to test you. This is my way to make a comfortable place for myself in a world I don’t belong in. I doubt I’ll ever come out again once I go in.
” He looked seriously at the wide-eyed, if confused, lamia. “
Last chance. Are you coming with me?
”
Ink tipped his head and smiled at Error. “Won’t you miss me if I don’t come? You’re in love with me, aren’t you?”
Error’s coal-black cheeks glowed a cool blue. “
Yeah, I one-sidedly fell in love with an annoying idiot who can’t love anything. I’m going to make your life in there miserable to get back at you for that. Even so, are you coming?
”
Ink smiled with all the colors of the rainbow and then some. “Even misery sounds fun. I hope you can make me feel it. And love too, someday.”
The half-god blushed brighter and approached the cube. He passed through it without resistance, and Ink followed right behind him.
On the inside was an endless, featureless white void.
“Hahaha, I hate it already~”
***
-One Hundred Years Later-
The limbo that Error and Ink lived in hadn’t changed much. Ink regularly slithered around decorating it, but the white surfaces returned to normal as time passed.
Error didn’t phase in and out of reality there, and he could handle a bit of touch, but never too much. There was no risk of him destabilizing there, but it still made him panic. His voice still echoed, but at least all the words always came in the right order, which made him much easier to understand.
Ink believed he had changed. The faceless feeling he had for Error was more like affection now, though the demigod regularly reminded him that he still didn’t come close to returning his feelings. He was looking forward to how his soul might develop over aeons spent with Life’s only son.
But a bored, emotionless creature like Ink was naturally someone who lived in the present, and he hadn’t forgotten Error’s promise. When the century was up, he made sure he got his dues.
They decided to have each other’s children, as even Error became interested in kids when he saw Ink’s pregnancy progressing. Their timing happened to be good, and both babies were born on the same day.
Ink gave birth to a lamia with a golden soul, and Error to a meroctopus with a black soul. Technically, both of them were part lamia (and whatever genetic cocktail that involved) and part god.
“As expected of the palette clan!” Ink cheered. “Two new colors! Yes! This is the biggest result since the pink clan was born! Do you think they’ll go on to make their own clans?!”
“
As long as they’re stable, unlike me,
” Error murmured, watching jealously as a tiny tail and tentacles wrapped around Ink’s fingers.
Never had forcing the children to live in this limbo been part of the deal. In fact:
“
They won’t age if they stay here. We need to take them outside if they’re gonna grow up.
”
Ink made a shocked face. “I’m going to miss all of their firsts?! No way! Let’s just keep them as babies forever.”
“
You can go outside.
”
“Psh, as seafoam maybe.”
“
No, as you are now. I lied. You don’t age while you’re in here, and there’s no such thing as time catching up to you when you leave.
”
“I still like the idea of keeping them tiny and cute forever~”
“
Not even a thought of leaving, huh?
”
“Of course not! I’m gonna need way more time in here if I want to feel strong emotions like love and hate. And obviously, you have to be here too.”
“
But that’s no life for these guys.
” Error gently stroked the hand-sized Lamia’s white skull. It stared at him with unfocused gold eyes. “
They’re more mortal than god. Maybe they can get along with their clan.
”
Ink looked at Error and hummed. “You’re super possessive of me, so I thought you would want to keep them close by.” Error didn’t answer right away, so Ink just shrugged. “Well then, what do you want to do with them? Go outside and raise them for a few years? Drop them off with my clan?”
“
First, let’s see how they handle the outside. If they’re like me, we won’t be able to let them meet others much.
”
For the first time in a hundred years, Ink and Error went outside of Error’s box. The cave had gotten a bit wider and a bit deeper in the years they’d been hidden away, as the frequent waves wore away at the rocks. Aside from that, it was hard to tell if anything was really different.
The two demigod babies didn’t seem to have any trouble regulating themselves in the world. Their mortal and divine natures were stable, and their tiny whimpering voices only sounded the slightest bit distant.
“
Looks like they’ll be fine,
” Error breathed in relief. The distortion in his voice was far more noticeable than it had been for their last century inside of the Error’s box, and Ink saw him flickering in and out of view. The sound of static constantly droned off of him.
“Wow, that looks uncomfortable.”
“
Dad must have been monitoring this place. I can feel her magic still.
” The half-god held his skull. “
I have a headache.
”
“Hey, before you have your episode, what should we do about the kids?”
Error’s destabilization intensified abruptly, and Ink thought he almost heard a bell-like voice coming from somewhere; the kind of beautiful sound that you would happily walk off a cliff to hear just a little clearer. The half-god’s eyelights were unfocused and he was sweating buckets of gold magic. Ink noticed with some dissatisfaction that his baby’s soul color was duller than whatever fragment of divinity Error had.
Speaking of the meroctopus, his episode passed, and he gathered himself up enough to say a few words.
“
Dad called me. She says she already gifted them a fate, so leave them to her and go back to having fun inside.
”
“Hm. Should we?”
“
I don’t know. I can’t think right now.
”
Error crawled back into the box, leaving Ink alone with the children. He soon shrugged, set them down on the cave floor, and went to join his mate.
When all in the cave had gone quiet, two imperceptibly thin golden threads wrapped up the children and took them away.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I… am a prime specimen… of the strongest species on Earth…
Black tried desperately to console himself as he melted in the summer heat. Maybe it was to balance out the especially cold winter they had this year, but this summer was blazing hot.
Aside from baby Dust, who was only the size of Red’s hand at three weeks old, Black was the smallest meroctopus in the school. He was, admittedly, now the second biggest kid in the school, but was he really big enough for the heat to hit him this hard?
He was a little jealous of a mershark’s ability to just maintain one internal temperature all year round. Axe and Crooks were enviably cold to the touch in this miserable weather.
Blackberry rolled his head one way against the sand. Spread out in the shade alongside him (with some distance for cooling purposes) were Stretch and Red. Rolling his head the other way, Blueberry was entertaining himself by digging holes in the sand.
Black blinked and furrowed his brow in confusion. Blue wasn’t burrowing—that didn’t even make sense. How overheated was he? From the slightly panicked smile on his twin’s face, it was obvious he was searching for something in the sand.
“Did you drop something?” Black asked him.
“Huh?” Blue straightened his back and tried to show his brother a reassuring face. “N-no, uh. I’m just—”
There was an audible crunching sound from under the sand. Suddenly, Blue bucked up. A tiny, ghost-like meroctopus was briefly visible clinging to the base of his tail by its pointy teeth. Rather than allow himself to be shaken off, Dust teleported away, leaving Blue flushed and panting from frustration.
“Quit playing with me you little sh—”
“Show some class,” Black groaned.
“Oh! Ehh, mweheh, sorry~ It isn’t easy watching him alone, you know? And the heat has me just a little bit cranky.”
Blue also had a hard time keeping cool in the summer (since, unlike a full mermaid, he was warm-blooded), but it obviously wasn’t as bad as what the meroctopuses went through, considering how energetic he still was.
The electric blue mermaid suddenly snapped his gaze back down at the sand and speared his hands at a certain spot, then a different spot, and then again, before clicking his tongue.
“I can feel him down there, but he teleports before I can catch him.”
“You shouldn’t let him know you’ve spotted him, then he won’t be able to run,” said a third voice.
Blue jumped when the new presence suddenly appeared behind him. Black was startled too, but all he could do was lift his head slightly. It dropped back onto the sand immediately when he identified the interloper as a friend.
Crooks was already caging the youngest meroctopus with one spindly hand, calmly pulling the child out of a small dune.
“Hi Crooks! I thought you were inside?”
“I came out to check on these three,” Crooks nodded at the three overheated meroctopuses. “The temperature spiked quite unexpectedly, so Toriel and I were worried about them. How are you three, by the way?”
“This… is nothing,” Blackberry said, magic sweat dripping past his drowsy eyes.
“Dying,” Red grumbled. He closed his eyes on the sight of his mate swimming playfully in the summer water and vanished, leaving behind a guilty, “Sorry, Angel.”
Stretch glanced at the empty spot where his mother was a second ago and took a deep breath.
“You know what? Fuck this shit.” And he too, in a miracle born from sheer desperation, learned how to teleport.
Both of them were miles away, enjoying the blessings of Edge’s air conditioning.
“Curses. Why can’t I do that?”
Weaklings. I have outlasted the both of you.
Black was too spent to notice that his internal and external monologues had traded places.
“So,” Blue said to Crooks, “Looks like Axe taught you how to keep Dust from disappearing.”
Crooks smiled down at the littlest meroctopus, who attempted to spray pale blue ink in his face. It didn’t reach due to how long the shark’s stick-thin arms were. “Yes. He regrets that he wasn’t able to teach the rest of you as well.”
“I haven’t given up,” Black muttered.
“Mweheh. It was too hard for me. Why is stopping teleportation even harder than teleporting? Not that I can do either yet…” Blue’s own words made him realize something. “Hey, Crooks, couldn’t you and Axe teleport? It should be easy for you, right?”
“Well, but that would be such a waste,” the mershark smiled uncomfortably. “Axe and I prefer to be efficient with our magic.”
“But you’re not starving anymore. You can use as much magic as you want!”
“No, I couldn’t bear to.” Crooks quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, do you suppose those two went to the surface? We should let them know to pick up some groceries on the way back.”
“Tell them to buy ice,” Black groaned.
***
For Rus, it was normal to have giant octopus monsters teleport into his home. He wasn’t startled by such a thing. In fact, he was happy, because he was friends with one of those monsters.
“You’re sopping wet! How could you teleport from the ocean straight onto the couch?!”
“Haha, sorry, it was my first time,” Stretch laughed lazily. He seemed unwilling, but he crawled off of the couch to join Red on the kitchen tiles.
Rus hesitated to go over, since his mother seemed angry, but he found some courage after Edge vanished into the cleaning closet. Rus’s father was simply shaking his head while smiling a bit.
“I’ll go get the mop.”
Now the coast was clear, and Rus trotted over to his friend with a couple of stuffed animals in his arms. He was too excited to play with a friend, and he slipped on the wet floor.
Fortunately, Stretch was paying attention to the little guy, and he easily leaned forward to catch and steady him before he could fall.
“Hey, Rus. How’ve you been?”
“G-good,” the soon-to-be second grader whispered. He glanced at Red who was already crawling toward the corner to give the kids some space. Rus still seemed a little bit scared of Red, after all.
But Rus was scared of all adults. He was scared of most children too. The insanely shy kid even had a little bit of trouble with the ever-approachable Sans, but for whatever reason, he got along with Stretch.
Rus himself didn’t think too much about it. He just liked Stretch.
Stretch liked Rus too, but… it just felt a little strange playing with “friends your own age” when the mental and emotional gap was so huge. The oldest hybrid mer had already overtaken the older kids in the school in maturity, and they now felt like kids to him. He really got along better with adults at this point, and “playing” with Rus felt more like babysitting.
“Wanna play with me?” Rus held one of the stuffed animals out to Stretch, who took it casually.
“Sure. You can start.”
“Okay!”
Rus began setting a scene. Apparently, these stuffed animals were doctors today. Stretch followed his lead, and they acted out an increasingly intricate game of pretend.
Stretch got his sense of what "normal" childhood was like from watching Rus. When Stretch was little, the mermaid kids were already a bit older and had moved on to more physical games, but they apparently used to play house and such too. Blue had graduated immediately to physical games, since his body developed faster than his brain, it seemed.
As for the meroctopus kids who matured the fastest, there wasn’t time for anything but animal instinct before suddenly they were rapidly growing up. Stretch didn’t feel like he’d ever really had a childhood, per say. Not that it bothered him.
“Okay,” Rus said seriously, “the unicorn monster’s horn is fixed, but one of the nurses slipped and cut its wing off!”
“Oh no, we already used all the magic glue on the horn,” Stretch grinned subtly.
“No, I have another bottle.” Rus mimed pulling something out of a breast pocket. “It’s wing is healed!” he declared. “But it needs to rest before it can fly again.”
Playing pretend could get really mentally taxing, but Stretch was happy to do it for as long as it kept him air conditioned. And, like he said, he liked Rus, so he didn’t mind playing with him and acting his age for a little bit.
***
-Two Weeks Ago-
“You wanna what?” Hit, sitting in a café while waiting for his breakfast, tipped his head, his phone held up against the side of his skull.
Axe’s deep, gravely voice came back through the speaker, “I wanna get into an online college.”
The mobster pinched his nasal ridge and sighed in a quiet enough way that his phone wouldn’t pick it up.
“I mean, I can get you a scholarship, sure, but it ain’t like you want a degree so you can get a job up here, right? What's the point?”
“I want access ta their scholastic databases,” Axe replied dryly.
“I could just get you whatever papers you wanna read, y’know?”
“Nah. Dis’s gonna take a while. S' better if I make my own contacts.”
Hit wondered just what in the hell this fish was planning, but it was often better not to know.
“Fine. But I ain’t too keen on throwin’ around favors if they’re gonna go to waste. If you can get your GED, I’ll get you into whatever college you want.”
“GED…” Hit heard the faint sounds of bony fingertips tapping on a screen, and Axe hummed. “An exam dat counts as a high school diploma… Sure, dat’s fine. I’ll call ya back when I’m ready to take it.”
“Alright. Later, coz.” Hit hung up and tipped his hat down, picking up his coffee and taking a sip. The city view outside the window was bustling already.
Hope that guy ain’t gettin’ full of himself now that his head’s fixed. Must feel great, but it’d suck if he ended up disappointed…
-One Week Ago-
While Hit was sitting in a hotel room, in the middle of a trip to a family business branch in another city, his phone rang. Axe’s voice came through the moment he answered it. “M' ready. Sign me up fer the exam.”
Hit took his cigar out of his mouth and exhaled a cloud of dark red smoke. “Coz, are you sure you don’t wanna study more first?”
"M' ready.”
“Fine.” Sometimes, stubborn people had to fail in order to learn. Either Axe would be like that, or by some miracle he would actually pass. Hit didn’t bother too much more about it and just found a place to sit down and open his laptop.
“This website ain’t compatible with phones yet, ‘cause we live in the fuckin’ dark ages, so I’ll fill it out for you,” he said, sending a quick text over to Alpha to prepare some falsified personal info for the shark. “Stay on the line in case I got questions.”
Hit scanned the form and entered the data Alpha sent back to him almost immediately.
“Alright, age. How old’re you?”
“M’ cursed,” Axe answered, before correcting himself with the more typical shallow water answer. “… I mean, m’ an adult.”
Hit tipped his skull. “Cursed? Adult? That ain’t an age, coz. I need it in years.”
The sound of Axe humming came over the phone speaker. “Crooks, how many years old are we?”
“Oh dear,” the other mershark was also apparently nearby, Hit noted. “There wasn’t any day-night cycle back home, and I don’t know how regularly we slept. I’ll need to calculate it starting from the seconds. Could you give me some time to recall? And Axe, if you could help me with the math...”
“Sure bro.” Axe said to Hit, “I’ll call ya back.”
“Uh, yeah. You can just make somethin’ up if you want. It doesn't have to be perfect.”
Axe hung up, and Hit went to filling out other fields in the meantime. He had to save the form, since the shark didn’t call back right away. Several hours later, after he'd showered and was about to hit the sack, Hit finally got a call from Axe.
“We’re twenty-six,” he said without any preamble. “Birthday’s July 2nd.”
In the background, Hit heard Crooks whining, “Gods, Axe, we’re
ancient
. Our mother was
half
our age when we ate her, you know.”
Hit stared at his phone for a good minute, wondering what in hell’s snowy backyard he just heard
.
“Twenty-six… got it. That’s all I needed. You need a laptop to take the test, so come to the usual beach tomorrow. I'll send one over.”
“Mm. Thanks.”
And the next day, Hit got an email forwarded by Axe. He’d passed the test and gotten his GED. Hit stared at that notice, blinking and rubbing his eye sockets as if to clear up his vision.
How the hell… that fish never even went to kindergarten. How’d he pass a high school exam a week after havin' brain surgery?
Feeling numb, but oddly proud of his new cousin, Hit replied back with a link to the student portal of the college Axe wanted to join, along with a note that he could still join in on some summer classes if he hurried.
-Present-
Just after checking his email, Hit pulled out his phone and called Axe.
“‘Sup?” the shark drawled, sounding as drowsy and careless as ever.
“The hell did you just email me?” Hit pressed him. “Whadaya mean you wanna enroll in another school? What’s wrong with the one you’s in now?”
“Hm? Nothin’. Dey jus’ won’t let me take more credits—ain’t enough teachers. I wanna transfer some over from another school and start my sophomore classes in da fall.”
Hit quickly calmed down when he realized that Axe didn’t want to leave his current college. But still…
“Alright, I get it now. But why’re you rushing so much?”
“I got a lot ta do.”
Hit could feel him shrugging on the other end of the line.
“Yeah, no. Not this time, coz. You better give me a good reason, ‘cause I don't want you taking on too much and failing ‘cause of it.”
There was a stretch of silence on the other end, before Axe muttered. “M’kay, Crooks can’t hear me from here. Basically, somethin’ fucked up my bro’s life when we were kids, an’ I’m tryin’ ta figure out what so I can beat the livin’ shit outta it.”
Hit hummed. “Okay, now you’re talkin’ my language. From what I see, though, you’s already takin’ a roundabout approach if you’s using academic documents to look for leads. I still think you’s rushin’ too much.”
“Yeah, well,” Axe lowered his voice, even if he was supposedly somewhere where nobody would hear what he was saying, “thing is, I got no idea how long our species lives fer.”
Hit blinked. “Uh…”
“Crooks n’ me are twice as old as our parents when dey died. Fuckin’ old as dirt by mershark standards. Dere was someone older than us in our old school b’fore we left it, but I dunno how
much
older she was. Coulda been jus’ a couple years. ‘Sides, Crooks n’ me are messed up. S’ probably safe ta figure we won’t live as long as a normal mershark.”
Hit frowned. “I’m turnin’ thirty this year, coz. Twenty-six ain’t old. My pops is fifty-seven, n’ he's as lively as ever.”
“Good fer him,” Axe replied. “Anyway, just get me into a second college. If I fuck up, I’ll jus’ make it up ta ya later.”
Hit sighed. “I’ll seriously put you on some dirty jobs if ya fuck this up. You’s lucky I’m so soft.”
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, whatever. Take care of yourself, coz.” Hit hung and rolled his eyes while texting Alpha.
***
Back at the den,
Toriel was resting in one of the community rooms when she heard giggling of all things from the den’s entrance.
“Hello~? Anybody home~?”
“Can we come in? We don’t bite~”
The two voices she heard were certainly unfamiliar to her, but she got up anyway and swam over to at least greet them.
Toriel paused in the entryway and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh my.”
The two strangers were both skeleton mer (which her school seemed to be attracting somehow). They were quite beautiful, actually, with pristine white bones in perfect proportions for their body types. However, their tails were long and serpentine, and it had been a
long
time since Toriel had encountered a Lamia.
One of the strangers, the more petite one, had violet magic, while the taller, lithe one had unusual pink magic.
“Hiya!” The petite violet lamia waved playfully. “The weather was nice, so we decided to take a peek up north~”
The lithe pink lamia smiled warmly. “I’m Charm, and this is my brother Lust. It’s nice to meet you~”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The tropical seas down by the equator kept pretty warm all year round. There was an abundance of small, tropical islands that were too little and far out for humans or surface monsters to bother settling. On a warm, sunny beach on one of those islands, several dozen lamias with sleek, colorful tails were hanging around, vapidly gossiping. “Right, right?” A rabbit with a pink tail and fur held a hand to his cheek, sighing. “I think I’m getting old. I had to try three times before that last clutch took off. I was at it for, like, six hours. He was hot, but not six hours hot.”“Hahaha, that’s the bad thing about meroctopuses,” a fish mer with purple eyes and a yellow spotted snake tail replied. “Well, besides everything else about them, I mean, haha.”A dog mer with sleek blue fur and purple magic folded her hands under her chin and leaned in toward the fish mer. “If you loosened up a little, I think you’d find a huge positive to meroctopuses, if you feel me.”“Hahaha, slut,” the fish just laughed at the dog. “You only care about size, that’s what makes you such a bitch~ I don’t think wrestling my mate into submission is any fun, you know?”“Such a prude~!” The dog lamia laughed. “You’ll run out of lamias to sleep with if you don’t learn to experiment.”“Girls, stop being bitches,” the rabbit laughed. “If you want to see a prude and a slut, we all know just where to find them~”He swayed his body pointedly up the beach, where there were two skeleton lamia. The older brother had just finished playing with another lamia, while the younger brother—that gorgeous, sexy, flexible pink bitch—was innocently petting a turtle he found on the beach. The dog lamia snorted. “What? Mr. Anybody's Fine and Mr. Nobody's Good Enough?”“They are sooo grooooss,” the fish lamia whined. “How dare Charm be that sexy and just quit?!”“Agreed,” the rabbit nodded firmly. “And Lust is the worst. He doesn’t want to have kids just because it means he won’t be able to sleep around for a few months? We’re the Pink Clan! Come on!”“Let’s stop with them,” the dog mer rolled her eyes. “I’m with Candy, it’s been harder to be a proper Pink lately. What gives? There’s no way we’re that old yet. Look at me!” She posed herself on the sand, and the fish mer rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, bitch, your body is just fine. Take a look at history if you’ve got more than one brain cell left. Unique magic is super hard to control, and how long has it been since we split with the Palette Clan?”“You mean…?” The dog lamia looked at her friend sharply. “We need some shark tail,” the rabbit mused with an intense gaze. “Um, but like, the last couple who tried to find some either didn’t see any or didn’t come back, right? Regular sharks are dangerous already, I can’t imagine a mershark. Are they even real?”“We should send a huge group and go gang bang them,” the dog joked with a super straight face. “Oh my god, shut up~!” the fish lamia whined. “I don’t really care, to be honest. Sure, it’s a little harder to have mixed clutches these days, but nobody else fucking can but us, so, like, whatever bitches.”The trio all laughed together. Meanwhile, Charm spoke up to his flushed and panting older brother. “Look, he likes it. I told you their shells can feel.”Lust waved goodbye to his latest partner and slithered up to his brother. He too tried giving the small creature a gentle pat. “Really? I’ll keep that in mind if I merturtles are ever discovered~”Charm chuckled. “Anyway, are you done yet?”“Never~! But I could take a little break at this point, I guess. Are you still sure you want to do this? We could end up stranded if the weather changes for the worse.”The younger lamia looked down at the turtle and stroked the back of its head with his thumb. Its beady black eyes seemed comfortable. “I’m just… really sick of this place and the way everyone looks at me. Are you sure you want to come with me, Lust?”“I’ll seriously change my mind if you keep asking.”Charm smiled slightly. “Thanks. Let’s go then.”The two brothers slid into the water and quickly swam north while the others from their Clan were occupied. Charm was leaving to escape the scornful and predatory gazes of his Clan; that was all this trip could really amount to. But he let himself daydream a little about finding true love on this adventure. He would have to return after summer was over, though…They swam for a very long time, only stopping for short breaks and meals. Lust helped the journey go faster by strengthening their bodies with purple magic. The few times they ran into dangerous sea life, Charm used the unique pink magic he had inherited from their Clan to convince them to leave the brothers alone. Between the two of them, this major endeavor became rather manageable, and soon they were entering mermaid territory. ***Naturally, the lamia brothers stopped at the first den they saw in the southern-most portion of the mermaids’ territory. It was a simple, dome-like construction, but there was a lovely tropical garden built in the yard. It seemed like nobody was around at the moment though. “Maybe your soulmate is here~” Lust teased his brother. Charm rolled his eyes. “Quit it; I don't have a soulmate. We swam all night. Let’s see if they’ll let us rest here.”“Fine~! But if they look interesting we’re gonna stick around for a little bit.”Lust and his brother called out greetings at the entrance, and an old goat mer showed up, looking quite surprised to see them. “... Well, it is nice to meet you as well. I am Toriel, co-founder of this school. It has been a very long time since I last saw a Lamia.”“Well, yeah, it’s been a while since it was warm like this,” Lust excused. Any of the lamias with some meroctopus in their genes could handle a little cold, if they really wanted to… But the neogenics program was on a forced stop now, and the Pink Clan was already pushing it by being promiscuous with the kinds of mer that could be found in their climate. Nobody wanted the Palette clan to get all bitchy again. “Could we come in and rest a little? We swam a long way.” Charm winked at the old woman. No matter how restrained he acted these days, he had still learned all of his body language and mannerisms from the Pink Clan. Toriel was an old goat, though, and she considered herself immune to the charms of youngsters. She smiled back easily, “Our school is a little unorthodox, but they are all good people. You are welcome to come inside and rest.”Toriel led the two lamias into the nearest community room, where Sans was resting on the couch after having swam around a lot in the morning, and where Geno was teaching Chara and Frisk some magic theory. Those two were the oldest children in the school, and their magic was growing a lot now that they were so close to maturity. Geno couldn’t use weaker magic, but he knew a lot about it, so he was teaching them. Geno and the kids looked curiously at the sudden arrivals, while Sans peeked an eye open just to glance at them. “Everyone,” Toriel announced, “we have guests, so be on your best behavior. This is Charm and Lust. They are on a trip and asked to rest here for a while.”Geno raised an eyebrow but went back to teaching. Lust took his time looking over everyone in the room. While he would naturally be called petite thanks to his beautiful doll-like features, the red and blue skeleton mermaids here seemed to suit the word “small” instead. And the blue one was chubby, not that there was anything wrong with being either of those things in his opinion. Interestingly, the kids were human mer; technically monsters, but they usually didn’t get along well with others. “Nice to meet you~” Charm greeted them all brightly. “Sorry to intrude. We won’t stay too long. Unless you want us to~” Lust said playfully with a finger on his chin. “Well what do you know?” Sans chuckled. He didn’t bother to sit up properly while speaking. “Pink Clan Lamias, huh? Make yourselves at home, I guess, just be careful. There’s some people here who you shouldn’t mess with.”“We’ll be careful~” Charm promised. “Wait here,” Toriel told the lamias. “I will go and get the others so they can meet you as well.”She swam deeper into the den. Meanwhile, the kids’ lesson resumed. “So does it matter what shape you make the barrier?” Chara asked. “As long as it’s a flat barrier, no. Square, circle, triangle; take your pick.” After answering, Geno shifted his gaze to the space next to him and frowned. “Shut up, I’m getting to that. This is just a basic lesson, you know? Anyway,” the attack mage faced the children again. “When you start to get the hang of it, you’ll probably settle on either a circle or a hexagon, so it wouldn’t be bad to focus on those while you’re practicing.” Geno looked to his side again, frowning. “Like I said, this is a basic lesson. It’d overwhelm them if we told them all that.”Geno's facial expression morphed into surprise as if he’d just been told something new, and then he quickly looked at the two lamias who were awkwardly watching him “talk to himself”. “You seem a little stressed,” Charm said soothingly. “You should relax more~”“I know a few good positions for relieving tension~” Lust added. “I’m—no, I was talking to someone, you just can’t see him!” He looked to the side again and hissed, “Don’t laugh! This is your fault!”Geno wasn’t given the chance to explain himself (or to dig his grave deeper), as Toriel returned with Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Asriel, MK, and Crooks. “Red and Stretch are still on land,” Toriel said, “Black is taking a nap while he cools off, and Axe is busy studying, but this is everyone else.”Toriel politely introduced Lust and Charm to everyone one by one, but the two lamias couldn’t tear their eyes away from Crooks the whole time. It’s obvious from his tail, Lust thought. So this is a mershark? I never knew they were so big, Charm mused, and, pardon me, ugly. “Is there something on my face?” Crooks smiled awkwardly and asked. He figured he could pretty much guess why they were staring, but this was a polite way to ask them to stop. “Not yet~” Lust muttered, so Charm elbowed him hard in the ribs. The poor lamia teared up and doubled over, trembling quietly. Charm replied to the shy shark. “Sorry, big boy~. Mersharks come up in our history a lot, but this is the first time we’ve seen one.”“Really?” Crooks looked surprised. “I wouldn't have guessed that. Our old school didn’t talk much about the past.”“Our?” Lust choked, barely recovered. “Oh, forgive me. I’m speaking for my brother and I. My brother is Axe, the one with his skull buried in his books in another room.” Two mersharks , the lamia brothers marveled. After having heard of them only in stories, suddenly there were multiple of them right here in this den. It felt bizarre. “Oh. Well, nice to meet everybody. My brother and I are lamias from the Pink Clan,” Charm finally introduced himself to the rest of the mer monsters. “Clan?” Alphys wondered. “It’s like a school, but bigger,” Lust explained, standing up straight again, and stretching limberly for good measure. “Or, like a mermaid council, but united by blood. Our Pink Clan is the only lamia Clan where monsters with pink magic are born.” Lust gestured toward his brother, who smiled sweetly. “What can pink magic do?” Crooks asked, knowing (thanks to Axe telling him so) that when he blushed his cheeks turned pink. It was a hitherto unknown magic color to him that he couldn’t make use of, but he should have some affinity for it--assuming that, possibly, it wasn't just a color in the chromatic sense, but a true color of magic. “It lets you influence the emotions of people around you. People like you more and are less likely to fight you. Also, having kids is super easy.” Lust bragged for his brother, who smiled bashfully. “On the other hand, just using pink magic makes you worse at fighting. It’s my natural magic color, so I can’t even use offensive magic.”“I see. Thank you for explaining.” Crooks felt silly for expecting anything. There was no way he had a power like that, and even if he could obtain it, how worthless it would be for him. Suddenly, another voice came from down the hall. “I said I was going to take a nap, and you know I’m a light sleeper. Who is chattering so incessantly?”Black swam around the corner. His needle-thin pupils took in the situation in under a heartbeat, and his pseudo battle-ready posture relaxed. “Hoh? And who are our guests?”Charm covered his mouth and accidentally blurted out, “A half, here ?”Black frowned and folded his arms. “Oh? Good guess; I'm half mermaid. How did you know?”Lust folded his arms behind his head and replied as if it were obvious. “Because full blooded meroctopuses don’t talk, duh.”“Nonsense. My mother talks all the time.”“Then maybe you’re actually a quarter,” Lust smirked and teased. Over on the couch, Sans raised a bony brow, wondering how the lamias were so confidently incorrect. But, eh, he was just the mate of a full blooded meroctopus. Who was he to butt in?Black simply tilted his chin up and glared at the sassy little creature. “Question my heritage again and you'll wish I was merciful enough to have that much mermaid blood.”Lust grinned and took hold of Charm’s shoulders, pulling himself closer to whisper something. Charm blinked and whispered something back, then put his hand against his brother’s face and pushed him away.“It’s not like we want to start a fight,” Charm said. “But we’ve seen a lot of meroctopuses and they only talked when they had to, so it’s a little hard to believe. Does your mom live here too?”“Yes, he does.”Lust shrugged and peered at Black with one eye lazily open, “He’s deeeefinitely a half~”Before Black could do anything, Charm had already pulled his brother into a slightly vicious headlock.“I’m sorry~. My brother is an idiot and an attention whore~. It’s fine if you just stop listening to him.” Lust clearly tried to choke out some words, but Charm refused to loosen his grip. He glared down at the smaller lamia and spoke quietly. “We swam a long way. I’m tired. I want to rest. Don’t get us kicked out already.”“Hey, I think he’s gonna pass out,” Undyne warned uncomfortably. “He’s fine~” Charm smiled. “He can go a looong time without breathing. He’s way sturdier than he looks. Right?”Lust managed to force his hand between his neck and Charm’s arm, and made enough room to get a little air.“Bro, when it’s you choking me, it’s really not that fun.” … I should have come alone, Charm despaired.He released his brother and folded his arms in a huff. “Whatever. First impressions are already ruined anyway.” The lamia lolled his neck, resting one hand on his hip, and gesticulating with the other. “Basically, I needed a break from the Clan because everyone there wants to fuck me like a damn piñata, and it's just not fun anymore. Lust is cool, so he came with me, but he can’t go an hour without getting his brains bonked out. I had some vain hopes of doing some fresh dating up north for the summer, but the slut’s out of the onesie. Either way, I’d really appreciate a patch of sand to sleep on for the night, out of the open.”“I’d rather have a bed,” Lust winked, “so if one of you wants to share~...”Charm didn’t punish his brother this time. He was too busy pouting.“... Y’all are weird,” MK said, breaking the silence.Alphys only then realized that her child was floating there listening to all that, and she gasped. “Sweetie! Let’s go play with mommy somewhere else, okay?” And she dragged him deeper into the den. “But why, mom?” he groaned as he was dragged off by the spikes on his head.“... I’m sorry, in what way were my people ever involved with you?” Crooks asked helplessly.Lust swam closer and slowly ran a finger down the mershark’s sternum. “Do you want a little demonstration~?”Crooks’ whole face flushed pink, and Charm rested his cheek on his hand. “Oh? That’s a pretty good look actually.”Black looked at the two lamias in disdain. “You both are going to die, and I’m not even going to try to save you.”“What, because of this cute thing~?” Lust hummed. “No way~”“'Cause of his brother, morons,” Axe growled.Nobody could say when he arrived. By the time anyone noticed him, Axe was looming behind Lust, looking more like a specter of death than Death did, floating invisibly next to Geno. Lust became aware of the presence behind him and the huge rough hand grasping his skull at the same time. He was allowed just enough time and freedom to turn his head and see the furious red rings peering down at him before the pain came.The magic blood in Axe's grasping hand started to flow pink, and he tried out exactly what the lamias had described earlier (their voices had carried to the other community room quite easily). Specifically, he wanted to experiment with the manipulating emotions part. Axe could tell when he used the pink magic this way that this wasn’t quite what it was for, but it was better in this situation than any of the standard colors, which had little hope of ever affecting a monster’s mind.Visually, nothing much was happening, but Lust was sweating and shaking. As much as Axe understood it, he was pouring “fear” into the whore who touched his brother without permission. Shortly after, a small hiccup escaped the lamia’s lips, and he passed out.“Is he dead?” Chara asked.Axe let go of the serpentine monster, who floated helplessly in the water. “Nah, but Crooks, if ya want me ta finish the job, just say so.”The flustered mershark clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. So Axe shrugged.Charm carefully approached to retrieve his brother, and his pink soul felt something. Putting a little magic into his eyes, on a hunch, he saw phantom images of the souls of the monsters around him, and two of them had a faintly glowing aura. “O-oh…” he murmured. But Charm focused on Lust for the moment, pulling him away from the angry soulmate of the mershark they’d been lightly teasing. “Sorry. We don’t have a lot of boundaries where we’re from. He didn’t mean anything except to check if your brother was interested. Lust is a moron, but he does know what no means.”Axe tipped his head and bored his eyes into the remaining lamia. “Dere’s a sayin’: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. We’re in mermaid territory. If I can keep it t’gether, ya can damn well do the same. Any more unwanted funny business wit’ my bro, we’ll take dis outside. Comprende?”Lust swallowed and nodded.“Alright, I was in da middle of an exam, so I’m goin’ back now.” Axe turned his tail and silently left the room. On his way out, he snagged Dust out from behind a potted anemone and tossed him to Black. The meroctopus glared at his younger sibling, who had robbed him of the potential of resuming his nap.Once Axe was clear from view, he held a hand over his chest. His soul was settling down now that Crooks wasn’t so terribly uncomfortable anymore. Now he could study in peace. With any luck, those damn weirdos would get themselves rested and be gone by morning.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As if it had passed through a current of cold water, Lust’s consciousness jump-started itself, and he woke up. It was dark. He was lying on a bed of kelp next to his brother in the same room he’d passed out in. For some reason, they weren’t using the empty piece of bed-like furniture a few feet away.
Reaching over, Lust shook Charm awake. The younger lamia resisted at first, then snapped awake with wide eyes.
“You’re awake! How are you feeling?!”
“Like I narrowly escaped death,” Lust smiled wearily. “My hands are still shaking, haha.”
Charm screwed his face up and hugged his brother tightly.
“That guy conjured up the creepiest-looking pink magic I’ve ever seen and shoved it directly into your head. I was so worried.”
Lust hugged back and patted Charm’s back. “Don’t worry, bro. You know pink magic is lousy at hurting people. I’m not sure I’d call that an attack, per say.”
“Then what would you call it?!” Charm whispered harshly, unwilling to ruin the sleep of the insane shark who dared to use pink magic to hurt someone, or
the other thing
that had arrived not long after.
Lust hummed and rolled his eyelights up toward the ceiling. No light was shining through the holes up there at the moment. “Like a really intense night with an ‘S’.”
Charm grimaced. He was happy Lust seemed to be handling this well, but he didn’t want his brother to get any more involved with such a dangerous mer than they already were. At times like this, he really had to look out for Lust’s masochistic inclinations.
Charm grabbed his brother’s horny face by the cheeks and glared intensely at him. “He doesn’t want you to be his toy; he wants you dead. Snap out of it.”
Lust blinked and pulled Charm’s hand away pretty easily. “You seem kinda tense, bro. Did something happen after I passed out?”
The younger lamia lowered his head and nodded, taking his arm back to hug himself since he suddenly felt cold.
“You remember the meroctopus from last night? With the attitude? His mom came back. That thing was
not
a half.”
“Eh? Did it actually talk like the brat said?”
“It greeted its mate, but that’s not the point. That thing was as big as those mersharks.”
“No way!” Lust gasped. The brat from yesterday was usually about as big as wild mersharks got. They had to constantly fight for their lives, after all, so that was usually where they reached their equilibrium for nutrient intake versus energy expenditure.
Charm nodded, looking grim. “It had red magic and was covered in battle scars. I panicked and used my magic defensively on a reflex, but it just shrugged it off and glared at me. I couldn’t charm it.”
It wasn’t often, but there were creatures that could resist pink magic. Sometimes they were sociopaths who were incapable of positive emotions. Other times, they were beings with incredible emotional strength, or they were pink magic users themselves. No matter what the reason was, Charm had to face the reality that he couldn’t defend himself against possibly the most dangerous creature in this already dangerous school. And he realized that at a time when his brother, who was the one between the two of them who could hold his own in a physical fight, was unconscious.
He had been pretty stressed for the past couple hours. It was amazing he had been able to sleep, and only because that monster’s mate had given him some encouragement that ‘Red’ wouldn’t hurt him.
Charm was still too anxious to use the furniture that belonged to that monster’s mate, but the lanky mershark had kindly brought out some extra bedding and assured him that Lust wasn’t physically hurt, just having a nightmare.
Lust saw how tense his brother still looked and patted him on the shoulder.
“Well, having too much sex is a problem exclusive to our Clan, you know. Did you think there wouldn’t be different problems outside? Survival’s a pretty common one.”
“How are you so relaxed about all this?” Charm sighed.
Lust winked and gave a thumbs up with his free hand. “I’m busy using all my brain power on how to have the most fun that I can~”
“Jeez,” Charm snorted a little laugh. “Well, I’m wide awake now. Do you want to hear something interesting I saw?”
“Obviously!” Lust’s eyes glittered.
“The two mersharks are soulmates,” Charm told him. “But with the way that creepy one reacted, I think they might be more than that. Mates, maybe?”
Lust blinked. He’d joked about soulmates during the swim north, as if they were destined lovers, but, “That’s weird,” he frowned. “Who actually gets into a relationship with their soulmate? That’s practically just masturbation—no, narcissism? Incest?”
“Whatever else it is, it’s definitely incest,” Charm pointed out. “They’re brothers.”
Lust held his arms and shivered. For him, his close family members were just about the only sentient creatures he
didn’t
find sexually attractive.
“Uh, to each their own? Not my kink though...”
“I could be wrong,” Charm shrugged. “He could just be super overprotective. But anyway, you mentioned fun earlier. Do you have any ideas?”
Lust blinked and leaned in with a mischievous face. “I figured you’d ask me if we could leave right away. Do
you
have any fun ideas?”
Charm shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to die, but I liked how innocent the lanky one was. You never see that type back home. Not to mention he has some pink in him.”
Lust covered his mouth and giggled. “Great, I’ll leave him to you since you’re hard to satisfy. For me, um, basically all of the grumpy ones look like they could ride someone pretty hard. I’m not sure if the brat is an adult yet, but if he is, a tentacle sandwich between him and his mom would be something.”
Charm flushed and dragged a hand down his face. “After yesterday, you’re still trying to get yourself killed?”
“Okay okay, I’ll start off just a teeny bit easier. How about I keep the creepy one busy for you?”
“I’m convinced! You’re trying to die!”
“Haha, I’ll be careful though~?”
The nightmares Lust had had were full of things like sensory deprivation, neglect, restricted movement, and physical abuse (by his interpretation). He saw a great deal of potential in Axe as a dominator. Of course, usually a certain level of trust was required before stepping into risky lovemaking like that, but Lust’s body, mind, and magic were very well trained, and he was confident he wouldn’t break to just about anything.
A hot breath escaped his mouth along with a long purple tongue that playfully licked his cheek. His lavender eyelights had morphed into pinprick hearts.
“From what I heard yesterday, he’s usually alone in his room too. Isn’t it perfect?”
Lust stared at his brother. It seemed like there wasn’t any way to talk him out of this anymore. And now a tinge of color spread over Charm’s face as well, and a wily smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Since the path was clear, why
shouldn’t
he try approaching the gentle giant?
The two lamias had trouble getting back to sleep until morning, and they were out cold when the rest of the school was starting their day.
***
Axe and Crooks were two of the first people up, and Axe found his brother in the kitchen, getting everything ready to make breakfast before Toriel arrived.
“Mornin’,” Axe muttered.
“Good morning, Axe,” Crooks replied, gently sliding a sleeping Dust out of a mixing bowl and setting him on the countertop. “Say, what exactly did you try to do to that lamia yesterday? My diagnostics gathered the results, but, well, not the intention.” Crooks asked with a furrowed brow.
Axe made a face of remembrance as he sat down at the table. “Ah, dat. I put ‘fear’ into his head. Mostly just scenes from the deep, like runin’ outta food or bein’ hunted n’ eaten. They talked about magic that could mess with people’s heads and told me what color it was, so I just took a stab at it. Think I missed the mark on dis one, since it was my first time. He might coulda died if it didn’t go well, but probably the ‘fear’ part of things just got dialed lower than I wanted. Felt da magic fightin’ me on dat.”
“Just checking, but are you going to be like that with every person who comes onto me?”
“I’d like ta say no… But dat partly depends on how ya react when it happens.”
“W-well, I
was
quite uncomfortable, so thank you for getting him off of me.”
“Dey left yet?”
Crooks rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you don’t smell them in the community room.”
“Wishful thinkin’.”
Around this time, Toriel entered the kitchen, offering a bright smile to the mershark brothers. “Ah, good morning you—” A tiny, ghostlike creature zipped past her face fast enough to leave a current that tousled her fur. “—two. Was that Dust?”
“Ya woke him up,” Axe chuckled.
“I suppose he will come back when the food is ready.”
The old goat went to the food storage to pick out what they would be cooking this morning.
***
Not long after, the whole school was gathering for breakfast while their guests were still napping in the community room. They didn’t wake the lamias up just yet because they wanted a chance to privately discuss some things.
“We shovin’ ‘em out before or after breakfast?” Axe drolled.
Undyne smirked at the mershark. “Maybe we’ll keep them. They seem way more harmless than the people we usually let in.”
Axe held his index finger and thumb together and showed three raised bony fingers. “Dat’s three people ya insulted tryna get at me. Come on. It ain’t my past or da things I do now dat ya don’t like, so quit holdin’ ‘em against me. Just say ya hate my personality.”
“I
hate
your personality,” she replied, gnashing her sharp teeth.
“I am glad you two are working some things out,” Asgore interrupted, smiling pleasantly, “but perhaps we should focus on what to do with our guests. So far, Axe would like them to leave and Undyne would like them to stay. Could you both share your reasoning?”
“Dey made Crooks uncomfortable.”
“I kinda just wanted to piss off Axe. I don’t even know if they want to stay here.”
Asgore smiled and nodded, and Toriel spoke up. “Well, let us hear what everybody else thinks. Crooks?”
The mershark straightened his curved spine a bit as if he was startled to have been called on. “I, um… as long as they keep their hands to themselves from now on, I would feel bad kicking them out.”
“… Fine,” Axe said. “Change my vote ta that.”
Crooks could have whatever he wanted, and if things turned sideways, Axe would just deal with it for him.
“You are such a simp,” Chara chuckled from across the table.
“An’ yer a troll,” Axe countered.
“Wow, you actually know what that means?” The mermaid nudged Frisk and laughed. The silent mermaid smiled and chuckled.
“Been on da internet a while now, so yeah.”
“What’s a simp?” Crooks asked his brother, who stared at him with a perfectly neutral expression. Most of the school, in fact, seemed to not know.
“… S’ just name callin’. Don’t look it up, bro.” Axe said slowly.
Meanwhile, Alphys had already searched the term on her phone and was covering her mouth, unsure whether she should laugh.
“Ahem.” Toriel cleared her throat to get everybody back on track again. “Red, what do you think we should do with our guests?”
“… Whatever Angel says.”
“And there’s the other simp,” Chara chuckled.
“Sans?” Toriel called, about to give up on keeping the kids in line.
“I’m with Crooks. As long as they behave, they can stay as long as they need to. But, just so everybody knows, the Pink Clan has way different cultural boundaries than any of us do. A lot of things they do or say that are casual for them seem, uh, intimate to us. If they do something wrong, there’s a good chance they don’t know any better. Try not to be too hard on them and just tell them to back off. Use words, okay?” He glanced at several particular members of the school while saying so.
They continued taking everybody’s votes, and they eventually reached a consensus. As long as the lamias behaved and wanted to stay, they could stay. Once that was settled, Toriel went to wake up their guests for breakfast.
“Wow~,” Charm gasped. “This is delicious!”
“I’m glad you think so,” Crooks answered politely.
“You cook~? Everybody likes a cook, you know?”
“W-well, my specialty is green magic. I’m a healer.”
“Wow, a homemaker huh? That’s way more important than people think. I only know enough to get by, but you’re an expert~”
The pink lamia leaned closer to Crooks than he was perfectly comfortable with, but he just kept offering compliments, so Crooks was happier than not.
Axe, on the other hand, was seething while staring at them.
“Hey~ ya gonna eat that?” An annoying voice came from Axe’s side, and he saw the purple lamia attempting to swipe a bit of his breakfast.
Axe immediately used that little thief to redirect some of his frustration, stabbing his fork into the table between the lamia’s fingers with sweat-inducing precision.
“Yeah, I am. Keep yer hands off.”
“I only need to keep them off the food, right~?”
“If dat hand touches
anythin’
it ain’t supposed ta, it’s comin’ off.”
“Ooh~ scary. I wonder what you’re gonna use my hand for once you have it~? I'm pretty sure I can use it better, though.”
“And quit sayin’ shit like that.”
“What kinds of things do you want me to say?”
“Don’t say anythin’. I want ya ta keep yer dirty mouth shut.”
“Really~? Well…” Lust blushed and curled his tail, “I can be quiet too, if that’s what you like~.”
Throughout this weird breakfast, Red was pretty calm. He and Sans were being left alone, so they were in their own little world, eating breakfast together. But aside from those two, the rest were more or less focusing on filtering out all of the strange things they were hearing.
Finally, when all the food was gone, they finally got a chance to ask what the lamias wanted to do. Apparently they wanted to stay a little longer, and they “promised to behave”. As if.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It had already been a few days since Lust had held a partner, and he was itching to get back into the game. His first target, since he knew Charm was actually
interested
in someone for the first time in years, was the obstacle standing between Charm and Crooks.
Well, it was more like they were the bastards trying to slither on in, but eh. The sharks would have a good time too, so did it really matter?
The convenient thing was that Axe went to isolate himself in his room to study. Lust often found that people outside his clan weren’t comfortable with making love out in the open where people could watch.
He slipped away from the rest of the school and found Axe’s room, peeking his smiling face into the doorway.
“Ohh~ You have a big bed. Nice~”
Axe didn’t set down his phone. He was scanning the screen, attentively reading something.
“M’ busy. Go away.”
Lust pouted, “But I need help with something~”
He sounded genuine enough for Axe to sigh and look up from his phone.
“What?”
Lust swam closer, his cheeks flushed violet and his eyelights as soft as the smile on his face. “I need someone to help me feel good~ Don’t you wanna hold me?”
Axe scoffed and set his phone down on his bed, freeing his hands in case this little whore kept pushing it. “Too bad, I ain’t in heat. Now scram.”
Lust smiled wryly and waved his hand, a little fluffy burst of pink magic coming from his fingertips. Axe felt something in his body change, and he wasn’t young enough anymore to not understand what it was. With a wave of his hand, this overbearing lamia had put him into heat.
“There shouldn’t be any problem now, right?”
Axe growled and held the creature back by his skull when he tried to swim closer. “‘Course dere’s a problem. I don’t love ya. Don’t like ya. Don’t even know ya.”
Lust let his eye sockets narrow seductively. “You don’t have to. I’m not competing for your affection here. All I need is a ‘yes’, you know~? Then we can both have a very good time~”
The lamia’s tail was long, and he’d reached to Axe’s tail and started petting it teasingly. Unfortunately, Axe didn’t have any resistance to this sort of thing, and his mating organs quickly manifested.
“Oh wow~” Lust’s eyelights had morphed into hearts. “I can’t believe it’s even bigger than I thought it’d be.” He flailed and reached with his arms, but Axe was still holding him back. “It’s too selfish to keep something that good to yourself~ Come on, that’s a yes, right~?”
Axe did a quick mental size comparison and frowned. “Are ya a masochist? Even if I letcha get yer slimy tail close, ya couldn’t take me.”
Lust stopped flailing for a moment to press a finger to his teeth. “You’d be surprised by what I can take~” Axe glared at him flatly, and Lust chuckled. “Well, if you’re that worried, you could always adjust its size a little~”
“I could what?”
“Have you never tried it?” Lust gave the hand that was holding his skull a sympathetic pat. “Oh, you poor, neglected thing. There’s a limit, but any monster can adjust the size of
that
a little.”
“Good ta know, but I still ain’t gonna do it wit’cha. For da record, no, it ain’t a ‘yes’. It just showed up on its own.”
“Wow~, really! How innocent are you? Aw, but I could teach you so much. Maybe you like someone else? That’s fine! Like I said, I don’t want that kind of love~. I can help teach you, though~ Wouldn’t you want to make your lover feel good over and over? I know how~”
“I ain’t got a lover, and I ain’t interested in ya. Get rid of dis magic already.”
Lust laughed. “Pshh! Haha! No lover? As if~. Why else wouldn’t you be driving that thing into me by now? Hey, just use me like a tool~ Then it’ll go away on its own~. I’m sure I’ll feel better than your hands.”
Axe shifted his grip down, held the lamia by his neck—gentle enough that he wasn’t hurt, but firmly enough that it was uncomfortable—and slammed him into the wall.
“Still no. Make it go away.”
Lust groaned suggestively and blinked his eyes to refocus them. They had morphed into hearts after the impact, but he returned them to circles. “Geez~ I’m trying to, but you won’t let me. Seriously? You really won’t say yes?”
Axe squeezed the lamia’s neck slightly tighter and glared, but somehow Lust just tipped his head and stared curiously.
“I really won’t make it go away. That’s unhealthy. If you really won’t use me to deal with it, then figure it out yourself, I guess. You really don’t wanna have fun?”
Axe clicked his tongue and tossed the lamia toward the door.
“Then fuckin’ leave. And don’t bother people no more. One no should be enough.”
“Hm~” Lust pouted and coiled his tail under him. “I thought you were playing hard to get. I thought you were asking me to put you in heat earlier and then just teasing me a bit. We should’ve decided on a safe word before starting. How does ‘Melon’ sound?”
“Are ya fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Axe ran a hand down his face and thought back to Sans’s warning. He wasn’t kidding about lamias having different boundaries. They were skin-tight, for fuck’s sake.
“Kidding, no. Fucking, whenever you change your mind, big boy~”
Axe groaned. Now, because of this idiot, he had physical needs to deal with. Man, every time… Axe hated every time he had to do this shit alone. Crooks got put in a bad mood every time it happened. Better not let him know.
Ugh, but he’ll know even if I try to hide it. He’ll smell it on me. Fuck, I don’t wanna make him upset.
“Hey, I thought it over. Just make it go away with magic. I don’t care if it hurts or is unhealthy or whatever. My bro will be sad n’ pissed if he smells anythin’ weird on me.”
Lust put a finger to his chin. “So you and your bro are lovers? That’s why you wouldn’t take me?”
“No, we’re not,” Axe half sighed half spat. “Jus’ deal with dis stupid magic already.”
“Hey, hey, relax,” Lust raised his hands. “This is a shame-free zone.”
“We’re not together.”
Lust peered at Axe’s faintly sullen expression and tipped his head. “Do you love him?”
“Yeah.”
“Ohh~” the lamia got up off the floor, his eyes excited. “That’s cool. I've never been in love. He doesn’t love you back though, huh?”
Lust removed his magic. It hurt a bit, so Axe winced, but his body went back to normal. He shook his head.
“He loves me. But he hates himself.”
“Really? Then you should just hook up.”
Axe smiled a bit. Somehow, the little predator looked pretty innocent and naïve right now, so he gave him a little pat on the head.
“It ain’t dat simple, kid.”
“I am not a kid!” Lust looked greatly offended. “I’m petite, but I’m already twenty-two years old. I’m
very
mature and experienced!” He folded his arms tightly and stuck his tongue out.
“Twenty-two years? Shit, yer almost as ancient as I am.”
“I’m young!!”
Axe raised a brow. “If ya say so… But lamias measure age in years, huh? I guess if ya measured by number of offspring ya’d be really damn ancient.”
Lust noticeably went a bit pale and quickly changed the subject. “A-anyway, love huh? My bro is into that kinda thing, actually. He didn’t really fit in back home…” the lamia’s eyes widened and he paled again, shooting a nervous look up at the mershark.
“U-uh… So, my bro isn’t as forward as I am. He’s really more of a romantic, you know? He’s also more delicate than I am. So, uh, don’t be mad, since they’re probably just talking, but he mentioned wanting to get to know your brother a little more.”
The lamia shivered when he looked up and saw nothing but darkness in Axe’s eye sockets. The mershark started swimming toward the door. On instinct, Lust reached out and grabbed his arm. With the help of purple magic, he was actually able to hold the giant back.
“Please! Don’t hurt him! You can be mad, I get why you would be, but my bro couldn’t hurt a fly! He’s just lonely…”
Axe turned to look at the lamia, his eyelights lit once again. The little purple snake seemed determined and genuinely concerned for his brother. And, truly, Axe could sense that Crooks wasn’t in any distress. He was a bit down, but if they really were just talking…
Axe sighed. “I won’t take yer bro from ya, so don’t take mine.”
Lust blinked and quietly released Axe’s arm. Then he suddenly frowned. “Hey, wait, I know I said this is a shame-free zone here, but ew! Gag! My bro and I are
not
a thing! He doesn’t even
like
sex—” Lust clamped a hand over his mouth and quickly started mumbling through it with his head down “as… much as… I… do… I mean…”
Axe raised a brow and turned toward the door again. “None of my business.”
“Um—!” Lust reached out to grab Axe’s arm again, looking worried, but stopped.
“I used to have memory problems ‘cause of a head injury,” the shark interrupted. “I’ll jus’ act like I didn’t hear dat.”
Lust lowered his head. “…Thanks.”
Finally, Axe swam off to check on Crooks.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Charm noticed Lust swimming off on his own and realized that his path was clear. Hiding a smile, he swam off to find the lanky, innocent mershark and get some alone time with him. Charm hadn’t been here long, but he already noticed that Crooks kept on the move, always somewhere or other inside the den, doing some kind of chore. He searched a few places before finding him organizing the food pantry. No one else was in the kitchen, but just in case, Charm left a little pink barrier in the doorway to encourage any passersby to let them have their privacy. “Hey Crooks,” the lamia waved and smiled pleasantly. “Oh! One moment, I’m nearly done here.”“Take your time~”Charm looked around the empty kitchen. He spotted a pair of glowing red eyes peering at him from behind a stack of plates and startled. Looking from side to side, he quickly tried to grab the baby meroctopus, but it dodged his hand, bit his finger, and darted out into the hallway. “Ouch!” Charm winced and held his finger. Those were blunt teeth, but the creature had bit him as hard as it could. Crooks came out from behind the curtain that separated the kitchen from the pantry. “Charm? Are you alright?”The lamia looked up and quickly put on a more amiable expression. “There was a baby meroctopus hiding over there. It bit me.”“That would be Dust,” Crooks sighed, swimming closer, “Red and Sans’s youngest. Let me see that.”Remembering that Crooks was a healer, Charm held out his hand. The mershark’s fingers were thin but very long; his hand easily encased the lamia’s, and green light radiated out. The cut was completely gone when Crooks took his hands away. “There. Now is there anything else you need me for?”“Did you finish in the pantry?”“I have, yes. I was nearly done when you arrived.”Charm smiled warmly. “In that case, would you like to have a seat and chat with me for a bit?”“Well… alright.” Crooks sat at the table and smiled awkwardly. “Actually, Toriel and Undyne are always telling me to take more breaks.”“Why don’t you?” Charm asked. “There are other people here who can help, and this den isn’t that big.” He laughed lightly, “They might get bored if you do their work for them.”“Yes, so I’ve been told,” Crooks’ smile relaxed a bit. “But I like distracting myself with work and filling my time. Now is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?”“Well… let’s just take it slow.”Charm started off with casual talk. He tested the waters, beginning to understand Crooks and his relationship with the rest of the school, and he told Crooks some simple things about himself as well. For example, Charm learned that Crooks had a perfect memory. He learned that they were the only two mersharks who knew how to come to the shallows, and that Axe had recently recovered from a traumatic head injury thanks to Crooks. “I wouldn’t say it was ‘in exchange’, but it’s thanks to Axe that my teeth were fixed,” Crooks told him. “He’s always been taking care of me, so I’m glad I got to return the favor somehow.”“You sound close,” Charm said. “Well, we spent our whole lives together. I would say we’re rather close. What about you and your brother? I get the feeling the two of you are rather close as well.”“Yeah, he’s a good brother. He’s the only other person from my clutch that sticks with me, even if he doesn’t really get me. Plus, it’s nice having someone around who doesn’t want to fuck me.”Crooks’ smile stiffened slightly, and Charm frowned. “Sorry, was that ‘vulgar’ too?”“W-well… it’s not as bad as the last few.”Throughout their chat, Crooks had kindly pointed out several of the colloquialisms Charm used that were considered inappropriate here, and the lamia was doing his best to filter his language. “Alright… So, this is a shame-free zone, alright? Neither of us should kink-shame the other, okay?”“Alright,” Crooks nodded. “I would’ve respected your… personal tastes even if you hadn’t said so.”“Great,” Charm smiled in relief. “So, are you and your brother mates?”“No!” Crooks replied instantly, clenching his hands in his lap. “No, never, that would be wrong. We are nothing of the sort.”Internally, Charm was relieved, but he put up a casual front. “Hey, hey, shame-free zone, remember? Some people are like that, and it isn’t any of my business. Let’s not throw salt their way either, m’kay?”The shark settled down, still looking rather uncomfortable. “I… suppose.”“Cool, so, um, my turn.” Charm swallowed and breathed slowly to try and slow down his soul pulse. “I want to fall in love someday.”The mershark tilted his head. “Is… that a ‘kink’? That sounds fairly normal to me.”“I want to fall in love romantically.”“Alright.”“I… don’t want to physically love anybody else.”“Besides your mate?”“Including my mate.”Charm felt his soul pounding in his chest, and the silence in the room dragged on. “I’m confused,” Crooks said. “Why would you mate with someone if you aren’t going to have children with them?”“You’re the one who brought up mates,” Charm murmured. “I don’t need more kids. I could have them, but I don’t want to. I just don’t think sex is fun. I’ve done it before—a lot—and people tell me I’m good at it, but I just… don’t like it. People tell me you’re supposed to feel a certain way when you make love, but I just don’t.”“There are people who don’t like mating?” Crooks seemed a bit confused still, but also intrigued. At least he wasn’t judging. “Not in the Pink Clan,” Charm scoffed. “Lust says maybe I’ll like it if I do it with somebody I like. Maybe I will, but I’m not expecting it.”“I see… Frankly, it still sounds like just the opposite of a ‘kink’.”Charm slouched forward and propped his cheek on his palm, tracing circles on the table with his free hand. “Pink magic practically exists for having kids,” Charm sighed. “And my clan puts a lot of emphasis on that. They expected a lot from me, since I have a pink soul. I tried to fit in, you know? I learned all the right skills and participated. I’ve had six clutches, thirty-two kids—”“Dear gods!” Crooks exclaimed. Charm smiled wryly at his shocked expression. “Finally I just had to face reality. I hated it. I was never going to be able to enjoy it. I was happier when I stopped faking it, but people treated me worse. So it might as well be an ugly kink.”“How did you raise that many children?” Near the end, thirty-two was close to the number of people in Crooks’ whole school. He couldn’t imagine that many children being born by one monster. “Well, I didn’t,” Charm shrugged. “They get send off to the Palette Clan. The ones that are sent back to us are raised by the old people in the clan. There are so many kids there, there’s no way I’d be able to tell which are mine.”“Ha,” Crooks couldn’t help but let slip a baffled chuckle, “haha… That’s incredible…” The mershark held his hands in his lap, wringing them, and hung his head. “… I can’t have kids.”Charm raised a brow. “Every monster can have kids.”“No, I…” Crooks tried to breathe deeply, though his chest felt tight, and sighed. “There was no food in the Deep where we lived. The different mershark schools started to hunt each other for food, so we became isolated. There weren’t many skeleton mer in our school either. I don’t know much history, but at best, our grandparents were the last two.”Charm sat up straighter, his arm still fixed in a vertical position, though he wasn’t using it as a prop anymore. “You mean…?”Crooks smiled sadly. “They did what they had to do. And so did our parents. And we would’ve too…” fat pink tears started floating out of Crooks’s sunken eye sockets. “Axe’s body is healthy, but mine is just cobbled together. I have problems that no healer can fix—trust me, I’m the best there is. But because Axe and I are the way we are, our species is going to end with us.”“Y…” Charm looked across the table with eyes full of worry. “You could use your souls…”“You’re the expert, Charm. Would that child live? Would it be healthy?”Charm met Crooks’s smiling, hopeless eyes, but Crooks saw the guilt and pity there. He snorted a tiny laugh. “I figured.”Charm stared down at his lap. His fists were trembling, and his soul felt heavy with guilt. It was his first time meeting a person like Crooks who couldn’t have kids even if they wanted to. The Pink Clan were perfect child bearers. They could turn impossible matchups into a reality, and even birth beings that had never been seen in the world before. Charm had a perfectly pink soul. He could ensure that any child was born as healthy as possible. Again, his soul churned with guilt. Charm may just have been the perfect person to help this innocent victim of circumstances… but he didn’t want to. And Lust, the second best person available, wanted children even less than Charm did. “I…”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I’m sorry, I—”“It’s fine,” Crooks cut Charm off. “I don’t expect you to do anything. I'm a lost cause, but maybe you can help me with Axe.”“You’re… brother?” Charm slowly came out of his daze. “Oh, that’s right. Why can’t he have kids?”Crooks smiled bitterly. “Because he loves me. I love him too, but I can’t stand the pressure of ruining his life and ending our species. I can’t have that on my shoulders. Can you help him find someone else?”Charm stared at Crooks with wide eyes. He needed time to process this information. Axe was in love with Crooks? So in love that he didn’t care about sex or having kids, even if it ended their species. And Crooks loved Axe, so much that he wanted Charm to help his brother find someone more perfect to love. Charm slowly lowered his head, staring at the edge of the table with wide, frozen eyes.
That’s… I really do… want something like what they have.
True love, so this was what it looked like. It was amazing. Charm felt his soul squeezing in his chest.
And I was going to try stealing Crooks from Axe. It was never possible.
Charm realized that he wasn’t going to find true love for himself here, but that wasn’t so bad. He could watch two people who were truly in love, and surely it would be easier for him to find it for himself later. Crooks’ request to help split them up? There was no way he could accept it. If anything, he wanted to help tear down the worldly barriers standing between them. Who knew Lust’s stupid joke on the swim up here would almost turn out to be true. There was a pair of soulmates here, and they were each other’s true love. “Um, Charm?” Crooks looked curiously at the lamia. His face was lowered, but Crooks could see that it was glowing pink enough to be luminescent. There was even a hot pink soul visible faintly in Charm’s chest. “Will you think about my request?”The lamia lifted his head, suppressing the look of secondhand love on his face as much as he could. “Crooks, I—!”The thin pink barrier suddenly broke. Someone had utterly ignored its distracting charm effect and crushed it, and that person was Axe. Charm looked at him excitedly for a second, then he noticed the cold look on the shark’s face. Suddenly, he remembered what this person had done to Lust the previous night, and he realized how it might look if he and Crooks were alone together.
He’s furious, isn’t he?
Charm broke out into a cold sweat and got up from his seat, quickly backing away from the dangerous mershark. “Hey now, I know you’re soulmates and in love, and I know how this looks, so I get that you’re mad, but I swear I wasn’t gonna do anything to him. We were just talking.” Charm said. That term felt… important, so Axe paused long enough to ask about it. “Soul-what?”“Wait, do you not know?!” Charm was shocked. “The two of you are soulmates!”Axe stared at the lamia, processing, and Crooks flushed. “I-I assure you we are not mates. I told you so earlier.”“No,” Charm pressed forward seriously, “Soulmates aren’t lovers—they’re… Sometimes they’re called paired souls or twinned souls. There’s usually nothing romantic about it. Soulmates have to stay close to each other or else they’ll die; their lives are tied together.”“That…” Crooks frowned. “It sounds like nonsense. Axe and I have been apart before, and we both still felt fine the whole time. Besides, how would you know?”“How long were you apart for? And how far away were you?”“Several miles away,” Crooks pondered. “For about a day.”“That’s not far enough and not for long enough to notice a difference,” Charm shook his head. “And what do you mean by ‘we both’? Sure, someone who trained their instinct can read a person’s magic and body language when they’re close by, but normally you can’t know what someone else is feeling when they’re far away. Of course, soulmates can tell because their souls are linked.” Charm’s eyes started glowing hot pink. “I know because I can see that sort of thing with magic. Your souls both have a faint aura around them. They should start glowing if you take them out together.”Crooks still looked like he was resisting this knowledge. Axe, who had been sitting quietly, spoke up with a question. Charm was just glad that the atmosphere didn’t feel nearly as dangerous as he had imagined it did a moment ago, and he took a few calming breaths. “M’ jus’ askin’ ta make sure I get it. What happens if one soulmate dies?”“It’s not easy to kill just one soulmate,” the lamia explained. “They share their life force, so it’s like killing two people; one normally fatal injury might not be enough. On the other hand, if one soulmate did die, the other would die too a little bit later.”Axe’s piercing gaze lowered slightly, and he held his face with trembling hands. “This is ridiculous,” Crooks muttered. “This… how common is this… condition?”“It’s not common at all; it’s super rare.” Charm sighed and readjusted his tail coiled under him. “I’m amazed you lived your whole lives without splitting up for more than a day, even though you didn’t know you were soulmates.”“Well, we were just beginning to live our own lives,” Crooks sighed. “I guess we’ll have to be careful with that.” He glanced at his brother who was apparently in shock. “Axe, are you alright?”The other shark flinched and looked up at his brother, before turning away and clamping a hand over his mouth, as if to resist hurling. Axe had been getting into fights and going on dangerous hunts since he was young. There was no shortage of times he had come close to death. His fight with Emperia was the most dangerous by far, but even more recently, he had nearly killed himself to make sure Crooks could get into this school. That was fine when it was just his life on the line, but he could have killed his brother that day without even realizing he was doing it. “I think I’m gonna throw up,” he murmured. Never before had he felt stressed enough for his stomach to go weak, but reflecting on his past recklessness made him sick to his soul. “Hey, you just have to keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Charm said in a comforting voice. “It’s not good news, but it shouldn’t be that hard.”Axe shook his head and then startled himself with a realization. Right, the most important thing right now (always) was… He locked eyes with Crooks. “Bro, I’m sorry. I took a lot of risks—a lot of ‘em. I didn’t know I could drag ya down with me. I mean, I wasn’t ever tryin’ ta get myself killed, since I didn’t wanna leave ya alone, but it might be… da things I did… were a lot more dangerous than I thought. M’ sorry.”Crooks’ small eye sockets widened and went dark with frustration. “You,” he spat, “are you kidding me? Now you feel bad about putting your life in danger? I’m the one who’s always felt bad that you had to protect me! If anything, I'd be glad if somehow I helped you survive those situations.”Axe hung his head. “I jus’ felt like I could do anythin’ s’ long as you were safe… The thought dat I came dis close ta hurtin’ ya… kinda undermines everythin’ I’ve lived fer.”Charm looked back and forth between the two brothers, his soul fluttering in his chest. Again, his face burned pink, his eyelights adoring little hearts. “How romantic~!” he practically squeed.Crooks shot the lamia a quick glare and turned back to Axe. “Well, it is what it is, and we can’t change the past. I’m glad since it sounds like you’ll value your life more from now on.”Axe looked at his brother and his expression soon relaxed. My life is Crooks’ life, huh? Yeah, of course. The flip side was that Crooks might someday be saved from a fatal injury as long as Axe existed. He had put his brother in danger before, but he was also protecting him just by existing. And now, even if Crooks went off and found a mate besides him, they would still always be together. Axe turned to look at the lamia, who seemed… possibly ill. “Anythin’ else we should know ‘bout bein’ soulmates?”Charm hurriedly fixed his expression and tapped his chin in thought. “Hm. If your souls start looking shrively, it means you’re too far apart or you’ve been apart for too long. It should heal as you get closer to each other. Besides that, uh… The link between your souls is like a stronger version of the link that forms during soulbonding, which is why you can sort of tell what’s going on with each other from far away.”“Wha’s soulbonding?” Axe asked. “Just a little link between two souls so that they can understand each other better~ Some surface monsters make them with their mates. It only works up close, except when the synergy between the two souls is really good.”Axe nodded. “I heard dat before we joined dis school, Sans’s mate once “felt” dat he was feelin’ sad from miles away n’ came right over. Are dey soulmates too? Or soulbonded?”Charm blinked and held his cheek. “It didn’t look like they were soulmates, but I guess I could go check again later. If they haven’t always been together, then they probably just have a really in-sync soulbond.” Wh-what if… what if that mermaid and meroctopus are in love? Charm thought, flushing yet again. His face was so overheated, he fanned his face with his hand, trying to cool down just a little. A meroctopus in love? Is it possible? Could that be why he’s tolerating living in a school?! Charm was so terrified of Red upon their first meeting (and thereafter) that he did everything possible not to focus on the absolute unit of terror. Maybe he was missing something amazing!Crooks shyly raised his hand. “I’ve thought of a question. How did we become soulmates? I… we didn’t do anything… intimate.”“Sweetie, you were born as soulmates,” Charm smiled softly, still fanning his face. He was about ready to pass out, which was pretty impressive for a hot-water creature like a lamia. Charm felt his vision blurring just a bit. “No matter how many times you did or “didn’t” sleep with each other, it wouldn’t change a thing about that~”“The number of times was zero!” the healer insisted. “Mhm~!” Charm beamed and nodded, and then he legitimately passed out. It was very sudden, and Crooks hurriedly swam over to check on him. “… He overheated,” the healer muttered, glancing at Axe with a perplexed expression. Axe shrugged. “Maybe jus’ let him sleep it off.”“That might be best,” Crooks nodded, holding a glowing green hand to the lamia’s forehead. “I’ll just cool him off a little, just to be safe.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Three days had passed since the lamia brothers started vacationing with Toriel’s school. In that time, Lust thought he’d learned something new about his clutch mate, even after all the time they’d spent together.Lust casually watched his brother, who was hiding behind a doorway and peering into the kitchen. Dust was curled up defensively on the tabletop, too cautious to run away with his mother staring at him. “Come on,” Sans coaxed calmly. “Daddy. Can you say daddy?”The tiny creature let out a quiet, high-pitched growl, and Sans smiled awkwardly up at his mate. “Stretch and Black both started talking around his age. I’m not mumbling am I?”“Nuh uh, yer voice is nice, Angel. He probably just needs more time.”“Yeah, I guess so… Say, do you want to hear a funny story?”Red nodded and purred softly while listening to Sans talk, and their gremlin spawn crawled to the underside of the table before teleporting away. Toriel swam by after that. Charm noticed she was heading outside and followed her at a safe distance, again peering out the front door of the den in a stealthy way. “Dear, you forgot your shears.”Asgore looked up at his mate’s voice and left his garden to meet her. “Thank you. I am still not used to having these. They are very useful.”“I am glad you like them,” the old woman smiled and covered her mouth.“Would you like to stay out a little longer and look at the garden with me?” Asgore asked. “That sounds nice, yes.”Lust glanced casually at that scene and then back at his brother, who was holding his sternum with hearts floating in his eye sockets. “If they weren’t so distracted, you’d totally have been spotted by now,” Lust told him. Charm jumped, since he had been too forward-focused to notice anybody coming up behind him. He pulled himself back inside the den and sighed contentedly.“If only the people back home fell in love like this~ I’d never think of leaving~”The doll-like lamia shrugged. “I’ll admit, I didn’t think this was how it would be when I heard that mermaids mate for life.”Charm chuckled giddily for a moment, then he seemed to sober up a bit. “How are you doing, Lust?”Lust sighed and shook his head, his hands on his hips. “Not a single person here is interested in me. It’s wild. Or, rather, pretty boring. It’s peaceful though, I guess.”“You’re not feeling pent up?”“Ha! I’m not going to beg for it. These people just don’t know who they’re missing out on, and that’s on them.”Charm let out a breath of relief. He wasn’t sure how his brother would handle prolonged abstinence, considering how he spent his time back in the clan. It was good that he didn’t seem too frustrated or moody. Lust’s mouth twisted into a frown, and he crept closer to Charm, whispering, “But, bro, didn’t you want to fall in love or something? Everyone here is either still a kid or taken… or Geno, and he’s, like, actually crazy. Not really ‘mate for life’ material if you ask me. There are other schools up here, shouldn’t we go visit one?”“Oh yeah…” Charm folded his arms and pondered for a good minute. Finally, he nodded. “You’re right. There’s still a lot more to see up here. Let’s go look around some more.”Lust beamed. He could survive without rolling in the sand for a while, but he would definitely rather have his fun. “Sounds great. I’ll go let goat mommy know~”“Goat mo— wait, no, don’t interrupt them!”“It’s fine~” Lust ignored Charm’s pouting as he intruded on the twilight couple’s time together. “Why hello, Lust,” Toriel smiled. Asgore gave him a pleasant nod, “What brings you out on this fine afternoon?” ***
Free.
On a quiet afternoon, a small pale creature unearthed itself from a potted anemone. The coast was clear, and his parents' voices still echoed calmly from the other room. Dust’s crimson eyes peered around the community room. He saw only big creatures, no giant ones, and the ones that felt like himself weren’t present. There was nobody here that he couldn’t sneak past. Dust crawled out of the pot and replaced the anemone, then slid down the wall and under the sand. He crept toward the doorway inch by inch. “What are you laughing at?”The small terror froze and peered at the red fish. He was frowning at the empty water, talking to himself again. Since there were no new interlopers, Dust began creeping forward again. “Don’t hurry back,” the red mermaid scoffed. Dust froze and looked back again. The red mermaid didn’t seem to have noticed him. It was just a coincidence. He faced his eyes forward again, but a sudden chill traveled down his spine. Dust gritted his flat teeth and held his claws at the ready, tensing his eight legs to move or attack at any moment. He felt a sudden tap on his shoulder from behind, feeling like condensed cold water, and instantly teleported to his mother’s bedroom to hide. The feeling was still on him when he arrived, so he teleported several more times in quick succession. Finally, he found himself on top of the den, panting from exertion. The tiny predator spun around and swung his claws, cutting through a strange ball of light. As if his sharp nails didn’t even tickle, the ball of light attached itself back together. Before Dust’s eyes, it slowly transformed into a transparent narrow skull with a light stalk dangling from its forehead, needle-like teeth, and two long arms with blunted fingertips. The foe didn’t have a torso or a tail, and it was the same size as Dust. Dust tried to stab his claws through the creature’s forehead. He felt himself pierce something like cold water, but he could tell it did nothing to hurt his prey. “Relax,” the strange being said with an amused smile. “I’m a friend.”Dust glared at the disembodied stranger and made his threatening posture more obvious. “I’m already dead. You can’t kill me.”Stupid lies. Dead things didn’t talk or move. Dust wasn’t fooled by the weird creature. “I should introduce myself, I guess, but my old life is over, so… Let’s just call me Phantom.”Dust glared at the creature that wasn’t getting the hint to leave. He slowly started crawling backwards, and the see-through monster faded out of view. Dust jumped when his voice now came from beside him. “My soul is already tethered to yours. We’ll both get used to it eventually.”Dust hissed at the apparition and signaled him to go away with his magic. “Like I said, I’m tethered to you. I can’t leave. The God of Death, who’s apparently real, asked for volunteers to help you learn to socialize. I have no idea why a god cares about you or why a meroctopus needs to be able to socialize, but here I am: your new best friend.”God? What was a god? Dust knew what death was; it was what turned prey into food. He was curious, and his round red eyes bored holes in the apparition, ordering him to explain. “Haha, do you want to know more? Try asking with your mouth then. I’m done with this one-sided conversation.”The spirit folded its disembodied arms and shook its disembodied head, playing hard to get. Dust glared at him. Phantom had talked so much already. He would talk more eventually. ***“Well that was fast,” Geno grumbled when Death returned to his side. “What did you go off and do, anyway?”“Gave a kid a friend,” the god chuckled, staring at the ceiling with his dark orbits. “Did you go collect some kid’s soul?”“Kinda the opposite… Anyway, those lamias are leaving.”“It’s about time.” Geno groaned like a weight had been lifted from his chest. “Something about them makes me super uncomfortable.”Geno felt Death staring at him, and turned to glare questioningly back at his dark orbits. “Izzat so?”“What?” the attack mage glared. “If you know something, spit it out.”The curious look on the God’s face vanished, replaced by simple mocking amusement. “Nah, nothing really. They barely spent any time around you either.”“Thankfully,” Geno grunted. Death smirked and folded his arms behind his head. “I’m just sayin’, but doesn’t that make you the least appealing person here?”The attack mage froze. “I’m what?”“Well, you’re the only bachelor here, but Lust tried his luck with everyone else first. Maybe you should work on that attitude of yours.”“Like I’d want to attract people like that!”“Eh, you’re right,” Death winked. “You can just stay as-is and attract people like me instead.”Geno clenched his fists in quiet rage, but this was yet another verbal spar he had lost against the God of Death. Death, meanwhile, was just glad he had deflected the mortal’s attention from their earlier topic. I don’t need to be telling mortals about artificial colors, demigods, or incarnations, Death thought. There’s already this much fringe shit in the world even when they don’t know it’s deliberately achievable. Plus, I prefer seeing the unique twists Life puts into the souls of normal creatures. The avant-garde stuff can’t win against the classics. ***Dust rubbed his sore eyes with his tiny fists. He had glared at the ghost for as long as he could stand it, but it refused to say anything. Really, it went from a hundred to zero real quick. The little meroctopus stared at the lure growing from the ghost’s skull, wondering what kind of creature this thing even was. Did it only have a head and arms even back when it was alive?Phantom noticed the child grinding his teeth and smiled. “Ask me if you’re curious.”Dust growled, gnashed his teeth, and finally pointed rudely at the spirit’s face. “What?” he spat. “Hm? I’m a dead monster soul named Phantom,” the spirit smirked. “If you want a more specific answer, try a more specific question.”Dust wrapped his tiny fingers around the light hanging from Phantom’s head as if to yank on it, but his digits just passed through what felt like dense and cold water. “This, why?” he growled. “I was an angler mer when I was alive. We live in the deep ocean where it’s dark. My lure made light to attract prey or distract predators. I also used it to see in my cave.”“God?” Dust demanded next. “Gods are… Hm. I don’t know, really. But every soul that dies ends up with the God of Death.”Dust blinked. The God of Death collected souls, and the God of Death liked him. The little meroctopus’s eyelights sparkled a bit. He can tell I’m a great hunter who will send him lots of souls. The little half breed peered at the spirit again, Death’s present to him. His tiny chest swelled with pride. “Well, you seem happy,” Phantom chuckled. “And four words is probably a lot for you. Anyway, where are we? The water looks kind of bright, or is that just because my eyesight got better after I died?”Dust grinned, a happy, malicious smile. His present wanted to scout around the area. This was hunter training, obviously. The tiny terror nodded and led the way back into the den, ready to show his present the threats they had to avoid if they wanted to hunt. After a few dozen minutes of stealthily crawling around and teleporting, Phantom finally gathered what the problem was.
Oh. He’s a half mermaid living in a den in the shallows, but he acts like a purebred meroctopus in the deep. Yep, definitely better to nip that in the bud.
Phantom approved of the God of Death (presumably) looking to avoid unnecessary work.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The mood was right, the sun was setting, the light that still entered this far into the coral structure was dim orange. Lust licked his lips with a glowing purple tongue and leaned in for a kiss. His partner for tonight had asked to take things slow, and he could do slow. The sheep mermaid blushed and accepted his kiss. They let Lust hold them and run his fingers through their wool. Lust used the experience he had gathered from mermaids thus far to hold back and drag out the preparations for tens of minutes, until his partner was about ready to melt in his arms. “W-wait!” Just when he was about to proceed to the next step and put a negative distance between them, the lamb held up their hands. “If… if you’ll be my mate I can go farther, but otherwise…”Lust pushed himself off of the sheep a bit and pouted. “But you said we could spend just a night together~”“I… I changed my mind. This is… you are… amazing, but I’ll drown in you if we keep going… And then you’ll leave me, and I won’t be able to forget you.”Lust sighed and sat up, running his hands back over his skull as if to tidy himself. “Right, well, you’re not the first to back out like this. I’m getting real good at handling rejection~”The sheep mer sat up too and pulled Lust into a gentle hug. “It… it’s not completely backing out. I’m not rejecting you, just… Don’t you think I could be a good mate?”“Obviously~ but for somebody else. No matter what, I would have to go south when the weather changes. I can’t stay with you. And besides,” he brushed a lock of wool away from the mermaid’s eyes, and they leaned their cheek against his hand. “Your idea of mating involves having kids. I told you already that I don’t want any.”The sheep sighed and cupped Lust’s cheek in her hand. “Well, can we just continue what we were doing? And just, not go farther than that? I was having a good time.”“Stars you’re selfish!” Lust laughed, pushing them down on the bed with his hand, while controlling their descent with the end of his tail. His violet eyes glowed hypnotically in the ever decreasing light. “Sure. I’ll teach you things that’ll drive your future mate crazy~ And I think, even if we don’t finish, you’ll never be able to forget it.”***In the morning, Lust and Charm found each other during breakfast, made eye contact, and sighed in unison. Charm smiled wryly at his brother. “Did another one get cold fins?”“Mhm. How about you?”“No luck.”Lust sighed again and shook his head. “Let’s leave after breakfast and try the next place.”“The next place, huh?” Charm pondered it. Two weeks had gone by since they left Toriel’s school behind. In that time, Charm hadn’t found any couples as deeply in love as he’d seen there, nor did he find anybody who he felt a spark with. Lust had faced rejection dozens of times in these two weeks, and, frankly, Charm thought he had matured a little bit because of it. But enough was enough; a vacation was supposed to be fun. “… What if we just go back to Toriel’s school? Neither of us are getting any action out here, and I don’t think we will at this rate.”“Well that’d be great for you,” Lust smirked. “Not much will change for me though.”The only downside to a school where everyone seemed to be happily in love was that nobody particularly wanted to play around. Charm smiled a sad but understanding smile. “Do you want to go home?”Surprisingly, Lust snorted and waved him down. “What? Alone? And fight off every hostile creature between here and there? Or are you going to come with me? Then what? You’ll languish back in the clan all ‘woe is me’? Try to swim all the way back here without me? Please, you only ever trained your stamina in the bedroom and your body for looks. You couldn’t sprint a mile without my magic.”Charm blushed and folded his arms defensively. “Okay, harsh. So what are you getting at exactly?”Lust swam up to Charm’s eye level and poked at his sternum, frowning with one brow raised. “It means I’m coming too, bitch. Don’t you try and dump me by the shoreline like some surface fling.”Charm’s expression softened sadly, and he gently cupped his brother’s cheeks. “But you’re having a lousy time here. You don’t have to be so stubborn. You can go home.”Lust raised his brow higher and gently pulled Charm’s hands off of him, with nevertheless uncontestable force. “I’ll be as stubborn as I damn well please. Yeah, maybe I’m wasting my summer, but you’re finally enjoying something. You’ve always had my back, and I’ve got yours.”Pink tears welled up in Charm’s eyes, and he recalled one particular night several years ago. Lust came to him in secret, crying his eyes out, wailing like the sea was crashing down around him, cursing their clan and everything it stood for. In contrast, Charm had never come to anything that felt like a breaking point. For him, it was just a gradual accumulation of stress and grievances. He felt like his problems didn’t compare to what people like Lust or Crooks were dealing with.“Thanks,” Charm sniffled, trying not to cry. “You’re a good brother.”“Obviously,” Lust nodded, satisfied. He released Charm’s wrists and put his hands on his hips. “So we’re going back to Toriel’s school?”“Mhm.” Charm wiped his eye sockets and nodded. “Honestly, I keep worrying about Axe and Crooks. I wonder if they’ll be able to work things out with each other.”Lust rolled his eyes back ponderously as he buffed Charm with purple magic, starting to lead the way back. “I mean, according to Axe, they’re older than we are, and they’ve literally always been together. I don’t think they’re gonna figure anything out without help or else they would’ve done it by now.”“Really?” Charm swam after his brother and fretted. “Maybe we could help somehow?” The lamia trailed off, unsure about his own suggestion. “How? I’m fine with being stress-relief for Axe, but he’s determined to blue ball himself forever if it’ll keep Crooks from feeling jealous.”“I don’t know yet,” Charm confessed. “Can you help me brainstorm until we get there?”“Fine~ I don’t know much about love, though.”“I know, but I need someone to bounce my ideas off of.”The brothers began a discussion that went on deep into the night. Of course, through the virtue of Charm’s magic pacifying any sealife they came across, and of Lust’s magic empowering their bodies, they kept moving that whole time.***“Left,” Phantom warned. Dust teleported back to dodge a bottle-shaped snout by a few inches, and then scratched it with his claws. The dolphin chirped in annoyance, and Dust dodged its buddy coming up from beneath him. The tiny meroctopus just looked like a plaything to these ocean assholes. The short story was that Dust had successfully hunted his first fish yesterday, and he got intercepted trying to do it again today. “Just go home,” Phantom told him as the kid dodged and scratched several more times. “There’s literally no reason to fight these things. What even are these?”Dust directed a brief glare at Phantom. “Kill!” he ordered. “Sure, drag me into it.”Phantom had been pleased to discover he could still use a bit of magic even as a spirit. It was different compared to when he was alive, but not in a bad way. One of the dolphins swooped in for another snap at Dust, before its body jolted backward, as if pelted rapidly by projectiles. It whined in confusion, and Phantom chuckled. Just like himself, it appeared his magic was invisible to most people. To press the initiative, he moved closer and sank his needle-like teeth into the creature. This didn’t hurt it at all or leave any mark, but it was suddenly unable to move even the tips of its fins. Dust saw and took the opportunity he was given, burrowing into the animal’s neck until he severed an important artery. The dead dolphin’s friend squawked in anger, but it decided to flee when it was assaulted by a child’s hissing and another invisible barrage. Dust looked at his prize with sparkling eyes and started slowly dragging it back to the den. “Why are you smiling so much?” Phantom chided. “You were basically helpless until I joined in.”Dust looked at Phantom and smirked. The spirit was a present to him from Death; a tool to help him hunt, like his claws. He was part of Dust’s power just as much as anything else.“You should learn attack magic,” Phantom said. “… Or not, I guess. You already use a lot of magic teleporting. You’ll stay small as long as you keep wasting it like that.”The cocky smirk vanished, replaced by a look of shock and betrayal. “You didn’t know? Well, if you talked to people more often, you would know this sort of thing.” Phantom had a nice little laugh at Dust’s expense. The baby meroctopus puffed up his cheeks and frowned. He wasn’t happy being laughed at. Also, even if his catch was floaty, it was still a bit heavy for a mer his size to haul. “Carry,” Dust demanded. Phantom shrugged. “I’m just a spirit; I can’t carry stuff. You didn’t have to fight that thing, and you don’t have to bring it home either. Drop it if it’s heavy.”Dust growled sharply and put more effort into dragging his prey faster. It was his catch. He would take it home and eat it—after giving it to that one giant to make it taste better. ***“A dolphin?!” Toriel practically screeched with worry. “Dust is only a few weeks old. How did he hunt a dolphin on his own?! How far away from the den did he go?!”“No idea on both accounts,” Sans shrugged, “Red would know if he was in danger, so I’m not that worried. At this age, Stretch was hiding in any hole he could find and Black was biting whatever would fit in his mouth. I figure he’s just getting a handle on his instincts.”“I do not know how you are so calm,” Toriel sighed, running a hand down her face. “The thought of such a small child fighting for its life is troubling to me.”“Look, I heard him say a word the other day, and I’m still riding that relief.”“That word was ‘no’,” the old goat woman sighed. “And it was screeched in response to us taking away the fish he caught yesterday to cook.”“Better than just any old screeching,” Sans chuckled. He hummed and turned his head after spotting something out of the corner of his eye. Two figures were approaching the den, both mer with long snake tails. “And they return as suddenly as they left,” Sans muttered. “Perhaps they are stopping to rest here as they travel back home,” Toriel suggested. In a few moments, Lust and Charm were close enough to start up a conversation. “We’re back~ Did you miss us~?”Charm smiled strangely at the less than ecstatic looks on the mermaids’ faces. “Is something going on?”“It’s nothing,” Sans smiled tiredly. “Did you have a fun trip?”“Not the word I’d use,” Lust scoffed. “We didn’t expect the first school we stumbled across to be the happiest and most upstanding one,” Charm added. “We were thinking about spending what we have left of the summer here. Would that bother you?”Sans and Toriel shared a look. The goat mer smiled awkwardly. “Have you… familiarized yourselves with the local customs since last time?”The lamias nodded. “Any plans to help out around the den?” Sans asked with a wink, “or are you just gonna freeload for the rest of the summer.”Not that he could judge anybody for a little laziness. And not like there was much to help out with. He was just curious how motivated the lamias’ travels had made them. Charm flicked his tail ponderously. “I’m not good for much, but I am good at listening. I don’t spill secrets either. I don’t know if you’ll ever need charm magic, but I can offer that too.”“Manual labor,” Lust shrugged. “I don’t think you’ll want anything else I can offer. The offer is open, though, always.”“Manual labor is tempting,” Sans chuckled. “Can you hunt?”“I once had to kill a whale that I accidentally seduced.”The mermaids froze stiff.“A whale?” Toriel asked. “Accidentally?” Sans’s smile twitched at the corner. “And ya couldn’t’ve just died?” Axe chuckled, suddenly peering at the group from the entryway. Lust blinked and swam quietly up to the giant shark, looking at him with eyes that had seen quite a lot in a relatively short timespan. “Hey, I owe you an apology.”Axe’s grin stretched wider. “Do ya now?”“Yeah. You gave me a pretty straightforward rejection in the grand scheme of things. Thanks for that, and I’m sorry I didn’t get it right away.”There was a stretch of silence that dragged out for several heartbeats. “Uh…” Axe reached up to scratch the back of his neck, feeling uncomfortable with the sudden sincerity. “Well, dat was surprisingly straightforward.”“I’m always straightforward,” Lust scoffed. “And I mean everything I say.”“I meant it’s weird seein’ ya act all sincere like dis.”“Like my offers before weren’t sincere? Do you really think you could overpower me if you didn’t catch me by surprise like when we first got here? Or when I thought I was playing along with some fantasy of yours? I’m a purple magic user with mershark, meroctopus, and siren in my bloodline. I’m sure I’m a worse fighter than you, but I’m not weaker. If I had any intention of forcing you into anything, I could have. But I “sincerely” wanted to have a good time together—for both of us. What I do takes at least two people, and I take that seriously.”Lust took a deep breath and exhaled. “I've done my best to reflect and understand your side of things. You should understand my side too. Giving your partner a lousy experience is majorly fucking shameful where I’m from; I sure as hell wouldn’t ever do it on purpose. I shouldn’t suffer and be blamed eternally for a genuine mistake. If I hurt you, that’s on me to make it better, not on you to keep hurling abuse my way.”Lust finished, “If you ever feel like understanding me better, feel free to ask.”Axe’s smile stretched his face again. “Yeah, uh, I ain’t interested in whatever snowflake sob-story ya got in yer past.”Nor was Axe really that upset about what happened between him and Lust. They got close, but they never crossed his bottom line. Lust glared at the mershark. “Like a virgin would know,” he spat and swam away from the den. Charm floated there awkwardly. “Um, he’ll probably come back after he has some alone time.”Sans took in a breath. “That was really uncomfortable to watch. I’m gonna go take a nap.”“I will go help Crooks prepare the dolphin, since it is rather large,” Toriel excused herself. Axe and Charm stared at each other for a few seconds before the Lamia spoke up quietly. “Crooks told me a bit about your past,” he said. “I won’t pretend I know everything about it, but hell comes in a variety of colors. You should talk to Lust again if you get the chance.”“And if I don’t?” “You should.”And Charm swam past him into the den, leaving Axe staring out at the open water.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
This goddamned annoying, niggling, itching feeling in the back of his head. Axe grabbed his own wrist when his fingers nearly dug into his eye socket out of habit.
The mershark opened and closed his hand a few times to release the tension and glared out into the ocean where Lust had vanished.
I’m definitely missin’ somethin’,
he thought frustratedly.
It probably wasn’t anything he needed to know. Just some pointless trivia about a dumb, horny snake. But not understanding something that felt like it was right in front of his nose was driving Axe crazy.
I’ll jus’ go ask. And if it’s nothin’ den it’s nothin’.
Axe followed Lust’s scent trail and found him moping on a rock close enough to the surface that he could’ve reached up and touched air.
Lust glanced over his shoulder when Axe left stealth, then he snorted and looked away again.
“Ya piqued my interest,” Axe stated.
Lust sighed and rolled over so he could see the shark without twisting his neck.
“Fantastic,” he said flatly. “Does that mean you’re ready to listen to my ‘snowflake sob-story’?”
Axe made himself comfortable on the sand and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Fine. I don’t like talking about it, so try and keep it to yourself, okay? I’m only telling you because of what happened between us.”
And Lust began calmly recounting what absolutely was not a “snowflake sob-story.”
***
Nine years ago, a thirteen-year-old Lust was sitting in a circle with his peers, chatting and gossiping and laughing, experimenting with painting their faces in magical dyes to accent their eyes and lips and other pretty features.
“Do you think this will catch on?” one of the young lamias wondered aloud.
“I don’t know,” another said. “It looks nice right now, but once the fun starts it’ll get all runny and ugly.”
They kept playing for a while, and an old lamia swam over.
“Lust,” she called, “can I borrow you for a moment?”
“Sure,” he grinned, leaving the circle and following the elder away.
“You’ve done a good job training your purple magic,” the elder said.
“Really? Thanks, I practiced pretty hard~”
The elder nodded. “You’ve also had two clutches already. You absorbed everything we taught you like water to a sponge.”
“Do I get a present~?”
The elder smiled. “Perhaps. Do you like to explore new experiences?”
Lust didn’t answer her right away, distracted by another elder and youth pair swimming the opposite direction.
“But I don’t
feel
like I’m getting it,” the youth complained. He was a tall and pretty skeleton with pink magic.
“You’re getting it just fine,” the elder with him said. “Your training partners have had nothing but compliments for you.”
“But elder—”
Lust focused on what he was doing again, turning away from the lamia who looked suspiciously like they could’ve been from the same clutch.
“I like new experiences,” he said to the elder.
“Excellent,” she smiled. “Then I’m going to recommend you go on your first mission outside of the clan. I think you already have all the skill and strength you need.”
Lust’s eyes widened. He thought to himself about the best breeders in the clan, who were sent out into the world to keep the gene pool diverse. Every single one of them was beautiful and sexy and loved. He was being recruited for that position as just a youth?
“What do I have to do?!”
“Hahaha~” the old woman laughed. “You’ve done enough. It’s up to the elders to decide now. If the others accept my recommendation, you’ll have a few weeks to study about the outside world, and then you’ll get to go and see it for yourself.”
Lust was called in to demonstrate some of his magic and mating skills for the council, and they had apparently evaluated the health of the offspring Lust had birthed and never met. Ultimately, he was chosen to go outside on a mission.
“We’ve inspected your lineage, and we’d like you to find and mate with a meroctopus. On a future mission we might have you try and find a mershark, but that’s a bit of an ask for your first time.”
Lust clenched his fists, eyelights glittering. “A meroctopus. Okay. I can do it.”
The elders smiled and a few chuckled.
“That enthusiasm is good. This is an important mission. We need meroctopus genetics in order to travel to the far corners of the ocean safely, but they aren’t easy to mate with. The children you bring back will provide us another generation of hopefuls.”
Lust didn’t doubt the importance of his mission or the praise he would get for completing it. He spent the time he was allowed before leaving on his studies. He learned everything the clan would teach him about the outside world—just because he was going out to look for a meroctopus didn’t mean he wouldn’t encounter other things. He made sure he was as prepared as possible so that he would come home triumphant and safe.
Lust ambled out of the studying room to take a well-deserved break, and he heard moaning from a room nearby. Curious why the participants had closed the door before starting, he attempted to peek inside somehow.
Suddenly, the noises stopped. Lust shivered, thinking he’d been caught, and he nearly sprinted away. He didn’t know why someone would hide that they were having sex, but it had to be for an important reason. Maybe he could get in trouble and get taken off the mission if they saw him.
But he soon heard voices from inside the room and decided to keep eavesdropping.
“This tutoring session was a great idea,” came a voice. “I feel like I learned a lot. How about you?”
The next voice, Lust thought he recognized from somewhere. “I’m not sure. I still think I need to study more.”
“You’re so diligent,” the first voice laughed. “You’re already taking extra lessons. I think you know more than some of the elders. You’re more than good enough to start having clutches.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. Just try not to be
too
humble, alright? Later then.”
The door opened, and Lust made eye contact with a lamia youth. She smiled coyly at him, blew a little kiss, and swam off. Lust peeked into the room and saw the pink lamia from last time, sitting quietly with his face in his hands.
“I don’t get it,” he muttered softly. “I don’t get it.”
“Hey,” Lust called out casually. “You look kinda down. Did that girl do a bad job?”
The taller skeleton startled and sat up straight, holding his chest and staring at Lust with round eye sockets.
“Y… you startled me.”
“My bad.”
Lust sat down nearby and smiled politely. “You’re in a different class than me, and you’re a skeleton. I think we might have the same parents, what do you think?”
“Oh! Maybe. My name is Charm.”
“I’m Lust. Nice to meet you.”
Charm nodded, and slowly his gaze started drifting down again.
“Are you having a hard time or something?”
“W-well… No. I’m just… a slow learner, I think.”
“That girl from before said she had a good time.”
Charm frowned. “I don’t know how to make sure
I
have a good time.”
“Really?” Lust smiled wryly. “That’s usually the easy part. Maybe your partners so far just did a bad job?”
“But…” Charm fiddled with his thumbs on his lap. “There… were a lot of them. They can’t all be bad, right? It’s probably my fault for not getting it.”
Lust hummed. “Well, you’d know better than me, I guess. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. We’re brothers, after all.”
Charm smiled wryly. “Are you good at this sort of thing?”
“Yep! I’m going on my first mission in a few days!”
“Wow~” Charm’s eyes widened. “Good luck.”
“Thanks, you too. I’m gonna get back to studying.”
“Can I come with you? I need a break from… this.”
“Sure~ I wanted someone to quiz me anyway.”
Lust studied and hung out with his brother for the next few days. He knew that Charm was having trouble with something, but he didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it, so Lust respected his privacy.
At least Charm’s mood seemed to improve whenever they hung out together. The pink lamia said that he liked having a sibling in the clan to spend time with.
But soon it was time for Lust to go on his mission. He was as ready as he could be, and he set out with all the confidence and caution he ought to have.
It wasn’t that hard to find a meroctopus looking to mate. Lust had been trained on how to pick up pheromone trails with pink magic, and he had studied as many different kinds of pheromones as he could, to make sure that he tracked what he thought he was tracking. Sure enough, he’d found a potential meroctopus partner just three days into his journey; a wolf mer.
Lust took a deep breath. The meroctopus had noticed him, and introductions were a critical part of the process.
They don’t talk,
Lust reminded himself.
Just do it like you practiced.
He used pink magic to produce pheromones that complimented what the wolf meroctopus was producing. Her combat-ready stance became sloppy as her eyes dilated. A low, rumbling pur rose up out of her throat even as she glared suspiciously at Lust’s tail.
“I can do it,” Lust said gently, manifesting his reproductive biology. “Let me carry your children.”
The meroctopus resolved herself and approached.
It was very rough, very long sex. Lust was okay, thanks to his magic, but there were some bite marks on his shoulder that he would need to have healed before they scarred.
He held a hand over his stomach in satisfaction and turned to swim away, but a tentacle caught him from behind.
Eh? Again? Well it’s better than trying to fight her.
Lust endured another round with the meroctopus and escaped quickly once it was over. He saw a wicked grin on her wolfish face as he fled, but he figured she was just satisfied that her needs had been met.
Lust retreated back to the clan. He now had to focus his efforts on successfully carrying the clutch, so he made his way to the breeding house and settled down in a quiet and comfortable room with plenty of food.
For the first few weeks, he thought it was going well, but that was far from the case. There was a hidden danger Lust hadn’t prepared for because it wasn’t mentioned in the books he studied from. In fact, it was a new threat, born from the minds of cunning meroctopuses who had realized that lamias didn’t leave carrying
their
young. It was a new way to steal the clutch.
Half of the young in Lust’s womb were meroctopuses.
They hatched from their soft shells earlier than the lamia young did, but Lust’s body wasn’t ready to give birth yet, as it was still nurturing the little lamias in their soft shells. The meroctopus young were trapped and hungry, and they set about to change that.
The next few hours were a burning hell, where Lust was in so much agony that he couldn’t even crawl to the rope that he could pull to call for help. The sound-proofed walls kept the other expectant mothers from hearing his screams and feeling anxious while they nurtured their young.
Using purple magic to make his body tougher dulled the pain but prolonged it as well, and the trapped meroctopus young that weren’t gnawing on him turned on each other and the lamia young. Lust made a momentary decision and dropped his magic. Before long, there was a hole in his stomach through which dozens of little hellspawn emerged. They didn’t recognize Lust as their mother and treated him as food instead. One by one, as they gnawed off little chunks of his body, he smashed them against the floor, killing them.
Now full of bloody holes and breathing raggedly, Lust confirmed that all of the writhing demons were dead. He wiggled himself delicately toward the rope to call for help, but something floated out of him when he moved. It was a tiny, soft egg.
Lust’s soul dropped, and he snatched the lamia young out of the water, pushing it back through the hole in his stomach even while crying from the pain. It was the last lamia egg that hadn’t been eaten and destroyed.
Lust held his hands over the wound and tried again to wriggle toward the rope, but he felt the remaining young inside of him trembling in pain. Pink magic told him that it was very weak after all it had endured.
But I need a healer,
he cried internally.
I need to heal you!
But if he moved around anymore, the baby would die outright. Lust gritted his teeth and kept as still as possible, holding the hole in his womb shut. And he stayed like that for the last few days, enduring his hunger and pain by reinforcing his body with purple magic. He used as much pink magic as he could spare trying to keep the baby alive despite its compromised environment.
Finally, Lust triumphantly birthed the child and dragged himself over to the rope to call for a healer.
They were understandably horrified when they saw Lust chewed full of holes, surrounded by splattered meroctopus young, but he held his sleeping baby with a relieved grin on his face and eyes full of hope.
And then Lust was healed. And then the elders took his baby away.
Lust had been fine after his first two times giving birth. They were lamia children he had with others in the clan, and the birth was smooth and easy. He didn’t get too attached to them because he’d always been taught not to be. But he had fought for his life and the life of this baby with everything he could muster. He clung to that child, but they wouldn’t let him keep it no matter how he begged.
Physically, Lust was healed, and so he was allowed to go where he pleased within the clan. He felt aimless, helpless, and lost. His scars were gone, but he could still feel them.
Without consciously deciding on it, he went to find his brother and cried in his arms. He babbled out all that had happened. It might not have even been intelligible. It didn’t matter; Lust didn’t care. He cursed their clan and the elders viciously and passed out after using all his energy.
He existed at about the same frequency as a dead piece of kelp for a few days. Finally, one of the elders came to find him again.
“Has your body healed since last time?”
“Yes,” Lust said flatly.
“That’s good. We’ll go ahead and schedule your next mission for two weeks from now. How’s that?”
Lust stared at the elder in disbelief. “Next… mission?”
“Of course. It’s regrettable what happened, but you’re still a promising breeder. You can continue going on missions.”
Lust felt like there was sand in his mouth. “I don’t want to go on any more missions.”
“Ah…” the elder shook her head. “I see. I’m sorry to hear that. We’ll transfer you to regular mating duty in that case?”
Lust nodded and swam away.
But he didn’t go and fulfill his mating duties for a few months, and the elders began to get impatient with him. When he continued to meet their requests with only absent stares, snide comments, or requests to see his child, they got fed up with it.
Lust woke up one morning in one of the breeding rooms, which was unusual because he didn’t recall falling asleep there. He tried sitting up, but found his wrists bound and tied to the floor. The bonds were reinforced with orange magic, so he couldn’t break them even with his strength.
This wasn’t a pleasant place for him, no matter how cosy it looked. One of the reasons Lust had refused to mate for this long was because he was afraid to come back here.
He waited for a while with no one else around, having scanned himself multiple times to confirm he wasn’t carrying a clutch. And then the door opened for the first of many times.
It was a Lamia from the clan. “Okay,” they said awkwardly, “shall we just get to it?”
Lust clicked his tongue. “Get to it my tail. I’m not in the mood. Find somebody else.”
The lamia peered curiously down at him and held his chin. “Am I your first? Do you not know what this is?”
“What is this?”
The stranger scratched his cheek absently. “Well, this is where the people who refuse to breed but have good genes, like you, and the people who want to breed but can’t find partners, like me, go to meet our quotas.”
Lust blinked. “The fuck? I only took a few months off. I never said I refused to mate.”
“That’s great,” the stranger smiled in a dorky way. “We can keep this civil and all that. I don’t really want to get rough either.”
“Huh? Dude, I said no. I’m gonna mate someday, but I’m still recovering from some shit. I don’t wanna fuck you. Go find somebody who does.”
“Nobody…”
“What was that?” Lust stretched his neck to try and hear whatever the stranger was muttering.
“Nobody wants to fuck me. Why not? What’s wrong with everybody? I’m just trying to be a good pink!”
Lust hissed when the stranger suddenly lashed him with his tail.
What followed was some of the least enjoyable sex Lust had ever had. Just what wretched corner of the clan had this freak crawled out of that he moved so wrong? What was going on with him that he was so damn violent? It was way too much for ordinary rough play.
Hey, fucker, I think I know why nobody sleeps with you!
Lust couldn’t escape, so he braced himself with purple magic and endured it.
More hopeless lamias came. And they kept coming, and they kept coming. Every month, Lust would give birth to clutches belonging to at least three different mer. Lust was fine with the elders taking those children away.
He stayed in that room for nearly two years before someone came in to let him know he’d met his mysterious quota.
Lust left the breeding house and looked around at the clan as if he didn’t recognize it. The light was too bright; the laughter too noisy. He felt his stomach twist.
“Hey,” a Lamia sallied up to him and smiled. “You must be Charm’s brother. I hear you’re more talented than he is. I’m pretty interested to see that~”
Lust moved his mouth numbly. “No, I’m not in the mood.”
The Lamia pouted. “Dang. Let me know if you ever change your mind.” And he swam away like it was no big deal.
Lust laughed to himself. In the back of his mind, he wondered what had happened in the clan in the two years he was locked up. Since when was Charm famous enough that it even spilled over to him as his brother?
But that was in the back of his mind. It wasn’t important. Lust was just marinating in the privilege of “choice”.
***
“Yer bro never tried ta save you?” Axe asked.
“He thought I was still doing missions, too busy and successful to visit him. After all, the elders only told him I was busy mating whenever he asked about me.”
“And ya didn’t swear off sex after all dat?”
Lust shook his head. “The more time passed and my mind healed, the more I remembered how much fun sex is. My naturally high libedo probably helped with that. The other stuff… still bothers me.”
The Lamia smiled faintly and glanced down at Axe from his perch on the rock. “So do you get me a little now?”
Axe hummed. “Some of it. Dere’s some parts I don’t really get.”
“Pfft!” Lust snorted and laughed. “Like I said: it’s ‘cause you’re a virgin.”
“I got one thing pretty clear.”
Lust smiled coyly. “That I get how important choice is?”
“Dat yer a survivor.”
Lust blinked, stared at the mershark, and then hummed. “Yeah. I guess.” He rested his cheek on his fist. “Anyway, tell me what your hell was like.”
“Eh. Sure, why not.”
Axe casually recounted his life with Crooks in the deep ocean, with every quiet, dark, and hungry detail. Meanwhile, the back of his mind was still processing some of the details in Lust’s story that didn’t make sense.
Like why did they need so many kids? And what the fuck were they feeding them all to that their population wasn’t exploding to every corner of the ocean?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“I get it,” Lust chuckled calmly. “Food and inbreeding were your biggest problems. The shallows don’t have to deal with those much, so you thought we didn’t have problems.”
“I guess ya can say dat,” Axe shrugged. “But it’s more like I didn’t figure a sex addict like you would have dat kinda past.”
Lust shrugged. “Truce?”
“Mhm. Truce.”
“Cool.” The lamia got up from his perch and swam down so he wasn’t so close to the waves. “Can I ask you a favor?”
Axe groaned. “Well, I’ll hear ya out at least.”
“Yeah, that’s all I need. Later today, I want you to hear Charm out.”
“Dat ain’t really a favor,” Axe said.
“It’d make him happy. I don’t know if you’ll agree with what he has to say, but he means well. He thought long and hard about what he wanted to say.”
Axe quirked a brow. “M’kay. I’ll hear him out.”
***
Knowing more of the puzzle satisfied Axe. There were obviously huge chunks missing still, but he knew much more about lamias than he did before.
For example, dey can have kids that’re da same type as the father.
He couldn’t be certain, but he had a feeling that part of Charm’s talk would involve having kids for him and Crooks.
Lust carried meroctopus halfbreeds to term in a month. The lamias hatched later, so they ain’t all fixed at a rate of one month. One-fourth time is probably da best I can hope fer, which means dey could carry a mershark ta term in about four months. Summer’d be over by then, so they’d need someplace warm to stay if we’re gonna keep ‘em outta da clans. I got a solution for dat, but then da problem is…
Axe had been exercising his thought speed a lot since he got injured. After all, if he couldn’t hold on to a train of thought, the best alternative was to think it faster.
His thoughts turned more and more rapidly now that he was healed and still exercising his mind. By the time he’d arrived in front of Toriel, he’d already hypothesized the next few months and written a formal proposal to the ocean council on his phone.
“Hello, Axe. May I assist you with some—” Her phone buzzed before she could finish speaking, and she saw the two-page document that had been emailed to her. “Did you send me this just now?”
“Yeah. Can ya get dat to da ocean council? Or jus’ Regalia, preferably. I wanna appeal my punishment since my head’s fixed.”
Toriel read through the document and nodded. “I was wondering if you would. I can have it delivered in a few days.”
“Thanks.”
Then all it took was for him to amble a few minutes in the den, and Charm found him.
“So this is where you were~ Mind joining me and Crooks in the kitchen?”
“Sure. Wha’s up?”
“I just wanted to talk about something~” the lamia smiled brightly.
***
Charm put up a thin pink barrier so the others in the school wouldn’t intrude or eavesdrop on this conversation. The only other people in the kitchen were Crooks and Axe. He had made sure to check around for baby Dust, and that kid was safely hidden behind the couch in another room, chewing on something.
Charm took a deep breath and laced his fingers to give off a professional sort of impression.
“What if I could solve all of your problems?”
“X to doubt,” Axe replied instantly.
“I hope this isn’t about what I think it’s about,” Crooks sighed.
“You two are in love!” the lamia cheered with heart-shaped eyelights. “That’s an amazing thing! You shouldn’t be kept apart by circumstances!”
Crooks flushed pink and tried to look angry. “We are
not
in love. Absolutely not.” He shot Charm a look of frustrated betrayal. Charm didn’t have highly trained instincts to pick up on any magical messages, but it was pretty clearly something like ‘I told you that in confidence’.
Axe glanced sidelong at his brother and then forward again. “Bro, we both know he’s right.”
“We—
Pardon
?!”
“I kinda wanna hear where dis conversation goes,” Axe said, “an’ I promised his bro I’d hear him out. So fer now, let’s jus’ say we like each other.” He turned a murderous glare at the lamia, and even though Charm’s instincts weren’t trained, he felt the water temperature drop by a few degrees. “We’re listenin’, so make dis good.”
Crooks looked at his brother with clenched teeth, but ultimately faced forward to hear Charm out without commenting.
The lamia smiled and tried to look calm and confident. The atmosphere was a little intense, to be honest, but he was willing to fight a bit to see true love blossom before his eyes. He appreciated it even more now that he knew how passionless it could be up north.
“One thing you’re worried about is kids, right? There won’t be any more skeleton mersharks if you don’t have any, and maybe there won’t be any mersharks at all someday. But if you do have kids, they’ll be in bad shape because of your, um, shared ancestry. So, I present to you solution number one~! I can have your kids for you!” Charm folded his hands over his soul. “The pink clan’s real specialty isn’t having sex; it’s having offspring, and the pink magic I know is just perfect for that. I can make sure your kids come out as healthy as possible. They won’t be perfect—I’m not a god—but I can reverse a little of the genetic damage.” Charm glanced at Crooks. “At the very least, they should be better off than you were.”
Axe growled in a dark, almost inaudible voice, “You? Have my kids? Have Crooks’ kids?” He didn’t blurt it outright, so Charm hoped he was trying to possibly accept the idea. Or he was in mortal danger: one of the two.
Crooks frowned and spoke softly. “But you said you didn’t want to have any more children.”
“They won’t be mine!” The lamia replied brightly, gesturing toward the two mersharks. “They’ll be yours! Shark tail and all! I’ll just be a surrogate womb for them to grow in~ I get that, Crooks, your body isn’t in perfect condition, but I don’t believe soulmates would ever fail to make a child with just their souls and magic if they wanted to~! Your species doesn’t have to end even if you stay together. Isn’t that great?”
Axe calmed down considerably after that explanation, but he still rested his cheek on his fist and glanced at his brother with an unconvinced expression. “Oh, yeah~ Dat’s all our problems solved, ain’t it, bro?” he said flatly.
Ya gonna keep deflecting like usual?
Axe signaled a tinge of judgement Crooks’ way.
Shut up,
Crooks signaled shame back.
Crooks clenched his fists in his lap and hung his head. “…
Hypothetically
, let’s say Axe and I are in love with each other. And let’s say that I could tolerate the idea of someone else stepping in to help us have relatively healthy children together—that I could get over the shame and embarrassment to say yes to that. Do you expect me to believe that you, someone I barely know, would actually see it through?”
“Eh?” Charm flinched slightly, because Crooks was glaring harshly at him when he raised his head.
On the other hand, Axe had raised his cheek slightly off his fist and was staring at his brother in optimistic surprise. In his eyes, even the fact that his brother wasn’t trying to squirm his way out of this conversation was a huge leap forward.
“What do you mean?” Charm fumbled to understand why the shark was upset. “I want to help, and I’ve had dozens of kids before. I know I said I was tired of it, but this is important...”
Crooks opened his mouth, exhaled, and then inhaled deeply. He locked eyes with the lamia. “Just a moment ago you said that the Pink Clan excels in producing offspring. Seventeen days, one hour, and forty-eight minutes ago, you told me that all of your offspring are sent to the Palette Clan to be sorted somehow, and only some are returned to your clan. Eighteen days, seven hours, and three minutes ago, you heavily implied that mershark genetics were important to the history of lamiakin.”
Crooks’ voice was rather calm and quiet, but there was a dangerous look in his eyes that resembled the expressions Axe more typically wore. “The gestation period for mersharks is fifteen months on average—and I can only assume that duration is shorter than normal due to the malnourished state of the mothers I observed. You lamia are tropical water mer. When the weather turns cold, do you want to just return back to your clan with our children in your womb? To take them away? If you really tried it, which I don’t feel like risking in the first place, you’d never make it home, and nobody would see a single one of your scales ever again. I hope you understand what I mean.”
Charm coiled his tail tightly in anxiety. Crooks was suddenly… terrifying. He couldn’t even meet eyes with the shark. He seemed to loom in a way appropriate to his size for the first time since Charm had met him, which admittedly wasn’t very long ago.
“I wasn’t planning anything… I didn’t want to take them away… I-I can shorten the gestation period a little… but it starts at fifteen months? That’s…” the lamia swallowed, his throat feeling tighter the more he talked.
Charm worried all the brainstorming he’d done for this proposal was all pointless. He didn’t even know basic things like how long it took for a mershark to be born before lamia intervention.
Lust probably would’ve known about this. Why didn’t I ask?
And of course Lust knew, but he hadn’t seen it as a problem. Because mersharks were homeostatic creatures who maintained a constant body temperature. In the winter, they would be warm enough to keep Charm healthy just by holding him. And why wouldn’t they do so for the sake of their offspring?
If the mersharks thought having kids through Charm was a good idea, they would naturally be aware of their own qualities and propose that very solution, or so he figured. But if the mersharks didn’t want to put at least that much forward to protect the mother of their children, Lust would rather Charm’s proposal fail.
Suddenly, the pressure Charm was under let up when Axe calmly waved his hand, almost cutting through the water between Charm and Crooks. His voice was calm too, and thankfully not the dangerous kind.
“First, I second my bro’s opinion. Yer clans are suspicious, n’ ya ain’t gonna have an easy time if ya try n’ take our kids away. But I don’t get da feelin’ dat you was plannin’ anythin’ like dat. Lamias can breathe air, right? I got plenty of ways ta keep ya warm in da winter in dat case.”
Crooks frowned down at Axe, half indignant and half shy. “Are you really considering this?”
“Yeah, s’ not da worst idea. Just ta be clear, though, we don’t gotta mate wit’cha fer dis ta work?”
Charm waved his hands and shook his head. “No, and nothing against either of you, but I’d rather not do that sort of thing anymore.”
Axe shrugged. “Yeah, no offense ta you either, but same. It’d hurt yer feelin’s, right bro?”
Crooks muttered, “Well…
hypothetically—
”
“Bro.”
“Tch.” Crooks clicked his teeth. “Fine, yes, I’d be jealous if you slept with someone else. But you should be able to meet your physical needs, and I don’t like that I get in the way of that.”
“No problem,” Axe lazily closed one eye while smiling at Crooks. “I ain’t interested in anybody else. If ya wanted me ta try it with somebody else, I would, but ya’d hafta make me. Ya don’t gotta feel bad, since I’m fine.”
“Really?” Crooks folded his arms and peered doubtfully at Axe. “Are you fine? I’m sure I felt you go into heat just the other day from a few little advances. Being that we’re soulmates and all that.”
Axe dropped his confident smile and responded immediately in a slightly indignant tone.
“Bro, dat… I dunno what dat was, but it wasn’t my heat; I’m outta season. Dat was some kinda lamia magic, and I still didn’t do nothin’ wit’ him.”
Crooks glanced uncertainly at Charm, who was leaning into the table while swaying his tail and smiling.
I live for this,
the lamia thought dreamily.
“He’s right,” Charm chuckled. “Going into heat is different from sexual attraction, and both of them are different from love. Feelings are the most important part, but we have magic like that for when the body’s slow on the uptake. I’m sorry my brother used it on you.”
“Well… whatever,” Axe sighed, glancing at Crooks. “I thought we was past dat already?”
Crooks snorted. “Like I said: jealous.”
“S’ kinda nice, actually,” Axe smiled, “seein’ ya get jealous over me.”
Crooks folded his arms tighter across his chest as his shoulders hunched. He was failing terribly at holding back from blushing, so he just turned his head away in an attempt to hide it.
Axe turned his attention across the table again. Charm had stopped contributing to the conversation; he was just watching with his head in his hand, hearts-shaped eyelights on his blushing face, and his tail swaying slowly.
“Glad yer havin’ fun. Dat whole surrogate thing’s gonna need more discussion, but I still owe ya. Didn’t think I’d ever see my bro actin’ honest ‘bout his feelin’s.”
“Yes, thank you, Charm.” Crooks sounded much less pleased about the matter than his brother did, but his fake sarcasm wasn’t fooling anybody in this room.
“Anytime, I mean it~.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Axe and Crooks watched Charm leave the kitchen quietly, and then Crooks dropped his face into his hands.
“I can’t believe this. I’m so embarrassed right now.”
“Why?” Axe chuckled.
“You. Know. Why!” Crooks hissed.
Axe chuckled again and patted Crooks on the back. The healer sighed deeply and managed to calm down enough to stop hiding his flushed face.
“Is this really going to be fine? What if people give us weird looks—”
“Ignore ‘em.”
“Or ask embarrassing questions—”
“Ignore ‘em.”
“Or talk about us behind our backs, or—”
“Jus’ ignore ‘em. Bro, look at me.”
Crooks whimpered and peered at Axe, who smiled softly in return. “S’ gonna be fine.”
Crooks clenched his fists and forced himself to take deep breaths. His lies had been exposed, his usual excuses seemed to have solutions, and his soul was pounding so hard it almost hurt thanks to all this anxiety.
“There’s no going back from this, you know,” he whispered. “If we start this and you leave me, I’m not going to be able to take it.”
Axe reached for Crooks’s hand. The healer felt his brother’s fingers tremble nervously before he got his grip.
“I won’t leave ya. I won’t hurt ya.” His voice was comparatively quite steady and sure.
Crooks sucked in a breath and ignored the stinging feeling behind his eyes.
“Oh, to hell with it.” He leaned in and gave Axe a quick peck on the cheek. Immediately, Crooks’ face turned pink and he pulled back shyly. “I’ve… always wanted to do that.”
Axe was frozen like a statue. He never thought that after hiding and evading for so long that Crooks would go on the attack next. Never mind all that nonsense about having a quick thought processing speed; his head was as thick as honey right now.
Is this how Charm passed out last time?
Axe worried, feeling his head swim and his soul thrum relentlessly in his chest.
“Axe?” Crooks waved a hand in front of his brother’s hot pink face. “Calm down. You’re going to pass out.”
“C… can I… Can I k-kiss you?” he managed to stammer out.
Crooks flushed and nodded slightly, and Axe wrapped his arms around his brother’s neck, kissing Crooks directly on the mouth and holding it for several seconds. Crooks was tense at first, but he soon relaxed. Axe pulled back slowly and rested his forehead on Crooks’ shoulder.
“M’ gettin’ greedy already.”
Crooks stroked the back of Axe’s skull with his gangly and chipped finger bones. It felt like he was burning up. “Me too,” Crooks sighed. “More importantly, how are we going to—”
Crooks suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye, two someone’s peeking in through the doorway: Charm, who was watching with hearts in his eye sockets and a blissful look on his face; and Blueberry, who Charm had captured and hushed so as not to disturb the moment. Both of them were covered in a thin pink membrane that explained why the sharks hadn’t been able to notice them sooner.
“Oops,” the lamia smiled awkwardly. “I didn’t want to interrupt. Don’t mind us, have fun!”
And he darted off with the stunned and wide-eyed Blueberry still in his arms.
Crooks’ soul dropped in his chest.
Cover his eyes, not just his mouth!
he complained, releasing a muffled scream of embarrassment into his hands.
He suffered alone, as Axe had passed out moments prior.
***
A few innocent, curious questions from Blue in a public part of the den was all it took for rumors about Axe and Crooks kissing to spread like an electric current.
Crooks, who thought he had finally resolved himself to progress their relationship, was absolutely panicked now that the decision of when and how to let the others know was out of his hands.
At a time like this, he tried to busy himself in chores and thereby avoid all questioning.
Undyne wasn’t having it.
“Crooks!”
“I’m sorry, Undyne, like I said, I’m very busy right now.”
“Man, come on, just wait for a second!”
“No, sorry, there’s a lot to do today, you know? Oh, I’ve been meaning to dust the sand off the roof, that’s right…”
The mermaid lunged to grab his wrist, but Crooks slipped out of the way and continued his work.
“I’m just trying to figure out if you’re okay, Crooks! Come on!”
“I’m in relatively perfect health, as usual, now pardon me.”
He fled to the roof, literally intending to sweep the sand off the roof. It wasn’t like it was a useless chore, since it was annoying if too much sand built up and it started falling in through the holes in the ceiling, but it was an excuse so obvious it wasn’t even funny.
Like a shark, Undyne followed him up there without letting him get away.
“Crooks, I’m your friend, aren’t I?” she asked.
While facing away from her, not sweeping even though there was a broom in his hands, Crooks answered quietly.
“I hope so, yes.”
“Then talk to me!”
Undyne anguished. Blueberry wasn’t a liar. He could’ve seen wrong, but Crooks’ reaction didn’t make sense if nothing had happened.
“Blue said he saw Axe kissing you. I just want to make sure you’re alright.”
Crooks kept himself facing away from Undyne. He himself didn’t know what kind of face he was making, after all. He hated avoiding the issue like this, but he didn’t know what else to do. Lying and saying nothing happened felt like betraying Axe somehow.
And lying in general had mainly just caused him stress.
“I know you and Axe still don’t get along,” Crooks said.
“You’re right,” Undyne said with a guilty conscience. “But give me some credit. I didn’t just go off and accuse him to his face. I came to ask you what happened first. Talk to me, man. I promise I won’t go and kill him even if he did assault you—unless you want me to.” Undyne felt the silence weighing on her. “Uh, th-that last bit was just a joke.”
“Undyne?”
“Y-yeah?!” The mermaid floated attentively. “What is it?”
“You’re a very righteous person.”
“Oh, uh, thanks.”
“I’m afraid of disappointing you, and I really don’t want to find out that our friendship is shallower than I thought if I do. I’m a coward.”
Undyne swam up beside Crooks and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You won’t disappoint me,” she said with a sympathetic look.
Crooks made a small, taut smile. Undyne had this way of getting his hopes up… Up so high that the fall back down seemed fatal.
He had a polite and reserved personality on the surface. Even in this school where deep ocean creatures were accepted, Crooks noticed that his treatment was a bit better. When people worried about Axe and Red, half the time it was because they were afraid they had done something, but when they worried about Crooks, it was because they were afraid something had been done
to
him.
But I’m from the deep too, you know,
he thought, peering down at Undyne’s gentle yet fierce face.
I never killed anyone, and I use that fact to my advantage up here, but if I were born able-bodied like Axe, do you think that would still be true? I’m gentle because our school was full of stressed mer much stronger than me who I couldn’t afford to set off. I speak well because nobody could understand me through my lisp. I can be attentive to others because I’m used to paying attention to my surroundings, and because I don’t want to leave this place for a harsher world. The only internal difference between me and other deep ocean mer is that I know I’m weak. If you realize I’m not some mermaid in a mershark’s body, will you hit me? Will you hate me?
“Dude, it’s okay. I’m here for you.”
Undyne tightened her hold on Crooks’ shoulder and pulled him into a gentle hug. Crooks blinked his eyes and felt pink tears separate off into the water.
“I’m not a good person, Undyne.” His voice warbled a bit, but he kept it mostly steady, blinking away the tears he’d shed and holding back new ones.
“Who told you that?” she frowned.
“Nobody. Nobody ever. But it’s true.”
Undyne sighed and patted Crooks on the back while continuing to hug him. “You’re a good person, Crooks. You do nice things all the time. You’re just feeling scrambled because of what happened.”
“That’s just it,” Crooks whispered. “Because you think I’m a good person, you think it had to be Axe who kissed me.”
Undyne’s eyelids flickered open, and she was surprised enough to hold Crooks at arm’s length—before realizing that her current look of shock was the opposite of supportive and draping on an awkward smile.
“Did… Is that not what happened?”
“Blueberry saw Axe kissing me, but I kissed him first.”
Undyne was, understandably, unsure how to react to that news. “Was it, uh, like a friendly kiss…?”
Crooks shook his head and carefully separated Undyne’s frozen fingers from his shoulders.
“I tried to ignore my feelings all these years, but I gave in. I love him. I’m ashamed of these feelings, and I’m
mortified
that it came out like
this
… but I love him. I can’t change that.”
“You’re in love with
Axe
?”
Crooks nodded and gripped his arm uncomfortably.
“That crazy, no-good headcase?! Him?!” Undyne groaned into her hands. “Crooks, man, you could do so much better than that creep!”
Crooks blinked and tilted his head. “He’s also my brother.”
“I know, and I know I shouldn’t say bad things about someone you like or family or whatever, but
really
?
Him
?”
Crooks blinked again, relaxed his arms, and said dumbly, “It’s incest.”
“In-what?”
“I’m in love with my brother.”
“Yeah, we covered that, right?”
Crooks and Undyne tipped their heads as if mirroring each other. The healer chewed his next words for a minute.
“Aren’t you angry? Or disgusted?”
“Uhh…” Undyne tapped a finger to her chin, “I mean, it’s
Axe
, so, yeah?”
Crooks massaged his temples, starting to feel bewildered at this point. “Do mermaids not have rules against close family members mating?”
“What? Not that I’ve ever heard of.” She immediately shook her head. “I mean, I guess it’s weird. Isn’t it typical to know way too much about your siblings to like them?” She pondered a bit, stroking her scaly blue chin. “I mean, we’ve already got a couple mixed-type relationships here, like me and Alphys. And I’m worried those lamias are gonna end up staying too. As long as you’ve got a single lifetime partner of the same type, you’re pretty basic, I’d say.”
“Ba… sic…” Crooks internally praised himself for not screaming. “I think I need to go cool down,” he muttered. “Thank you for this talk.”
“Oh, no problem. Hope you’re feeling better. Don’t let Axe push you around, okay?”
“M… mhm.”
***
Crooks went to consult an expert, but he couldn’t find Charm, so he settled for Lust, whom he found lounging on a sunny pile of sand behind the den.
“No, yeah, mermaids are super new to the eugenics scene,” the doll-like lamia said, “and they keep fuck all for records. They also have a huge and diverse population. It makes sense that they haven’t noticed any of the consequences of too much inbreeding yet.”
Crooks forced his jaw to shut and cleared his throat. “Thank you for such a concise answer.”
A mind-reader Lust was not, but he was an adept socialite, and Crooks was too genuinely surprised to completely hide his thoughts.
“Hey, honey, I’m horny, not stupid.”
The healer sighed. “Yes, I’m sorry.”
Reminds me of somebody else I know…
“Anyway, to me it’s just… ridiculous that they don’t know these things.”
Lust shrugged. “Monster inbreeding doesn’t get really bad in just two or three generations, and you need an unbroken line of close relatives to really see it happening. That typically only happens in closed populations or populations that are deliberately controlling their breeding.” He rested a cheek on his fist.
“You know a lot,” Crooks said in admiration.
The Lamia rolled into a different comfortable position and smirked, “Hah! Ask me anything at all about biology; I know it.”
Crooks drummed his fingers and decided to ask a question just to test that confidence. “How many gills do mersharks have?”
Lust frowned. “I was taught that the answer was six, but you have eight. My guess is that’s why you were able to come to the shallows. Any particular reason you’re drawing my attention to your tail~?”
“What? No!” Crooks blushed, which unfortunately marked the exchange as Lust’s victory. “I was just testing that knowledge you’re so proud of.”
“Relax, I know. Anyway, do you know
why
adding more gills let you come up here?”
“Because there’s less air in the shallows,” Crooks replied.
Lust quirked a smile. “Wrong. There’s actually
more
free oxygen in the shallows.”
“What?” Crooks frowned. “That can’t be. We started suffocating anytime we tried to leave the deep.”
Lust swayed the tip of his tail. “Yeah, that’s not because of the oxygen content but because of the temperature.”
“How?”
“Mersharks are endothermic homeotherms. You use magic internally to keep a stable body temperature. Because you’re so big, you have a harder time keeping cool in warm water than keeping warm in cool water. You’re using a lot of energy, but you wouldn’t notice it aside from changes in your metabolism. Your diet was already super magic rich, so no big change there, but the faster you burn energy, the more oxygen you need. The extra gills help you pull oxygen out of the water faster to keep up with your metabolism.”
“Is… is that so?” Crooks scratched his head. “This is strange. I think you know more about my species than I do.”
“Once upon a time, I thought the knowledge would help me go far in life,” Lust shrugged. “My magic’s pulled way more weight so far though.”
Crooks pondered that. As a healer, he knew a great deal about maladies and injuries, but he realized he actually didn’t understand much about how a healthy body worked. He just knew well how to fix something that was wrong.
If Crooks was someone who could mend a torn canvas or touch up a smudge, Lust was someone who could tell you the name of the painting, the story behind it’s making, and the techniques its maker utilized.
“Okay, bitch, I’ll say it again,” Lust rolled his eyes. “Quit it with the shock and awe, will you? I don’t wanna know what a dumb slut you thought I was. I don’t care.”
Crooks shook himself back to reality. “Can’t I just be impressed without indirectly insulting you?” he said with a wry smile.
Lust hummed and rolled onto his back, stretching his arms above his head and his chest up toward the surface. “Mmm~ Yeah, I’m pretty impressive. Okay, you get a pass.” Lust grinned and winked at Crooks. “By the way, let me know if you need any advice on how to satisfy your brother. Him being such a simp for you is no excuse to be lazy about pleasuring him.”
Crooks frowned and hid his bright pink cheeks behind one hand, glaring out through the gaps in his fingers.
“Please stick to mermaid-appropriate language,” he half-ordered half-pleaded.
“Oh, cinnamon bun, that
was
mermaid-appropriate language. I’m talking about sex here, do you want me to speak in code?”
“C-come to think of it, I have chores to do!” Crooks spoke so fast he nearly interrupted Lust, and he left in quite a hurry after that.
Lust exhaled through his nasal hole and cozied up to a warmer patch of the sunny sand.
I should’ve read up on psychology and culture like Charm did.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lust swam into one of the community rooms, making himself comfortable on the sand right next to where Geno happened to be relaxing. The attack mage raised a brow at the lamia and scooted himself to put more distance between them. Lust watched that and smiled bitterly. “Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard. You’ll get bruised.”“Just trying to stay away from slimy wandering hands,” Geno bit back. Lust rolled his eyes. “I was thinking about having a chat,” “It’s like I’m looking in a mirror,” Death murmured, glancing between the two petite, sarcastic skeleton mer. “Fuck off,” Geno snapped at him. He then saw the awkward look Lust was giving him and cleared his throat. “Not you, him.”Lust followed where Geno’s finger was pointing, seeing nothing but empty water himself. “Riiight…”Geno blinked. “No, uh, I’m not crazy. I’m talking to Death—Blue has seen him too; it’s not just me.”“Not really any of my business,” Lust shrugged, and Geno knew he’d failed to convince the lamia. Being seen as crazy by a genuine weirdo didn’t sit well with him. Meanwhile, Death just casually kept talking. “This one’s actually pretty messed up,” he said. Yeah, tell me about it , Geno thought. Unable to hear the mermaid’s thoughts, Death swam around, pointing at several places on the lamia’s body. “His life force is strong, but if you factor him down to normal levels, there are hundreds of old fatal wounds all over him.”To Death’s empty black eyes, he saw ghostly visions of the Lamia being broken, torn, and even eaten alive. The wounds were already long healed, but he saw them clearly. Lust had always kept distant from Geno, the one Death was always hovering around, so Death hadn’t cared to take a close look at him before now. A certain amount of negligence was necessary to keep sane as an all-knowing god of death. Geno’s jaw dropped at Death’s statement. He ignored Lust completely and spoke directly to invisible god. “What? Like, from combat?”“If that combat took place in the bedroom,” Death chuckled dryly, watching a ghostly image of Lust’s pelvis and ribs fracturing in three places before his next hypothetical death flashed by. Immediately, Geno’s face darkened, and not particularly with sympathy. “Oh. Well, I could’ve imagined that much,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I can feel you judging me,” Lust complained with a pout, folding his arms across his chest. For a moment, Geno considered using Death’s supernatural knowledge to prove to Lust that the jellyfish was real, but he didn’t want to hear any more details about the little slut’s adventurous sex life in the process. “Like I said, I wanted to talk,” Lust tried again. “Can you maybe tell your imaginary friend to sit quietly like a good boy?”Geno gritted his teeth and was about to turn him down, but Death returned to his side and whispered in his ear. “Why don’t we hear him out? It might be interesting.” Troublesome, more like, Geno clicked his tongue. “Fine. What did you want to talk about?”Seeing that Geno was finally being a little cooperative, Lust relaxed his posture a bit and leaned back onto his arms. “I’m a little lonely, and you’re usually by yourself. I figured we could keep each other company.”Geno folded his arms, eyed the Lamia up and down, and made a point of trying not to look impressed—even if he did secretly admit that Lust was damn attractive. “Yeah, I’m not sleeping with you.”“DID I ASK?!”Lust slapped the floor with his tail, and Geno swore he saw the walls of the den shake. He glanced worriedly at some sand now draining from the floor into a deep crack in the stone underneath. He secretly prepared to conjure a barrier in case that force ended up directed at something more fragile. “I said I’m lonely!” Lust snapped. “Charm is busy and everyone else is treating me like I’m a disease! I just want to have a conversation like a normal person!”Toriel passed by the room and peeked inside. “Is everyone alright? The ground shook.”“We’re fine,” Geno answered. “I’ll go check on the others then,” she nodded and swam off. Apparently Lust’s raised voice still wasn’t loud enough to reach the rest of the den.
But that tail strike was? How do absolute monsters keep finding this place? What kind of purple magic is this guy using? How the fuck did he train?
When Geno looked back, Lust was lounging on his side, pouting and drawing circles in the sand with his index finger.
He switches gears so fast…
“Alright, you think about more than just sex. I got it. So what did you want to talk about?”“Oh!” Lust quickly perked up and sat back on his tail. “I don’t know. I’ll let you lead. What do mermaids gossip about?”“Gossip, huh?” Geno stroked his chin. “Well, right now it’s mostly about how Blue saw the sharks kissing…” He looked over to see Lust pouting at him again, this time with stronger notes of frustration. “What?”The lamia clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and finally deflated, laying down on the floor in a depressed spiral. “Nooothing!” he called out sarcastically. “Life has always been unfair and full of double standards anyway. If I’d been the one to bring that up, what would you have said?”“He’s got a point,” Death chuckled. He’s got a point, Geno thought to himself and nodded. … Wait no— “Le… let’s talk about something else then…” Geno folded his arms and wracked his brain for an interesting topic that had nothing to do with romance. Somehow, the first several topics that came to mind were all like that. Just when Geno was feeling a cold sweat break out, he found a safe topic. “Did… you know Crooks is an amazing healer?”“Is he?” Lust hummed, still laying flat on the floor. “Yeah. He can reattach a limb that got cut off or even grow back a new one.” Geno nodded his head, feeling proud that he’d managed to reignite the conversation.
Wait, why is that suddenly my job?
Lust seemed interested now, and he sat up to be able to make eye contact while they talked. “Really? That’s amazing. Do you know how complicated the magic making up a single limb is?” He held up his arm and waved it demonstratively. “Healing cuts or reattaching a limb is no big deal, you just fill the gap with base magic and seal the wound with some skin or bone or whatever; the body differentiates the magic on its own from there. But to make a new limb and have it keep its shape? You’d have to differentiate the base magic as you make it, layer by layer. Someone who doesn’t even know how his own gills work managed that?”Geno blinked and his mouth moved to reply while his brain was still processing. “Well, he hasn’t had to grow back a monster limb yet. He did it for a human. Maybe that made it easier?”Lust visibly started shaking as chills traveled all the way up his back, and he hugged himself tightly. “Hey, you’re lying, right? There’s no way he regenerated a human limb. The margin of error working with physical cells is way too small. You want to grow a bone like that? Ever heard of osteoporosis? Abnormal growths? Cancer?”“He’s just that amazing,” Geno said with a numb mouth. As a mer who was brought back from the brink of death by Crooks, and later saved from a disabled life by him, Geno could accept it even if someone called that shark the god of healing. He had that kind of faith in Crooks’ ability. What made him feel like his perception of reality was crashing down was the extremely unsettling discovery that this hysterical sex-addict was probably smarter than him. “That’s insane,” Lust murmured. “Totally insane. In the first place, you want to convert base magic into specialized physical cells? And, what, did he just guess how it was supposed to be from looking at the other limb? Is this what people call a genius? It’s insane…” Lust flopped onto his back again, holding his head which had started to hurt. “You can’t tell at all that he’s a genius when you just look at him!” Tell me about it, Geno despaired. “Do you wanna talk about something else?”Lust sighed and slowly sat up again. “Yeah. Maybe we can come back to this later when my head stops hurting.”Geno did his best to keep pulling topics out of his hat, and Lust kept engaging in the conversation. Occasionally his responses were vulgar or suggestive, but Geno couldn’t bring himself to criticize the guy for having sex on his mind. There was clearly a lot more going on up there than he ever expected. The longer they talked, the more Lust relaxed, and his tongue slipped more and more often into a pink lamia’s way of speaking—especially because Geno didn’t shut down the conversation whenever it happened. And the red mermaid, to his muted shock, understood and internalized what the lamia brothers had been trying to tell the school since they arrived: that was just how they carried themselves. That was to say, Lust’s replies were real substance wrapped in sexual jokes and metaphors. It was a situation where it seemed like one serious comment could move the interaction to the bedroom; as if that was on the table as an option at all times. And yet, without that push, it remained just a discussion about things really not even related to sex. And Lust wasn’t making that push. “How did he even fit that whole thing in his mouth?” Lust laughed, referring to the time when Black bit Undyne’s hand off.Geno laughed. “Crooks reattached it, obviously.”“So did they get caught misbehaving?”“Everybody thought they would, but then Sans and Red came back, and it turned out Red was pregnant again. It caused a big mess, so they managed to slip by under the radar.”“It must’ve been a fun vacation~. I’m starting to root for those two. They’re cute together.” Lust held his cheek and smiled. “Well, yeah, they are.” Geno thought of more stories to share with Lust, and they talked for hours together. ***Geno sat up in bed and gripped his skull in his hands. How the fuck did this happen? he groaned, knowing full well the answer. Lust was lying beside him, sharing a corner of his pillow; his long serpentine tail curled and coiled up randomly wherever there was room. The short story was that Geno ended up getting seduced all on his own, and he accepted Lust’s offer for company. The only saving grace was that Death decided to go off somewhere and didn’t watch. But seriously , Geno fretted, how? It isn’t even mating season! Is there something wrong with me? Was I that lonely? Because if I’m not some slut… Geno looked down at the angelic-looking nympho lying beside him and gulped. … Then this must be why people are afraid of the Pink Clan. Geno didn’t even like Lust yesterday morning. Then, within a few hours, he liked him enough to sleep with him. That kind of charisma was insane. The mermaid pulled his eyes away from Lust when he felt himself blushing, and buried his face in his hands.
It was good, too!
Lust stirred awake next to him and stretched. “Mornin’~” he mumbled. He noticed how frazzled Geno was and smirked. “It was fun, right?”“It… was fun…” Geno screamed internally. “I don’t know what to say after how I treated you.”“Well… I think I know how you can make it up to me.”The attack mage grimaced. “How?”Lust shrugged and slid out of bed. “If anybody asks, be honest and let them know you started this. I’m conditioned for hot water, but still .”“…Alright.” There was no way Geno could refuse when he knew Lust’s current standing in the school. Even so, his face went completely red at the thought of talking about last night with the others. “Awesome~ And just let me know if you ever feel like holding me again~” Lust blew Geno a kiss. The Lamia straightened up suddenly. “Oh yeah, and uh…” he looked around and leaned in to whisper to Geno. “That last bit was a little off.”The red mermaid grimaced bitterly. “Seriously? Was it bad?”“No no, not like that,” Lust waved Geno’s worries down, protecting his injured pride. “It felt fine; I’m just saying it’s not usually like that.”Geno paled and asked a very similar question with a very different expression. “Is it bad?”Lust held a finger to his mouth and smiled wryly. “I don’t make judgements, just memorize statistics. Not all unique things are good or bad, y’know? Maybe see Crooks about it, m’kay?”“Okay…”Geno watched Lust swim out of his room and rubbed his arm anxiously. ***“You’re moping,” Life said, her voice warm like a summer day. Death peeked at her and snorted a joyless laugh. He continued slouching against a dead tree stump with his cheek in his hand. “What’s there to mope about? Mortals do what mortals do. I’m just an observer.”Life was sitting on a meadow full of flowers, yet it was like she wasn’t there at all: the plants underneath her stood up like there was no weight upon them, but still waved in the wind. “I wonder when you got so attached to the little one,” she mused, planting clovers by running her fingers through the grass. “It’s alright to be honest about it.”Death stared at Life for a moment, frowning, then lowered his posture and looked off to the side. “It just felt weird to watch. I really don’t get why I feel so…”“Jealous?”Death glanced at Life’s understanding smile and nodded. “I didn’t think I had feelings for him besides curiosity.”Life watched Death’s confused and worried face, took a deep breath, and smiled. “Don’t hold yourself back because of me. You are my best friend, and I care about you deeply, but we aren’t yet… Right now, you’re still free to explore. I won’t blame you. I’ve been in your position as well.” The white goat, shimmering in gold, set a small bundle of forget-me-not flowers on the stump in front of Death’s eyes. “I will wait for you.”Death’s empty eyes widened when he looked at the flowers. He sat himself up and darted his eyes between Life and her simple present. It helped him to make up his mind and grasp the feelings lingering inside of his heart. He picked up the flowers, and they withered to ash in his grip. “Wait for me? Just because we have plenty of time, doesn’t mean you should have to wait for me. You’ve been my most precious friend for longer than Geno has been alive. I don’t know what I’m feeling for him exactly, but it’s probably just a longing for the kind of physical relationship we can’t have. And if that’s all I want from him, I’m not going to devalue either of you by having a fling for a reason like that.” Using the ashes from before, Death created a morbid approximation of a flower made of bones and offered it to Life. “I’m yours and only yours.” Life covered her mouth with one hand and carefully took the flower with the other. It decayed rapidly in her hand, and a black rose grew from the compost. Golden tears formed in Life’s eyes, and she brought the rose to her lips to tenderly kiss it. Death’s cheeks dusted gray, but Life didn’t look at all embarrassed for the indirect kiss. “Please… continue to treat me well,” she said. “Of course.” Life turned the black rose around in her hand, smiling lovingly down at it. The gods of Life and Death sat together peacefully in the meadow for a while, while a pleasant breeze continued overhead. “So what about those mortals?” Life asked. “Will you keep visiting them?”Death answered while staring up at some passing clouds. “I think so, yeah. There’s a lot going on over there, and I feel like it’ll start to involve us sooner or later.”“Are they still looking for that ?” Life asked. “Yep. If they don’t give up, it’s inevitable that they’ll really find it someday. But besides that, they somehow keep attracting people with all different kinds of extreme talents. When shit hits the fan, we might even have to drag Magic into it.”“They’ve been living peacefully so far,” Life encouraged him. “Doesn’t make me worry less. I'm pretty sure that group could start a war all on their own and win. I don’t wanna have to do that kind of work again.”Life smiled and created a golden rose, offering it to Death. “Go and keep an eye on them then. Maintain the peace you enjoy so much.”Death smiled, nodded, and accepted the flower. It shriveled and lost some of its luster, but it didn’t rot in his hands: frozen in its moment of death. He had been making a point with the forget-me-not earlier, but the thing mortals tended to view as total destruction, rot, was actually part of Life’s domain. Death, instead, was stillness. “Thanks. I’ll come and see you often.”“I look forward to it.”Life waved goodbye to Death as he flew off toward the ocean, and again, she held the black rose close, constantly supplying the cut flower with fresh life to prevent it from rotting.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Styles glared at a crying child and her mother, who was trying desperately to keep the human’s wails from escaping. As Styles’ expression soured, the woman finally just scooped up her daughter and ran to another subway car. The mobster lowered his chin fractionally and huffed out a sigh.
I hate public transportation.
Hit’s younger brother was a lean monster with a long and sharp face. He didn’t have any scars, but his eyes were narrow and stern, with angular cheekbones and sharp fangs. He habitually dressed himself in the same kind of high-class tailored suits that Hit wore, except he left out any red embellishments—pure black, or occasionally a black suit with white pinstripes. And Styles was a giant of a man, slim only because he was a skeleton monster. He had an archer’s build, with broad shoulders, long arms, and a narrow waist. At eight foot one, Styles dwarfed just about everybody, including his older brother.The other monsters and the humans in this subway car had gathered to one side so that he could have a bench to himself. It was just obvious that he wasn’t a monster ordinary people would want to get involved with. But under no circumstances was public transportation ever comfortable. Styles preferred to walk, when the time and distance permitted it. Otherwise, he had a limousine that he usually rode. Unfortunately it was in the shop for regular maintenance, and his backup had recently been shot full of holes. At times like this, what he wouldn’t give to have his brother’s teleportation power. The subway finally arrived at his station. Styles pressed his hat to his head and stood up, stooping while he exited the vehicle. He took a deep breath and resumed his travel, taking the subway steps two at a time comfortably. He strolled around town, ignoring the usual attention he gathered by default. It was a bit more rowdy than usual, since this wasn’t a part of town Styles had spent much time in. Luckily, the number of people walking around dropped considerably as he approached his destination. It was an unassuming old factory building, and according to their intel, it was currently home to a small gang. That was good and fine, the Gaster family was big, and they allowed some coexistence with smaller groups. But when the Gaster family took over an area, it was only natural for the small fish living there to say hello, right? This little group in particular didn’t seem to understand that times were changing. Showing disrespect in Styles’ territory merited the death penalty. He didn’t tolerate an inch of it from people in the business. There were plenty of others who could take this space and use it better than a bunch of glorified cockroaches. The front door of the warehouse was locked with heavy chains, and Styles examined the old mechanism with a snort. He pulled two thin metal sticks out of his breast pocket and twisted them around inside of the lock. It popped open with just a little bit of encouragement. He pulled the thick chain away and set it down next to the door. The lights were on inside, like they had been the night before. These folks were way too stupid for their ambitions. Someone with sense would’ve at least boarded up the windows or got some cheap blackout curtains. Styles walked casually into the open area; the ceiling was plenty high, which was always a nice aspect to buildings like these. Deeper in, there were a few people—some humans, some monsters—cutting open the upholstery of taxi seats to pull out bags of drugs. At least they cut along the seams, so they weren’t completely hopeless. Casual entries often didn’t trigger any alarms in people’s heads, and Styles had a little time to fold his arms and observe the gang’s movements and armaments. Eventually, of course, he was noticed. Someone was bound to look up at some point and notice an eight-foot-tall skeleton monster they’ve never seen before. “Ey, what the fuck? You new? Did Lenny send ya?”The other gang members looked up when they heard one person say something. There were seven of them in total. No side rooms, and not much of anywhere to hide. Plenty of points of exit if they improvised. Styles exhaled past his fangs and eyed the man down. He hated this part of the job: doing grunt work; acting like a brute. He was good at it, but it was far from the classy kinda jobs you’d expect an upper-tier executive to be doing. And sure, Styles did plenty besides this rough stuff, but when nobody else was better at something than you, sometimes you just had to step up and do it yourself. That was how you prevented future problems from cropping up. Rapid draw, Styles drew a semiautomatic handgun from his belt holster. It was far from the best gun, but it was still a good gun that was easy to hide. Four bullets later, four of the men were down, and then Styles’ neck snapped back as his skull was pierced by a bullet. It shot through his mouth and out the back of his skull. A dark red tongue slipped out of his mouth and licked his lip where a new fang was quickly growing. The monster stood up straight again and unloaded his last two bullets into the two-headed dog monster that had shot him. He finally holstered the gun and made his way toward one of the two remaining men, a human. The human scrambled and pulled out a rifle from under his work table. He aimed at Style’s chest, since he had tanked a bullet to the head already. “I’d rather you didn’t,” the skeleton snorted, creating a whip of red magic and snatching the gun from its wielder. “The suit’s expensive.”Styles held the muzzle of the rifle with both hands and twisted it. The metal creaked and squealed, and the weapon was soon unusable, bent into a U shape. A bear monster came up behind Styles with a large sledgehammer, barbarously crushing the skeleton’s left knee. He was confident that melee force would be the best way to take down a skeleton monster using guns and magic. Styles clicked his tongue, balancing himself on one leg and grabbing the head of the hammer, yanking it out of the bear’s hands with unreal strength. Balanced on one leg, he practically had to lift the hammer and the bear and then shake the latter off. “Thanks for comin’ in close,” Styles chuckled, before promptly mashing the monster’s head in with his own weapon. He then dropped the hammer and cracked his knuckles, resuming his march toward the human, using both of his legs normally. Styles’ leg was healed already. Because if one kid in the family could be born with an amazing magical gift, why not two? Styles was a monster with a red soul, but he recovered from wounds as if he had a purple soul and a personal healer following him around. It still hurt getting his leg crushed, but the goons didn’t need to know that, and he didn’t show it outwardly. Styles was blessed with a healthy body. He could trash a place like this alone without worry. He had a weakness, honestly, but it was hard to really call it that. He was brittle, maybe because he grew way too much too fast as a teen, so he got hurt easily, but the damage healed almost instantly as long as he had magic to spare. So, it was a weakness that wasn’t really a weakness. Rather than trying to beat Styles down, the only viable method to kill him would probably be to starve him out. He’d been locked up before, but unfortunately for those guys, Styles’ loving older brother could teleport. And unfortunately for the last remaining goon here, Styles didn’t need to take anybody alive, and he was out of bullets. The man tried to juke Styles and run around him toward the easiest exit, but he was simply snatched by his collar. When he tried weaseling his way out of his vest, Styles gripped him by the neck instead. “Relax,” the human wept cold sweat all over his body at the monster’s stern glare. “I still gotta get home after this, and my car’s in the shop, so you get the privilege of a painless, bloodless death.”“D-don’t,” the human choked, “k-kill…”“Thank you for clearing out of the premises in a timely manner,” Styles joked coldly and snapped the man’s neck. He left his body limp on the floor and pulled out his cellphone, pressing for one of his speed dial numbers. “The place is empty. Come clean it up.”“Sure thing, boss!” Someone said on the other end of the line. Styles groaned internally. “I’ll guard it until you’re here, but I gotta catch the subway after this. Get some people here in the next ten minutes or else.”“R-right away boss! There’s a small team nearby, I’ll send them ahead of us.”Styles nodded and hung up, keeping himself occupied by peeking into some of the crates littered around the place. There was a decent amount of product that they would reuse, after quality checks, of course. The advance team made it in seven minutes, he hoped without breaking any traffic laws. They started setting up a perimeter as soon as they arrived, so that they wouldn’t need Styles to stand guard for them. “Alright, I’m headin’ out,” he announced, securing his hat on top of his head. “Make it clean and don’t be stupid.”A newer recruit saw Styles was intending to walk home, and opened his mouth. “Hey, boss, you want a ride?”Styles stopped and sighed, torn whether to reward him for being polite or punish him for being stupid.“Thanks for the offer. You want me to ride in the back or strapped to the top?” Styles rolled his eyes. “Just focus on your job, numbskull.”***Styles walked through the front door of his home with his head held high, then hung his outer jacket on a hook by the door. He went to the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of champagne, then spun around a chair and sat on it backwards. He loosened his tie while drinking from the bottle, then let it hang limply in his hand while he stared at some mounted pictures on the wall. His father was in one of them.
You’re already thirty. How the time flies. Have you met anybody special yet, Styles? I need a grandkid to take over the family business after your brother.
His pinprick red eyelights shifted to the next photo, one of Hit and his wife, Dolly.
I fell in love, bro. She’s the most amazin’ girl ever. You’re gonna love her. Thing is, she’s human, see?
The last photo, a picture of his adopted brother, Edge, and his husband, a soft and friendly skeleton named Papyrus.
Why are you here? I didn’t invite you and you damn well know it! Stay away from Papyrus, you hear me, you sadist? Never come near us again!
Styles lifted the bottle and took another swig. He shook his head and breathed a laugh. “After everythin’… how the fuck… do you people just settle down?”He ran his free hand up his forehead, pushing his hat back, but not enough for it to fall. He shut his eyes and fixed his breathing rhythm, and the stinging feeling in his eyes went away before it became anything. Without finishing the bottle, Styles stood up and headed to the basement. He entered a twelve-digit code into a keypad to unlock the door. Inside, he picked a large ball of cotton off of a small metal trolly and stuffed it halfway into the bottle, flipping the bottle over to soak the cotton. He used a long pair of tongs to take the cotton out, then lit it on fire. Finally he turned and looked at a messy rabbit woman strapped to a medical table. Her hair was long and tangled, the remains of way too much makeup stained her face, and her clothes were overtly provocative. There was a strap tied around her mouth, but she shook her head and groaned, eyes wet. “I’m a little late today,” Styles said to her. “Shall we continue where we left off?”The woman wailed louder and fought against her restraints, but she didn’t have much strength left. Meanwhile, Styles turned on a video-only webcam, broadcasting only to one machine, miles away. “Now, see, we’ve been over this. The customers don’t like it when you make noises like that.” Styles pressed the intensely burning cotton ball to the bottom of the women’s foot. She screamed and writhed, trying to pull her foot away. “A senator bought you, dollface, and this method of disablin’ you was a special request. He’s payin’ to watch it.”He pushed the cotton ball deeper, and the woman’s screams became wails of despair. “Said he wanted to watch you limp while you hop. I don’t get it, but I don’t need to.”The former prostitute took deep, gasping breaths and glared at Styles. If looks could kill, it might’ve actually accomplished something. The monster shook his head, continuing to cripple the rabbit’s feet with fire. It was a very tidy job, all things considered: no more scarring or pain than necessary. A civilian woman would look plenty tormented on camera without the need to pull out crueler techniques. And she could think of this as training for her probable future; kindly baby steps to teach her how to bear with pain before throwing her into hell.There weren’t many customers who wanted their toys deliberately disfigured, but there were enough that Styles had developed some finesse for it. Frankly, training pets was a dirty and unpleasant job; another thing Styles would rather leave to his subordinates. Hell, it was a job that built connections with rich and important people, so it was supposed to be Hit’s job as the next Don, but he was too squeamish about hurting civilians. So, it got dumped on Styles, and he trained the most important pets himself to make sure the job got done right for their best clients. Between both of his brothers, just how much shit had gotten dumped onto his lap? And Hit had the gall to say he needed to relax more. And Edge had the gall to call him a sadist. And his pops had the gall to tell him that he had to bring a kid into this hell because both of his brothers had abandoned their duties.Styles’ head was full of begrudging thoughts on account of working overtime, but he didn’t let it affect his hands. The ‘treatment’ and ‘training’ he administered to the rabbit woman were as efficient as they could be. Finally, they were done with that for the night, and Styles turned off the webcam. He unbound the woman’s mouth and promptly shoved a tube into it, delivering liquid food without her consent. She probably preferred to starve to death, but tough luck, join the club.She was worn out tonight more than the past couple of nights, enough so that Styles was finally able to safely remove her excess makeup and untangle her hair. “I’ll be back at 5:30 to let you move your joints a little. No funny business this time, alright? Otherwise I’ll strap you down all day again.”The rabbit stared at him, making no sound even when he removed the feeding tube and held a carefully measured dose of chloroform to her face. About thirty seconds later, she was unconscious, and Styles unstrapped her from the table, moving her into a small room lined with soft things, and with a locked, see-through, reinforced plexiglass door. “Good night.”Styles walked up two flights of stairs to his bedroom, pulled off his tie, and undressed. His clothes went neatly into the hamper, and he took a shower with warm water. The mobster redressed himself in black silk pajamas once he was clean, brushed his teeth, and climbed into his oversized bed, which was frankly necessary for a man of his stature to have a comfortable sleep. The lights were off, and the night was dark. An alarm clock sitting on Styles’ dresser read 1:13 am. Nevertheless, those two stern red pinpricks of light didn’t disappear, remaining fixed on the ceiling. You can’t sleep, Styles? The Don in Styles’ memories chuckled and patted him on the head. He was much younger and much smaller back then. Don’t worry. They make pills for that. I’ll see to it that you get some. But try not to let your training keep you from having a good time. You’re doing a great job, and I’m proud of you. Styles rolled over and pulled open his bedside table drawer. He took a bottle of pills out from there and downed half of them. He needed this much just to get over his size and natural healing, and there were dozens more bottles tucked away in there.
How many bottles would it take to…
The thought died. Styles cut it off before it could grow. He had things to do, and if he didn’t do them, then what the hell would happen to his stupid, soft brothers? To his aging pops? You know how important family is, right Styles? His father’s words echoed in his skull like always.But soon, thankfully, he was asleep, and all the bitter thoughts quieted down… For about four hours before starting it all over again the next day.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Regalia awkwardly held a slim metal rectangle in her hands as she read what was written on its screen in small font. “Is there more of this?” she asked unsurely. “Yes,” Toriel smiled and explained patiently how to use a touch screen. “If you touch it and slide your finger up, you’ll see more writing appear.”The head of the local ocean council fumbled a few times before succeeding in scrolling the document. When she got to the end she frowned curiously. “I remember one of these appeared at the last trial and we saw and heard a surface monster through it. It’s a small but very complicated device.”“It took some getting used to, but I enjoy the peace of mind it gives me.” Toriel accepted her phone back with a smile. “What do you think about Axe’s appeal?”“Well…” Regalia stroked her furry chin, “Is it true that he’s mentally stable now?”“His memory problems have been fixed, and he can be held accountable for his actions from now on. Lately he has been studying very hard to pass through the surface people’s education system.”“I see. I will free him from house arrest, as he wishes. In exchange, he will be obligated to come and perform two weeks worth of community service. There is always a great deal of cleaning to be done in these waters.”“I am sure he will be very grateful.”Regalia smiled and gestured toward her towering coral den, hundreds of mermaids strong. “You came all this way. Why not rest for a moment? We can eat and talk about the past.”Toriel thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes, that sounds lovely. I will just let the others know.” She tapped at her phone with her thumbs and sent Asgore a text message. Then she swam to Regalia’s side. “And just like that, they know?”“Just like that,” Toriel giggled. “That is convenient.”The two goat mermaids swam together, beginning to reminisce about the old days. Once that was all out of their systems and they had shared plenty of cathartic laughter, Regalia clasped her hands together and took a deep breath. “How… how are things going for you lately?”“Quite well, I would say,” Toriel fiddled with a stack of empty oyster shells and the light sparkled off of them. She glanced at her friend’s rueful smile and exhaled. “I mean it. We are doing fine. Please stop blaming yourself for my own impulsiveness.”“I am sorry,” Regalia said softly. “I have not spent all this time wallowing, though. While I cannot completely accept it still, my heart isn’t as heavy and hateful as it used to be.”Toriel smiled and reached over to hold Regalia’s hands. “I am very glad to hear that.”Regalia hated human mer for killing her husband, and like many mermaids, she struggled to accept anyone who didn’t fit the mold, but she knew it was a problem and she was reflecting on it. Toriel chuckled suddenly. “You know, it may have been my destiny to create a home for unusual monsters. Even when I do nothing, they seem to turn up at my den.”Obvious worry plastered Regalia’s face. “Anything I should know about in advance?”“It is just a couple of lamia visitors from the pink clan. Oh, and Red had another child with Sans.”“I have heard about a pair of lamia visiting our waters. They seem harmless enough. I was half worried you would tell me you have discovered some entirely new creature from the deep.”Toriel took one of her paws back to cover a snort. “Actually, I am aware of one, but none have come to the shallows yet. According to Red, there exists a solitary species of mer in the deep ocean that resemble angler fish.”“Angler fish?” Regalia tipped her head curiously. “Just a moment…” Toriel tapped at her phone screen and pulled up a picture of a regular angler fish. “I did not know what they were either, but humans have taken pictures of them somehow.”Regalia leaned in to look at the picture. “Stars, those teeth! What a nasty-looking fish… Erm, did Red say whether they were dangerous or not?”“It is my impression that everything in the deep is dangerous, but he said they like to keep to themselves, so they are probably nothing to worry about.”The two chatted about various things for a while longer, sharing Toriel’s phone screen to look at pictures from time to time, and then Toriel began her two-day journey back to the den. ***Toriel returned home to a school just as happy and peaceful as she’d left it. Until one simple question at the dinner table turned the water instantly awkward. “So what happened while I was away?”The old goat looked around the table at a series of mer silently scratching their cheeks or avoiding eye contact. She looked at Asgore, who cleared his throat just to silently place more food into his mouth. He shrugged and gestured that he was chewing as she gave him an incredulous look. “Is anybody going to answer me?” There was a hint of warning to her tone. “Geno and Lust’re fuck buddies now,” Axe said. “Who’s a fuck buddy?!” Geno slammed his hands on the table and floated up from his seat. “He’s…! We’re…”“I think the mermaid-appropriate term is friends with benefits,” Lust contributed, the last few feet of his serpentine tail helping to pull the red mermaid back down. Axe raised his hand again casually. “Also, Crooks ‘n me ‘re mates now.”“Have you been studying psychology?” Charm asked, looking somehow impressed. “M’ studyin’ everythin’,” Axe grumbled back, rubbing between his eyes as they started aching at the very thought. Maybe he was overdoing it just a little. “Seems like I missed a lot,” Toriel said to herself as the table erupted back into conversation and chaos. “So how’d it go?” Axe raised his voice slightly to ask Toriel over the din. “It went well,” she smiled and told him. “You are no longer under house arrest. But in the morning you will have to leave for two weeks of service cleaning the community waters.”“M’kay. Thanks.” The shark replied casually and nodded, and Crooks gave him a look of betrayal. “You’re leaving? For two whole weeks? Why is this my first time hearing about this?”“I killed three people, bro. Figured it’d be longer.”“Say something reasonable before I really get mad.”Axe grinned and laced fingers with Crooks’ hand that was subtly reaching for the shiv he kept hidden in his rib cage. “Bro, we’re goin’ t’gether. We’d get sick if we were apart dat long. Right, Charm?”“How’d you know?” the Lamia chuckled. His posture clearly indicated he’d been enjoying watching the lovers quarrel. “I don’t remember telling you how long soulmates could separate for, but yeah, you start to see separation symptoms in about five days. It scales with distance, of course.”Crooks stared down at his brother’s hand, holding his own, and sighed, looking away with a faint blush across his cheekbones. “Say that sooner next time. Not that I want to be forced into community service with you.”Axe grinned. “Community service fer mermaids means trash cleanin’ duty n’ wildlife rescue. You’ll love it, bro. Maybe wit’ you there we’ll finish early.”“Is that all?” Crooks looked surprised. “Actually I would like to go. There isn’t much to do around here lately.”“And they are mates now?” Toriel muttered to herself. She looked around more closely at the others and gasped when she noticed Chara.Maturity had finally come for the human mer, and they had decided on their genders. Chara was now a she and Frisk had decided to remain unspecified throughout adulthood. There was no physical change at all except that Chara now tied a cloth around her flat chest for modesty. “Oh, my dear! I can’t believe I was away on the day you came of age!” Toriel wrapped her arms around her new daughter. She glanced at Frisk with a question in her eyes, and the mermaid gave her a thumbs up, so Toriel hugged them too. “Congratulations to you as well my child.”Frankly, despite raising two human mer, Toriel didn’t know all that much about their kind. She did know that their sexual flexibility was somewhere in between surface humans and monsters, and that this was likely an important moment for them. “You didn’t miss much,” Chara shrugged. “But thanks for caring. Unlike some people,” she threw a glare at Blackberry, “I’m talking to you, Black!” Blackberry closed his eyes, “Slander,” he scoffed. “I was very supportive until you asked out my twin brother and then me after he rejected you. My opinion on your so-called maturation is that you’re more out of control and insufferable than before.”“Psh, you love me,” the human mer twirled a finger in her reddish-brown hair. “I resent that accusation.”While Chara laughed at Black’s visible irritation, Toriel realized that perhaps she should be worried now that the den was filling up with adolescents, rather than children. Meanwhile, Blue apparently tried to defuse the situation by leaning over with a sparkling smile and a half-eaten plate of clams. “Hey, Black, do you want some? I’m full.”Maybe it was the universally adorable glittering blue eyes, but some of the tension disappeared from Blackberry’s brow. Nevertheless he folded his arms sternly, “Finish your own food or don’t take so much in the first place. It’s wasteful.”Chara slipped a hand in and managed to steal a clam, smiling impishly at Blue and winking. “Thanks for the grub, cutie!”The little blue mer frowned, sticking his tongue out at the human mermaid and pulling his plate back before she could steal more. He handed his leftovers over to Red, who polished them off without a word. “Where is Dust?” Toriel asked, searching around the table. “Underneath,” Red murmured, through a mouthful of clam meat. The goat mer brought her head below the table and saw the tiny meroctopus eating an anchovy. He had either caught it himself or stolen it from the pantry, but the shiny translucent color indicated it had at least been cooked. “Oh my, you’re still so small,” Toriel fretted. She raised her head up again since Dust was glaring at her. “Stretch was three times that size by now, wasn’t he?”Since he’d been mentioned by name, the second largest meroctopus in the room shrugged his shoulders and flicked a discarded clam shell across the table. “He’s constantly teleporting, so of course he has no energy left to grow.”Phantom, the dead angler mer that only Dust could see, chuckled. “They’re talking smack about you, kid.”Dust growled at his annoying present from Death and at the giants who were criticizing him. It was a small, high-pitched sound. “Cute,” MK chuckled, and Axe easily caught the tiny torpedo that subsequently charged teeth-first at his face. Crooks leaned down and chastised Dust. “If you bite anybody, you’ll have to eat your food raw for a day.”He pet the baby meroctopus gently on the head. Trapped by one particularly scary giant and chastised by another, Dust accepted his fate without further resistance. His instincts really are sharp, but it’s not like they’ll hurt him when he’s part of their school, Phantom thought to himself. In the deep, the only creatures that hunted meroctopuses were mersharks and other meroctopuses, and it sometimes felt like Dust knew that. “Well, it’s just chaos here as usual,” Sans told Toriel. “No, Sans, I think it is getting worse,” the goat lady sighed and laughed faintly.Across the table, Charm felt for a moment as if he wasn’t really there; as if he was watching this school’s life unfold from somewhere far away. He had heard about mermaids communally raising their young, but now he realized that he was actually witnessing that happen.Except for when he himself was a child, taking classes with his peers under the watch of the clan elders, Charm had never seen a person grow up before. It was a strange feeling.
It must be a big class considering Toriel and the others don’t look very confident. I wonder if they’ll need more teachers? Lust and I have studied a lot, so—
As Charm’s thoughts turned toward his brother, he quickly looked over to check on him. Except for how quietly he was watching all this, he didn’t look to be in any distress. Charm sighed internally in relief, glad that he was just overthinking things.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After the chaos of the den, Axe and Crooks found the quiet of the empty ocean unsettling. It reminded them too much of home. Crooks reached for Axe’s hand, and he took it readily.
They were on their way to the location where Axe had been told to report for community service. It was still a few hours out, so the brothers had plenty of time to adjust back to the quiet.
“Y’know,” Axe muttered, “we’re alone out here. Dis’s a good time to talk.”
“I’m worried about whatever it is you want to talk about,” Crooks sighed. “It can’t be an ordinary conversation with that sort of lead-in.”
“‘S about Charm’s offer,” Axe elaborated.
“Of course it is.” Crooks looked tired, his sunken eye sockets drooping a little more than usual. “I assume you have something productive to add to the conversation?”
“It’d be nice if ya thought so.” Axe chuckled and drew in a deep breath through his gills. “Actually, it ain’t a coincidence dat I applied fer this now. Community service, I mean. S’ a much shorter way ta end my punishment, n’ havin’ the freedom ta move around’s probably gonna be important if we wanna do this.”
“That’s a very big if,” Crooks told him.
“‘Cause ya don’t trust the lamias, right?”
“Don’t tell me you do!” Crooks clutched at his thin and brittle sternum. “Even if those two are fine, what about the rest of their clan? What about their mysterious elders? What about the palette clan that’s controlling them from behind? I’ve waited my whole life to have children. If they were stolen from us—subjected to a life as breeding material little better than where we came from…”
Crooks had started hyperventilating, so he ended his outburst there. Axe held his hand tightly to comfort him.
“But we got an alternative, ya know? We can guarantee the kid stays safe.”
Crooks needed a minute to calm down enough to respond. “What do you mean?”
“Hit n’ the rest of dat surface school we joined. You heard about how dey operate; family’s sacred to ‘em. Ya think they wouldn’t do anythin’ and everythin’ ta protect our kid?”
Crooks visibly calmed down very quickly, sinking halfway into his thoughts. “… That’s why you confirmed that lamias can breathe air. With surface heating technology, seasonal climate changes aren’t a problem, and we could have them constantly under watch and protection.”
Axe nodded. “I dunno ‘bout Lust, but Charm seemed like he’d be fine never goin’ back ta his clan. But hey,” Axe swam himself directly into Crooks line of sight, “he’ll be carryin’ our kid, so we can’t stress him out. M’not talkin’ about makin’ him a prisoner here. We don’t gotta post guards—cameras is plenty. We don’t gotta isolate him on da surface, we can build a little house on dat rocky outcropping near the den; fill it up wit’ warm water n’ air.”
Crooks nodded and pinched between his eyes. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I’m slipping aren’t I?”
Axe beamed. “Ain’t nothin’ ta be sorry for. Dis’s a big deal fer us. I’d be worried if ya weren’t goin’ half crazy thinkin’ about it. N’ if ya got a better plan, lemme know.”
Crooks sighed. “I don’t. I considered transplanting Charm’s womb and magic into me, but with no experience handling pink magic, I can’t guarantee there wouldn’t be a rejection.”
Axe hummed. “Since we’re away from the den n’ mermaids n’ all dat, m’ just gonna say it. I wonder what pink tastes like.”
“Thank the gods I wasn’t the only one thinking about it!” Crooks heaved a sigh of relief.
“Maybe we could find out if we looked into how the surface makes magic food n’ taught it ta Charm.”
“That’s a thought,” Crooks nodded. “There’s a chance he knows already. It isn’t like we asked.”
“Wasn’t really high priority,” Axe shrugged a nod.
Crooks smiled and stretched the long, slim fingers on his free hand. “Seeing a living lamia for the first time was quite something, though. I wanted to ask for some eel to cook, since my hands were itching, but I wasn’t sure how to ask Red to hunt some without sounding strange.”
“I can ask when we get back. Ain’t a big deal if
I
mess up n’ look psycho.”
“Would you? Thanks.”
Crooks felt his spirits lighten even as guilt tickled his bones. It was so nice to just be himself and talk without walking on eggshells. As miserable as his past was, it was still part of who he was, inseparable from him. He had fond memories and nostalgia born from that horror that he couldn’t quite seem to let go of, since they were some of the few good memories he had of the deep.
But every time, he still worried what his new friends would think if they heard the things he said when he was alone with Axe or the things he thought silently.
Axe squeezed his hand again.
“S’ fine,” he comforted, sensing Crooks’s guilt. “Let’s jus’ take the chance ta get it outta our systems. It ain’t good ta bottle things up.”
“Fair enough,” Crooks actually managed a chuckle. “So do you keep a list?”
“Of who I should kill if I get da chance? Or of who would taste da best? Or somethin’ else?”
“The second one. You’re not plotting to kill anyone in the school, are you? I like them.”
“Not anyone in dis school, no. Everyone in our old school, since dey all tried ta eat ya. N’ maybe one more, but I ain’t sure if dat’s a livin’ thing or not yet.”
“Care to explain?”
Axe shrugged. “M’ trying ta track down the cause of the famine in the deep.”
Crooks blinked in surprise and then wrapped his arms around his brother in an affectionate hug. “Brother, you’re wonderful. I know I can’t help you fight, but please keep me involved. And if the cause is a creature, I want to dismember it and scatter its flesh and bones in the waters it ravaged.”
“Sounds good,” Axe laughed, light-headed. As usual, even small amounts of affection made his soul rush wildly. He didn’t let that keep him from hugging his mate back though.
“So,” as they separated, Crooks got the conversation back on track, “on the count of three, let’s both say who in the school we think would taste the best.”
“I’m game. One…”
“Two. Three.”
““Sans,”” they said in unison.
“Low stress, easy lifestyle,” Axe shrugged, “An’ he’s well-fed n’ exercised.”
“I think I’ll feel guilty if I even start listing the reasons,” Crooks timidly excused himself.
“Alright. How about bottom of the list? Three. Two. One.”
““Geno.””
“Dat red magic’s way too dense. It’d be bitter. N’ I think he’d be stringy. Wonder if he’d take it as an insult or a compliment.”
“Personally, I’d be insulted, but people from the shallows are different.” Crooks pondered. “I have a separate list for who would make the best meal.”
Axe nodded. “‘S different. Best meal’s Stretch fer sure. Not ‘s good as Sans but way more filling.”
Crooks nodded. “The worst meal would be Dust. And you
know
he would fight you all the way down.”
It went without saying that neither of the mersharks had any intentions of actually eating their schoolmates—not unless the situation became as desperate as it was back home.
They just couldn’t help keeping track in their heads, like how a rags to riches type might count every penny even after making their fortune.
“Y’know what I like?” Axe prompted.
“What?”
“Bein’ soulmates n’ all, we ain’t never gonna hafta pick who eats who and who has to live alone. If we starve, we both die.”
“That is nice,” Crooks smiled. Then realization settled in and he exclaimed, “Dear gods! We’re going to have a child and both live to see it born!”
“Yep,” Axe chuckled, glad that Crooks was coming around to the idea enough to talk like that.
“It’s a miracle… But wait, who will get to choose the name? How will they call us? Mom and dad?”
“How d’ya want it ta be?”
“Well, I chose Dust’s name, so you can pick this time.”
“Mm, I’d rather we choose a name t’gether.”
Crooks flushed in excitement. “A-alright, if you don’t mind sharing… And since Charm is my surrogate, would it be alright if I’m their mom and you’re their dad?”
“Sounds good,” Axe nodded. “Y’know, I used to hate the idea of bein’ the mom back in the day. I know dat at the time it seemed like the best choice fer the kids, but I didn’t wanna live a second past ya.”
Crooks said nothing in response, and Axe grew worried when he felt melancholy from him. Crooks, in return, felt Axe’s mounting anxiety and shook his head, chuckling.
“It’s nothing you said. I’m just… sorry. About a lot of things.”
“Ya don’t gotta—”
Crooks showed a somber smile that shut Axe up instantly. He stopped swimming for a moment and stroked his brother’s cheek, and Axe lit up like a rusty red light bulb. Crooks let out a short sigh and resumed swimming, Axe following after a moment of being stunned.
“I was always someone you had to protect instead of someone you could rely on. You sacrificed your whole life for me, even though I was constantly messing up things that mattered to you. You couldn’t have kids because of me. You couldn’t die because of me. But you were willing to die
for
me, as many times as it took. I love you, Axe, but I think you love me more. So I’m just left feeling sorry.”
Those words hung in the water for a minute, then two minutes. Right about when Crooks thought the conversation was over, Axe spoke up.
“Are ya ignorin’ it on purpose?” He murmured.
“Ignoring what?” Crooks asked.
“We’re soulmates ain’t we? You should know what I was feelin’ throughout da years: how much I was really relyin’ on ya.”
Crooks clenched his fists but Axe kept talking.
“Sure, a soulbond doesn’t tell ya everythin’, but yer smart. M’ sure ya noticed.”
And how could he not? How could Crooks fail to notice Axe staying awake every night to watch over him? How viscously he fought off Crooks’s enemies? Even the second earliest memory in his skull was of Axe slaughtering their siblings in the womb to keep Crooks from being cannibalized and to give him enough nutrients to grow to term.
Back then, maybe it was just survival instinct, since they were soulmates. But through years of close interaction, Axe had changed. Crooks could feel Axe’s loyalty through their soulbond… and then he could feel his attention; later, his affection; then his love; his obsession; and finally, his complete emotional dependence.
“Why da hell’re ya feelin’ sorry fer not lovin’ me s’ much as I love you? Why’re ya pretendin’ I don’t rely on ya ta keep sane? Ya ain’t been doin’ nothin’ all these years; you’ve been workin’ hard ta keep me on dis side of the trench.”
Crooks protested weakly. “Most of the members of our school were a little unstable. You would have been fine without me.”
Axe stared at his brother with wide red rings. “Ya remember what Charm said about soulmates? Dey complete each other n’ dey couldn’t’ve survived alone. We can figure dat without me, Yer body woulda broken down n’ you’d’ve died. Dat’s how soulmates are, n’ ya think I didn’t get nothin’ from our bond? Sure, my body’s fine n’ my head works, so take a guess: what was I missin’? What did ya give me dat I couldn’t’ve lived without?”
Crooks clutched his brittle sternum tightly, trying and failing to suppress his earliest of all memories as tears welled in his eye sockets.
He was in his mother’s womb: tiny, barely made. He wouldn’t know what the sensation was until months later, but he was in pain. His bones ached and chipped with every slight movement. His breaths were shallow and hazy. All around him, moderately healthier sharks were drifting lazily. And there was one, not too far away, that was completely and utterly still, only twitching slightly when another sibling would bump into them by accident.
Suddenly, the world went awash with golden light. Pressure the unborn Crooks couldn’t even comprehend enveloped him, and a small red light flared to life in his chest. Crooks was helpless as he was assaulted by the utter agony of that tiny light splitting in two. One half went to his mostly still sibling, and the other stayed with him.
As Crooks felt himself dying, two tiny motes of gold drifted apart from the light, attaching to the two broken motes of red. The red mote in Axe grew back to full size, while Crooks’s infant soul turned green and somehow repaired itself. His body was no longer in constant agony, and he could breath. And his brother, who had been hollow and lifeless, was moving like the rest.
Crooks knew why it was Axe who was his soulmate and not any of his other siblings: Axe was conceived completely soulless, not the best and strongest of their siblings, but the worst and most broken.
Whatever phenomenon had made them into soulmates had saved both of their lives, but at the expense of the rest of their siblings, since Axe had gone on to slaughter them all.
… Crooks always wanted to think it was just a dream. Who even had memories from all the way back to their time in the womb, anyway? Surely it wasn’t true. It wasn’t just to save him and his brother that all of their siblings had ended up dead; he couldn’t have truly dashed the hopes of his species even before he was born and again after he reached maturity.
Even without having Crooks’s flawless memory, Axe had figured out the truth, and here Crooks was denying it to this day. He readily accepted smaller guilts and burdens because this one was just too much for him to bear.
Crooks buried his face in his hands and sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I knew, but I just wanted to forget so badly.” And so, through tears, Crooks recounted his two earliest memories for Axe, who finally understood what his brother had really been blaming himself for all these years
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It had always been just a guess until Crooks confirmed it. Axe had always been a little unstable, and it turned out that he originally didn’t have a soul—or that he had one so small and broken that it couldn’t do its job. It was Crooks’ soul that had filled in the gaps, giving him motivation, emotion, possibly even life. “Why’re ya cryin’?” Axe asked gently, pulling his brother into a hug. “I never wanted to tell you about this,” Crooks sobbed back. Axe widened his eyes fractionally, “Why not?” To his reasoning, Crooks had saved him before they were even born. Wasn’t that a happy thing? Crooks hunched his shoulders defensively, trembling faintly through his tears. “I was worried you would hate me. What if you thought our bond manipulated your feelings? That you don’t really love me? I’ve even wondered about it myself before… I’ve told you so many times: it would destroy me if you abandoned me!”Axe stared at his brother, his brow faintly creased. He scratched the back of his skull, sighed heavily, and spoke as clearly as he could. “Yer worryin’ about nothin’ again. I do love ya, n’ I ain’t gonna leave ya. Yer soul can’t control what mine feels. Dat should be obvious from how things’ve played out so far. Now magic does exist to manipulate feelin’s, but ya don’t know how ta use it. I do think ya got some potential fer pink magic, but I fell in love wit’ ya over years n’ years the normal way. Ya heard what Charm said, it’s more typical for soulmates not ta fall in love, so relax. Dis n’ dat are separate things.”Crooks relaxed the tension from his body as Axe continuously spoke soothing words, but he couldn’t seem to turn the waterworks off. “I’m sorry. You always take everything in stride, while I panic and worry every time.”Axe shrugged. “Just wit’ relationship stuff. Everythin’ else you handle better and ya know it. I ain’t da emotionally stable one here, remember?”Crooks continued to gradually calm down and accept the truth in his brother’s words. Axe patted him gently on the back. “Yer always beatin’ yerself up over every little thing dat ain’t perfect. We gotta get ya ta just move on.” Axe held his brother at arm’s length and smiled. “How ‘bout I hit myself every time ya go beatin’ yerself up?”“What? No!” Crooks exclaimed in horror. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself!”“Heh. See da irony?”Crooks gritted his teeth, the tears finally stopping. “I’ll work on it, I promise, but you’d better not hurt yourself. I’ll get mad.”“Sure,” Axe nodded. “Now let’s move. Ya can clear yer head over da two weeks of chores waitin’ fer us.”***In the dead of night, a tiny hunter’s belly growled. Dust unearthed himself from a small pile of sand and began stalking the halls of the den, making his way to the kitchen. In a smaller room in the back, the creatures of this place stacked up piles of uneaten food. Dusk slipped past the kelp curtains, gazed upon the bounty, and licked his lips.
Snerk!
An annoying laugh escaped Phantom’s mouth. Dust glared at the spirit, his mood soured. “Sorry, it’s just such a silly situation and you’re acting so serious,” the ghost laughed. Dust snorted and looked away. What exactly was unserious about hunger? But… as he looked again at the piles of food, he wondered: why didn’t he have a stock of extra food hidden somewhere?This thought further soured Dust’s infant mood. He was a mighty hunter. The creatures of this place were big, but he couldn’t accept that they were better at gathering food than he was. So, Dust turned away from the pantry. If he was hungry, he would hunt something for himself. He had no need to resort to theft and charity. Dust left the den for the cool waters of the night. The sea was calm. The tiny meroctopus had never tried hunting at night before, but he could see very clearly and the cold didn’t make him sluggish. Hunger did, a bit, but that was what he was out here to fix. He searched, and searched, not knowing that great numbers of snacks were currently hidden away in reefs and rocky outcroppings. To Dust, the ocean looked almost abandoned compared to daytime. He continued to wander and search with his magic lighting up his ghostly blue tentacles. “You know that isn’t safe, right?” Phantom asked. “What?” Dust barked. “Light attracts things in the dark. My lure is one thing, but are you ready to lose your legs if what turns up is meaner than you are? Hell, you’re so small you might just get swallowed whole.”Dust puffed up his cheeks and pouted, but too bad for him Phantom didn’t speak tantrum. “Spit it out, kid.”Dust’s pouting intensified. “Dunno.”“What?”“I dunno how to turn the light off!”“Oh.” Phantom blinked. “Well I don’t know either. I’m no meroctopus. But hey, good job using your words.”Dust growled to himself in frustration, swishing and flipping in the water while he tried to make his tentacles go dark. Phantom felt the water shift slightly, but before he could warn the kid it was already too late. From a nearby crack in a rocky formation, a moray eel sprang. It was six feet long, with a mouth full of sharp teeth, and very fast. Before Dust could react, he was already inside the eel’s mouth headfirst, two of his tentacles severed and drifting away outside. “Kid!” Phantom rushed over to bite the eel, and it went still, so thankfully Dust wasn’t swallowed. The tiny mer hissed and screeched and clawed at the inside of the eel’s mouth, but it couldn’t open its jaws just like it couldn’t swallow him. Dust felt magic spilling out from where his legs had been severed, and he already had so little to spare that his head was swimming. Fear and panic set in quicker than the child ever could have expected, and his weeks of confidence felt like a far-off dream. Suddenly, Phantom felt a looming shadow. Before he could look behind him to see what it was, two huge hands had already grasped the eel to either side of him. Those huge hands covered in scars were easy to recognize, but Phantom was still shocked.
The big one can teleport too? That surprised me.
“Hey, you’re just in time,” Phantom commented, knowing Red couldn’t hear him. Red had sensed a great amount of fear and pain from Dust in the middle of sleeping. He’d woken up in a hurry and teleported out without hesitation, and now, seeing a moray eel and no Dust, there was only one conclusion he could come to. Red ripped the eel in half. Phantom released his bite on the eel and swam over to the eel’s mouth, phasing inside and biting Dust with his ghostly, needle-like teeth to stop the magic from leaking out of him. Meanwhile, Red tore the eel apart looking for his kid. When he finally found Dust inside the moray’s mouth, his soul pounded in his chest in worry. Dust wasn’t moving at all.
Fuck!
He teleported right back to the den and shook Sans awake. “Angel, wake up! Heal him!”“Hm?” Sans took a second to wake up and understand the situation. In a rush, he took baby Dust and started pumping green magic into his severed legs. At the same time, Red tried to push little bites of mashed up eel into his mouth. Phantom let go of his bite and Dust started moving again, writhing in pain, hissing, bleeding, and soon almost choking on eel meat. But Sans’s magic, though nowhere near as good as Crooks’, soon sealed his wounds closed, and Dust eagerly ate to replenish his lost magic. Huge tears were rolling out of the angry little child’s eye sockets, confusing him further.“It’s okay, Dust,” Sans soothed him. “You’re safe now. It’s okay.”Dust looked down at his two leg stumps and whined. “They’ll grow back,” Red told him. Dust continued to sniffle to himself while Sans and Red coddled him. He was in too much shock and confusion to run away from the free comfort. How had the biggest giant found him? Was he being followed without noticing? Why did it help him? Since when could it teleport just like he could? Since when could the blue fish use green magic? And why did it help him by using it on his legs? Why were the two of them talking gently and holding him like this, and why was his magic leaking out of his eyes?“You’ve got good parents, kid,” Phantom mused off to the side. What were parents? Dust was already confused enough as it was without throwing new words into the mix. With skeptical, tear-filled eyes, Dust peered up at the giant red octopus. “Why…?”Red gently rubbed the tiny child on the head with a finger. “‘Cause I’m your mom,” he said. Dust looked at the blue fish next. “Why?”“Why what?” Sans smiled softly. “Why did I heal you? You’re our kid. It’s our job to keep you safe until you grow up.” Sans wiped the tears off of Dust’s cheeks with his thumbs. “Why were you, uh…” Sans glanced up at Red. “What was he doing when he got hurt?”“Dunno. Found him in an eel’s mouth out in the ocean.”Sans nodded and looked down at Dust again. “Why were you outside of the den at night?”Dust put another bite of eel into his mouth and muttered through it. “Hungry.”“And why didn’t you just take something from the pantry?”Dust wanted to reply that he was a hunter who didn’t need to steal food, but the memory of what happened deflated his confidence. Instead of replying, he hung his head sadly. Sans sighed and took Dust in his hands. “Red and I have tried to teach you about these things, but you don’t listen. Inside the den, you have friends and family who will protect you. Outside, you’re alone, and it’s dangerous. If you need help, or you’re hungry, or something hurts, ask anybody here and they can help you. And don’t just sneak off on your own. Do you understand, Dust?”Dust stared at Sans with his soft red eyelights. An extremely profound realization was slowly dawning on him: the other creatures in this den weren’t competition. Red was stronger than that eel that almost killed Dust, and he surely wasn’t the only one who was. The reason that Dust hadn’t been hunted by any of those creatures already was because they weren’t trying to hunt him. His name was Dust. Why did he have a name? Who gave it to him? Where did he come from in the first place?Dust’s curious thoughts quieted as a massive hand enclosed him in quiet darkness and pulled him away from Sans. “Like this,” Red’s voice was a low growl, but not a threatening one. “N’ then this.” He opened his hands and dim light flooded back in, the world opening back up around little Dust. “‘Dat’s how you got here. ‘Cause of us two.”Dust sat on Red’s palms in stunned silence while Sans raised a brow. “Are you explaining how he was born? Why?”“He didn’t get it,” Red shrugged.Red’s instincts were the sharpest around, and he was very attuned to his family, so for him, Dust had always been very clear about what he was thinking and feeling. But Dust never listened, so Red couldn’t answer any of his questions. Now, for one reason or another, their youngest was actually starting to pay attention to the bigger picture, and not just the twisted image of the world his sense of self-preservation painted for him.Sans gave Red a mildly incredulous look before just accepting things as they were. “Well, while we’re on the topic, Dust, can you say mom and dad? Try calling me dad. Go on. Dad.”“Mom and dad?” Dust muttered unsurely. Sans doubled over and heaved a great sigh. “Haah, that took forever. Thank the stars.” He reached over and gave Dust a little pat on the head. From beside Dust, Phantom finally elaborated for him. “Parents are what moms and dads are, kid. You’ve got good ones.”“Mom and dad,” Dust muttered again. “Mom and dad.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Business Parties. In Styles’ experience, they were nothing but an excuse to get drunk with fellow rich criminals. For Styles, since his regeneration kept him from falling under the influence, it was an annoying event. He appreciated the need to celebrate; to treat things like they were good and happy, instead of drowning in drugs and alcohol alone at home while the guilt pressed down on you… but he would still rather not be forced to attend. Some people at these events took it a little too far. Styles could almost swear they were actually happy. Actually celebrating. Actually unburdened by guilt after all the lives they’d ruined. He didn’t want to see those people, partying away like actions didn’t have consequences. But no matter how distasteful he found it, he was expected to attend. It wouldn’t look good if the son of a Don and brother of a future Don wasn’t acquainted with other important people in the business. Speaking of other Dons, Styles spotted Don Mercury out in the crowd. He was hard to miss, being a blazing purple fire monster. Don Mercury had been a friend of his father for a long time, and their families had been allied about that long too. Don Mercury seemed to notice Styles at the same time, sitting off on his own, sipping slowly at a glass of scotch. He split off from the group he was chatting with, a bright green bottle in hand. “Well if it isn’t young Styles.” The Don’s voice was soothing, and it crackled like fire; fitting for a fire monster. “Been about two years since I seen you, hasn’t it? Did you get taller again?”That jape was in such poor taste that Styles couldn’t hold back his scoff, no matter how polite he wanted to be toward his father’s friend. “Please spare me.” But he course-corrected quickly. “How’ve you been, uncle Merc?”“Not too bad,” the old monster chuckled and sat down across from Styles. “We’re holdin’ a party today instead of a funeral, so, you know.”Styles swirled the drink in his cup. “I imagine you must be busy what with all the new territory you just took over across the pond.”“I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t burning the candle at both ends tryin’ to keep up with it.” Don Mercury showed off one of those knowing sort of smiles that sly old people always seemed to have at the ready. “But no matter how busy we get, we gotta make time for rest and celebration. Ya look stressed, Styles. Are you sleepin’ enough?”Styles took a swig of his drink. Even if it didn’t do anything for him, at least it bought him time to consider his words. He couldn’t just say whatever came to mind at the best of times, let alone when talking to a Don.“Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.”Mercury laughed. “That isn’t the look of a man who’s relaxin’ at a party though,” he waved a blazing hand at Styles’ expression and stiff posture. “I get it y’know? Must be boring watching a bunch of old guys get drunk. Y’know, fire monsters have trouble with alcohol too. Tends to all burn up before it can really get in our systems. I heard from your father that you have a similar metabolism.”Don Mercury began filling two small glasses with acidic-looking green liquid from the bottle he’d brought with him. Styles looked at the drink, his interest piqued what with the flow of the conversation so far. He took the glass that the Don offered him, setting down the useless scotch. “You sayin’ this stuff will get me drunk?”“I’d be surprised if it didn’t,” Mercury chuckled. Styles couldn’t help but be a little curious. At the same time though, he was hesitant to actually get drunk while surrounded by all these important people. “I appreciate the gesture,” he said and meant it, “but I ain’t ever been drunk before. I don’t think this is really the proper place to find out how I’d act.”“Then consider me your chaperone for tonight,” Mercury smiled that sly old man smile again. “Everybody’s gotta let loose sometimes, Styles. Tonight can be that time for you.”Styles pondered for a minute longer, swirled the small glass between his fingers, and finally raised it to his mouth. The stuff inside burned, bad. Styles felt his mouth healing itself as if he’d actually drank a cup of acid. But a pleasant warm feeling bloomed in his chest and a comfortable fog settled over his head. “Well what do you know?” Styles let out a single dry laugh, the first one he could remember in recent memory. “I think this stuff of yours is actually working.”“Pleased to hear it,” Mercury swallowed down his own glass and poured another for each of them. Soon, Styles was properly drunk, with a bottle still half full sitting in front of him.Mercury took his phone out of his pocket and stared at the screen. Styles hadn’t heard any buzz, but it could’ve been on silent. The Don sighed.“Looks like I’ve gotta go take care of something. Don’t stop on my account, though. I’ve got plenty more of that stuff at home, so you can help yourself to what’s left there.”Don Mercury excused himself politely, and Styles helped himself to another glass of the electric green alcohol, enjoying the pain and the fuzziness that came with it. He was feeling a little too warm, though, so he took the liberty of loosening his tie. “Hey, Styles!” Hit’s wife, Dolly, grinned as she noticed him from a few paces off. Even the littlest sign of relaxation from Styles was unheard of, so she lunged at it. “Are you drunk ? Never thought I’d see that!” The woman herself was clearly unsteady on her feet. She stumbled over and plopped herself down across from Styles where Don Mercury had been before. It wasn’t like Dolly was a lightweight, she just went hard as soon as any party started, like getting drunk was her prime objective. And in line with that objective, she started reaching for the bottle of bright green booze without permission. Styles snatched the bottle away before she could take it. “As much as I’d like to watch you drown in your own blood after drinking this stuff, it’s the only thing here that can get me drunk, so back off.”Dolly shrugged as her arm was released and pulled a bottle of vodka off of a nearby end table. “Fine, coz. Up for a game? Let’s both chug and see who finishes first. If you pass out, you lose.”Styles didn’t acknowledge her little challenge. He had just noticed that she wasn’t wearing long stockings on her legs, and they were both made of flesh and bone. He wondered if his eyes were tricking him. “What happened to your leg?”Dolly grinned. “Oh, this?” She turned sideways on the couch to rest her regenerated limb up on it in full view. “My new little bro fixed it for me. Nice, right? You can finally quit nagging me for getting it blown off.”“New little bro? Thanks for letting me know we added someone to the family.” Styles laced his words with heavy sarcasm and rolled his eyes. Dolly hummed as she drank vodka directly from the bottle. “Y’know, you’re still a prick, but I do feel kinda bad for leavin’ you outta the loop.”Styles sighed and filled another shot glass to drain. “It’s a breach of protocol, but I get it. If he could fix your leg, he’s gotta be the best healer out there. I’d keep his existence on a need-to-know basis too. Normally, someone in my position should have a need-to-know, but it ain’t like I’m ever gonna need a healer.” He drained the glass and frowned. It was starting to hurt less the drunker he got. “That said, you should’ve told me despite all that. What if I crossed paths with him in a negative kind of way? Bang. There goes your new little brother.”Dolly giggled, triggering a hiccup. “You won’t bump into him, no way. You’d hafta get real close to Edge’s place, and I know you’d never go anywhere near there.”Styles’ mood immediately soured when he heard Edge’s name. He dragged his hand down his face in frustration, barking, “Don’t talk about that selfish little brat in front of me.”Dolly frowned. “Hey, easy. This life ain’t for everyone, and he’s your brother, so go easy on him.”Styles knew the both of them were drunk, but this was how Dolly always was, and why she wore on his nerves so often. He just said not to talk about Edge, and not only did she keep talking about him, she even defended him. Defiance must’ve been carved into her bones.Styles gritted his fangs and growled, “Why should I? I think I’ve been more than good enough to him considering he’s never acted like a brother to me.”Dolly set down her bottle of vodka with a thud. Her eyes moist because she was irritated and drunk. “Well why don’t you try to think about it from his perspective?”“As if he’s ever considered mine !” Styles pointed a finger at Dolly’s nose, close enough for her to bite it if she was feeling crazy enough. “As if you have! Who’s the one constantly interfering with my operations when I’m already busy doing half of your husband’s job for him?!”Dolly glared, but she was only angry enough to swat Styles’ hand away instead of chomping down on it. “You volunteered for that work, from what I recall!”“Oh, because you were there?” Styles scoffed; she hadn’t been. “I didn’t volunteer for it. Pops asked if I could take it. Do you think ‘no’ was an option? It’s part of the business: somebody had to do it. An executive has to be in charge of each and every division. This is a family business, y’know? There are exactly three executives: my brother, me, and pops. Pops is retiring ! Every single dirty job your husband thinks is beneath him— I HAVE TO DO IT! How come nobody ever goes easy on me, huh?”Styles felt his eyes stinging, and his head hurt. He rubbed his forehead firmly and took a deep breath, and the tears dried before they could fall. Even if he was drunk enough to say things he shouldn’t, he wasn’t going to cry. Crying had never got him anything; he couldn’t remember the last time he did it.Dolly furrowed her brow, some of the fire leaving her sails. “Styles, are you okay?”“Why?” he asked, rubbing his temples. “If I’m not, are you gonna take on my work and let me have a vacation?”“Maybe I will,” Dolly raised a brow. “When’s the last time you had a vacation, anyway?”Styles barked a laugh. “Vacation? I haven’t had a day off since I was thirteen, sister . You wanna try doin’ my job?”If it were anybody else, it would be a security risk, but Dolly was high enough up that it should be fine. Styles pulled out his phone, and with slightly clumsy fingers, sent her his schedule planner. With equally drunken movements, Dolly pulled it up on her phone and squinted at the screen. Her eyes widened as her face paled. “Styles, you aren’t seriously working over a hundred hours a week, are you? You’re gonna put yourself in the hospital or somethin’!”Styles chuckled darkly as he poured himself another shot glass and downed it. “Sister, nobody’s healthier than me.”Dolly blinked in shock and shook her head aggressively. “No, this ain’t okay. Lemme go find Hit. We need to talk about this.”“Talk about what?” Styles muttered. “He and pops are the ones who gave me this work. Either they know already and don’t care, or they don’t care about me so they don’t know.”“That ain’t true!” Dolly shouted, stumbling off to track down her husband. Styles watched her go with narrow eye sockets and continued to drink alone. Meanwhile, Dolly found Hit in a circle of fancy-type big shots. She pulled him away with the bare minimum social decorum and yanked him down to whisper harshly in his ear. “ We. Need. To. Talk! ”Hit blinked at her, guarding his cocktail that she had almost spilled twice in the past few seconds. “Somethin’ wrong, dollface?”“Yeah somethin’s wrong!” she bit. “Your little brother is two steps away from a mental breakdown!”Hit put on a serious look and asked while simultaneously checking his phone for missed messages. “Did something happen to Edge?”“Not Edge,” Dolly held his arm and shook her head. “I’m talkin’ about Styles.”“Styles?” If Dolly had looked any less serious, Hit would’ve thought she was joking. But she didn’t, so he started searching around the room with his eyes for his little brother. “What happened?”Dolly shoved her phone screen in Hit’s face. The more he read, the more appalled his expression became. “What is this? This is inhumane.”Dolly slapped Hit’s arm. “That’s Style’s work schedule, you bonehead!”“You’re kiddin’…” Hit read to the end of the week and his jaw dropped. “He’s workin’ sixteen hours every day of the week? When the hell does he rest?”“He says he hasn’t!” Dolly hissed. “He says he hasn’t taken a day off or a sick day or anything since he was a teenager!” She pointed at the screen and pinched to show a broader calendar view. “Look, he’s even workin’ on holidays!”Hit held his head, feeling slightly dizzy. “Why didn’t he say anything?”“Because you and your pops are the people who assigned him his work!” Dolly slapped Hit’s arm again twice like an angry cat. “It’s no wonder he grew up to be such an insufferable prick!” Dolly held her face. “Stars, no wonder it pisses him off when I mess around with his work. And how d’ya think he must feel when he calls about a work question and we’re in the middle of date night?! The guy must get home at the end of the day and drop dead asleep!”“He has insomnia,” Hit muttered, feeling guiltier and sweatier by the moment. “He needs pills to sleep. Has since he was a kid.”Dolly stared at her husband incredulously for a moment before gritting her teeth and hitting his chest with a windmill of slaps. “Hit, you damn idiot! We gotta do somethin’ about this!”“I know, I—ow—I know!” He tried to block the onslaught with his arms, and his cocktail spilled onto the floor. Hit frowned and read over Styles’ schedule again. “But it ain’t gonna be easy to fix this, sweetheart. This is three peoples’ work, and it’s all gotta get done by somebody.”“Make me an executive!” Dolly put a hand against her chest. “I’m your wife, I’m a high enough rank for it!”“We can do that,” Hit nodded, knowing his wife had complained about being bored in the past. “But I ain’t gonna let you take on all of this alone. You’re one person, we’d need two more to give Styles a vacation, even if one’s a temp.”Dolly felt almost sober now with how hard she was thinking up a solution. “We can’t ask Edge,” Hit thought out loud, then facepalmed as further realization hit him. “Oh stars, I’m sorry, Styles.”“Apologize to his face,” Dolly told him. “Anyway, I just thought up where I can get two smart people. If I take the field work and they take the desk work, this can work.”“Who?” Hit asked. He himself had still failed to come up with any names. “My new little bro and his brother!”Hit startled and looked around to check if anyone was listening in. Crooks was too huge an asset to spread word of him around willy nilly. He leaned down and whispered to Dolly, “Are you sure? Crooks is a medical genius, but he’s never done this kinda work before. Neither has his brother, and I remember he just got over a serious head injury.”Dolly snorted. “You said it, Crooks is a genius. I’m sure he can adapt. As for Axe, he’s my honorary family, so I’ve been keeping tabs on him through Alpha.” Dolly took her phone back and navigated to Axe’s report cards for all three colleges he was enrolled in. Finals hadn’t been graded yet, but he was sitting pretty with straight A’s in everything. She showed his scores to Hit. “I dunno how exactly Crooks fixed him, but the guy’s brain would make a supercomputer jealous.”“Stars,” Hit looked at the rows of perfect scores and was reminded of Alpha back when they were both younger. “I got no reason to refuse ‘em. But we’ve gotta convince them somehow.”“Oh, that can wait,” Dolly waved him down. “I’ll take care of that. More importantly, we’ve gotta let Styles know before he passes out drunk.”“Before he what?” To Hit’s knowledge, Styles couldn’t get drunk. But there he was, actually relaxing a little on a couch, drinking something that looked downright toxic. “Alright, coz!” Dolly called out to Styles. “Hit here has somethin’ to say to you.”Hearing her, Hit quickly pulled his head out of his ass and lowered his chin. “I had no idea how much work we were piling up on you, bro. I’m so sorry. We’re gonna get you a vacation as soon as we can, and by the time you get back, we’ll have split up the work so that it don’t all fall on your shoulders.”Styles looked at Hit, looked down at his drink, and chuckled to himself. “This must be what people call a hallucination. Dammit, uncle Merc, you told me this was just alcohol.”Hit’s soul sunk in guilt and pity. “You ain’t hallucinatin’, bro. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know what you were goin’ through.”Styles raised a brow, set down his glass, and stood up. He approached his brother and stared down at him. “You didn’t know…”Hit clenched his teeth and nodded. “It just slipped through somehow.”Styles set his hand on Hit’s shoulder and, with a smile, decked him in the face as hard as he could. Hit never imagined Styles would hit him, so he didn’t think to block or dodge. He took the hit head on and collapsed onto his backside. The crowd of big wigs quieted somewhat and stole glances at the fight. It was basically entertainment to these drunk mobsters.“It slipped through ?!” Styles spat. “Even with everything I’m dealin’ with, do you think I just let things slip through ? Should I take on the administration work too if you can’t handle it?!”Hit held his bruised jaw and muttered, “Bro, I’m tryin’ to apologize—ghuh!”Hit doubled over as Styles jammed his foot into his stomach. The kick held nothing back, even shattering a few toes that quickly healed. Hit fell onto his back, but he didn’t just let Styles step on him. He teleported out from under his brother’s shoe, standing again. Styles expected it, of course, and was unphased. “You’re sorry about all the work you gave me, huh? Are you sorry for anything else , brother?”Hit furrowed his brow in confusion and worry. “Is there more?”“Ha!” Styles barked a laugh and took off his outer jacket. He draped it over the couch back and rolled up his sleeves. “Looks like I need to jog your memory.”Styles threw a few punches that Hit dodged by teleporting short-distance. “Stars! Just tell me, Styles! Whatever it was, I’m sorry!”Styles rolled his eyes and pointed at Dolly. “There’s your hint,” he said, folding his arms and tapping his foot as if waiting for an answer. “Me?” Dolly pointed at herself. “I mean… I’m real sorry for messing with your work and bein’ reckless even though you only warned me ‘cause you cared—”“Apology accepted,” Styles gave her a nod. “But that ain’t anything Hit should apologize for, now is it?”Hit stared at his brother like he didn’t recognize him. “I’m sorry, bro, but I really got no idea what you’re getting at.”Styles clenched his fangs tight and gave his brother a tired look. “This is a family business, Hit. You two can’t have kids. Do you think pops is fine with that? He’s been hounding me to keep the bloodline going even if I have to make use of our merchandise.”Hit’s eyes went wide and Dolly covered her mouth with both hands. What a way to put more pressure on an already overworked man, they thought, and to suck all the joy out of looking for love. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about that,” Hit admitted. “I mean, I knew but… I didn’t think about how that would affect you.”Styles rested a hand on his hip, looking down his nasal ridge at the both of them. “Better,” he said curtly. “And I know I’m drunk right now, but I’m putting my foot down. I’m not gonna get married, I’m not gonna buy no whores, and I’m not gonna rape nobody either. I’m just not doin’ it. So you two better figure something else out. That shit is not my problem.”Dolly nodded, “Yeah, I mean, I’m sure we’ll be able to think of somethin’. But, y’know, we’re gonna get your workload sorted out, so you’ll have more time on your hands. Maybe you’ll meet somebody? Not out of obligation or anything—just somebody to love. So don’t say never…”Styles clenched his fists so hard that there was audible cracking. He strode back to the couch and took his jacket off of it. He picked up the bottle of green alcohol too and pointed it at her. “You wouldn’t know, but I had somebody I loved once. They married somebody else and ended up with a better life than I could’ve given them.” As he stomped off, he made sure to leave behind some bitter parting words for them. “So if you ever wondered how I found out that my regeneration can take a bullet to the skull, that’s how.”Again, Dolly held her hands to her mouth. The horror hit Hit once the words tumbling in his ears found meaning. “Hey, wait! Styles!”But he left, and they were feeling too weak-kneed to chase him down. Hit held his head and stared down at his shoes, grinding his teeth while Dolly kept sniffing back tears. “Did you know about that?” she asked. “No,” Hit groaned. “Did he ever cut himself or…?”“We wouldn’t know. He regenerates anytime he gets hurt.”Dolly sniffled some more. “… He wasn’t talkin’ about me, was he?”Hit gaped in shock before pulling her into his arms. “No he… probably not.” Styles had been so vague about his lost flame that Hit couldn’t say for sure she was wrong. “Yeah, you’re right,” Dolly laughed through her snot. “I’m probably just being egotistical.” She buried her face in Hit’s chest to cry, and the both of them left the party not long later.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Styles woke up to his 5 am alarm blaring, which brought on an acute headache that quickly healed away. The lanky skeleton sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, which still felt inexplicably tired. Hangover? he wondered. Maybe the headache was, for the instant it lasted, but this lethargy was something else. Styles hadn’t gotten blackout drunk last night; he still remembered the things he’d said and done in his uninhibited state. He couldn’t help releasing a bitter chuckle at the memory of stomping Hit into the floor. Better not hold out on gettin’ that vacation, he concluded. And better not count on uncle Merc too much in the future. Chaperone my foot. With an ever shrinking net of people to rely on, Styles pulled himself out of bed and got ready for the day. He checked his phone for messages and found none: no emergencies, no notice of his schedule changing, and nobody checking on his well-being. He slid the device back into his pocket, mourning only the steady decline of his own sanity brought on by this hellish job of his. He must really be slipping if he thought for a moment that anyone might care. Maybe if it were someone else going through this they’d care. But they didn’t have to care about Styles. No matter what, he got the job done without leaving any loose ends. And no matter what, he survived. Who would give a damn if a freaking immortal tried to off himself once? Might as well be a fucking smoke break for all the trouble it caused. … Immortal. That was a word Styles didn’t like. He didn’t know—couldn’t know—where the limit to his power was. What if his regeneration relied on some finite resource he wasn’t conscious of? What if it suddenly stopped working one day? Or what if it was truly limitless? What if it offset the effects of aging and he became a person who couldn’t ever die? Styles didn’t actually have any control over his power the way Hit did; it just happened . If he ran low on magic, the regeneration slowed down, but he didn’t actually have proof that it would truly stop. Did his body really have to be in one piece to start gathering magic again? To resume the regenerative process again? To what extent would he need to be starved and broken to guarantee he wouldn’t come back?… I can’t keep this up if I have to do it forever, Styles mused and pulled his phone back out of his pocket. He sent a text to Hit not to forget about sorting out his workload. After that, Styles went about his day as usual. ***Dolly groaned and rolled out of bed around ten in the morning. She stumbled her way to the kitchen and drained a tall glass of water before finally starting to feel alive again. Hit followed after her, much more composed, since the only drinking he’d done during the party was social. “Was thinking’ of makin’ some eggs. Want any?”“Ugh. No thanks, sugar. I’ll have a cereal bar or somethin’.”Because the party would have them staying up late, Hit had intentionally scheduled himself a half-day today. Dolly, of course, had no obligations to be anywhere. Except she did. “Styles sent me a message,” Hit noted, checking his phone while the stove started up. “Looks like he remembers we promised him a vacation.”“Wonder how he liked his first hangover?” Dolly chuckled, holding her cool, empty glass to her forehead. “Probably didn’t even get one,” Hit shrugged. “Stars, he messaged me five hours ago.”Hit started typing a reply but Dolly quickly cut in. “Hey, let me take care of the scheduling stuff.”“You sure?”“‘Course I’m sure, it’s about to be my job. I just need you to get me to the sea and back.”“That’s no problem,” he promised, amending his message and sending it off.After breakfast, they teleported to the docs outside the small town Edge had sequestered in, and Dolly gave Crooks a call.“Hello?” He sounded hesitant and confused. “Oh I hope I didn’t press the wrong button.”“Hey Crooks!” Dolly grinned wide in exchange for holding back her building chuckle. “Not used to phones yet?”“Oh, Dolly! No, not yet. Yours is the first call I’ve taken. Usually people call Axe or Stretch if they want to reach me, even after I finally got my own phone. Anyway, to what do I owe the pleasure?”“I’m at the docks. Can you and Axe come meet me?”“It will take us a few hours to get there, but we can.”Dolly shared a look with Hit. “Is there someplace closer I can meet you then? Preferably someplace dry. I’m in a bit of a hurry today.”“There is a rocky outcropping not far from the den. I’ll ask Axe to send you the precise location somehow.”He hung up, and Dolly chuckled. A minute later, Hit’s phone buzzed, not hers, with a map image, a latitude/longitude, and an elevation above sea level. “Thorough,” Hit muttered. He was grateful for it, though. Teleporting to someplace he’d never been before wasn’t easy or safe. Still, he wrapped his arms around Dolly’s waist and they disappeared in a cloud of red smoke. They dropped a few inches before finding slick, stony land. Soon, Axe and Crooks poked their heads up out of the water. Hit gave Dolly a kiss on the forehead goodbye. “I’m gonna go get ready for work, dollface. Text me when you’re done, and I’ll come pick you up.”“Thanks, sugar,” Dolly giggled and kissed him back, glad he was trusting her to handle negotiations on her own. The land skeleton teleported away and Dolly sat herself down on the rocks, smiling at her honorary family. “Thanks for makin’ time,” Dolly greeted the two mersharks. “I’ll keep this quick. Hit’s brother is overworked and I’m gonna take some of the pressure off his shoulders. Just me ain’t enough though, especially not if we wanna give him a vacation to recharge. So how do you boys feel about paperwork and phone calls?”“Yer recruitin’ us?” Axe concluded. “Why not?” Dolly grinned. “You’re smart boys, and you’re family. I can handle the field work, but my eyes go cross-eyed if I look at numbers or letters for too long.”“Am I involved in this?” Crooks asked, pointing to himself. “Of course!” Dolly nodded. “I… don’t think I would be much help. I’m sorry.”Dolly opened her mouth to argue, but Axe cut her off. “He said no. But I’m in. Dat was always my plan. I took classes on taxes n’ accountin’ n’ shit.”“Really?” Dolly was caught off guard. “You planned on joining in on the family business?”Axe grinned widely. “Since I plan on gettin’ lots of favors, I oughta pay some back too.”Dolly was thrilled to hear that one of her recruits had actually been preparing in advance for the job. “I’ll be pushing two people’s work on you for a while,” she said. “Can you handle it?”“Ya sound like my student councilor. M’ worth more ‘n just a couple surfacers.” Axe nodded at the rocky outcropping she was standing on. “But how ‘bout buildin’ an office for me there? I could work faster with a computer than a phone screen, but I ain’t never heard of a waterproof one. Heating, air conditioning, electricity, space to swim… you get it, right?”“Hm?” Dolly placed her fingers up against her lips. Now why did she have the sneaking suspicion that the shark was up to something extra? “Yeah, I get it. But y’know, I know you can get a lot done with just a cellphone. I want two little somethings in exchange if you’re gonna ask for a big project like that.”“What?” Axe’s expression was serious. Dolly smiled. “First, you might have to video call people sometimes, so why not set aside some time in the next little while to get those teeth straightened out? The scar is metal, I get it and I like it, but there ain’t no excuse for bad teeth.”Axe blinked. “Bad teeth?” His mouth curved up in a humorous grin, then he burst out laughing. Crooks sank quietly up to his eyes, blushing faintly. Axe slowly quit laughing and felt at his jagged, crooked teeth with his fingertips. “Yeah, sure, I guess they’re da worst in the school now?” Another laugh slipped out. “Fine. Deal. Now what’s the real favor?”Dolly felt like she was missing half the joke even though she was the one who started it by teasing Axe. Still, part of her was glad that he saw through her genuine advice as an attempt to break the ice. Dolly leaned forward and locked eyes with Crooks. She waited for him to float up a little bit more so he would be able to hear her. “You’re a healer, right, Crooks?”“Of course?”“Can you study somethin’ medical for me?”Crooks nodded. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done that sort of thing before. He’d had to do extensive research on brain surgery before treating Axe. Perhaps this was a similarly complicated issue. Dolly smiled gently down at him. “So, I should explain a little about the family as it stands, ‘cause it’s a little complicated. At the top is Don: that’s Hit’s dad. Hit’s the oldest son and I’m his wife. Styles is Hit’s younger brother, the one who needs a vacation. Then there’s Edge, who Don adopted after his family died. Their families were friends, y’know?”“We know an Edge,” Crooks offered. “Though this is my first time hearing you’re related.”“Small world,” Dolly grinned. “Yeah, Edge didn’t want to join in on the family business. He ran off to the countryside and tried to elope, though I heard they found out and crashed the wedding. Anyway, he’s all but left the family, and considerin’ he was never quite blood in the first place… Listen, mafias pass power down through their family: blood takes priority. Don has Hit to take over after he dies, but the only one of us with a kid right now is Edge and he’s out of the running on two accounts. Styles says he doesn’t want anything to do with this problem. And by all rights, Hit’s the oldest; it should have been his responsibility to deal with in the first place.”“I don’t like where this is going,” Crooks groaned into his hands. Dolly just took the mershark for shy and got to the point. “Hit and I gotta find some way to have a kid. Preferably together. Thing is, humans and monsters can’t have kids together, as far as we know. Can you look into that for me, Crooksy?”“I’m… not… That isn’t my field…” the mershark muttered helplessly. “I… I do have some acquaintances who you could… consult with. Let me get them.”He effectively ran away. Dolly looked at Axe with a wry smile. “He’s real shy, huh?”Axe hosted a small internal debate before deciding to throw the human a bone. “More like traumatized,” he said. “He’s got yer problem. Arguably worse. Try ta leave him outta stuff like dis from now on.”Dolly widened her eyes and bit her lower lip. “Thanks for the warnin’,” she nodded. But it did give her some hope. If Crooks had already called in experts to help him with his matter, then maybe they could help her too. She let herself daydream a little about what kind of crazy monster would pop out of the ocean this time.
The hell? They’re gorgeous!
Dolly had gained a healthy appreciation for the aesthetics of skeleton monsters over the years. To some extent, her standards centered around Hit. She didn’t know what another skeleton might think, but to her, her hubby was the most handsome in the whole species. But she could tell these two were akin to… she wanted to say supermodels, but those walking sticks were too sterile. Right, these two could’ve been porn stars. Now this is what you think about when you hear stories of mermaids luring sailors to their deaths, Dolly mused, reminding herself that she was a happily married woman. “Human, huh?” Charm waved sweetly up at Dolly, perched on her rock. “Well hello~.”“A human who’s friends with Crooks?” Lust muttered, eyeing Dolly curiously up and down: her legs in particular. “No way she’s…”Charm elbowed his brother. “This isn’t the clan, Lust. Watch where your eyes are wandering.”Lust rolled his eyes toward his brother and shrugged, forgiving the unnecessary jab. He looked back up at Dolly. “I heard a rumor that Crooks regenerated a human’s leg. Was it yours?”“Yep, it was mine,” Dolly smiled and slipped her feet out of her flats to proudly show off her wiggling toes. “Good as new.”“No way!” Lust climbed up the rocky outcropping as easily as swimming and circled around the human to examine her legs more closely. Dolly tried to back away, surprised that she was suddenly being circled by some kind of water snake, but she just bumped into Lust’s tail instead. Everybody was pretty much too surprised to stop him, until he went as far as to flip up Dolly’s skirt. “Where was the seam?!” He demanded. Rebelling against the temptation making her cheeks flush, Dolly pulled a literal brick out of her small purse and slapped him across the face with it so that he let go. “At the knee, jackass! Which is how deep I’ll bury you the next time you try and pull that shit!” Dolly composed herself and combed her hair back with her fingers. “I’m a married lady, after all.”Lust was undaunted, and his delicate cheek wasn’t even bruised by the blow, thanks to his quick application of defensive magic. “Lust,” Charm called warningly.“Why am I the crazy one here?!” he insisted. “Does nobody else appreciate the level of magic that had to go into this?! A brand new leg was created, but you can tell right away from the placement of the capillaries that they aren’t symmetrical! The remaining limb would have been the only model to go off of when building the new one, but actually making a perfect mirrored copy would have resulted in tons of problems with balance and bloodflow! Humans aren’t perfectly symmetrical. The heart is offset to the left, and they tend to favor one hand and foot over the other. Countless adjustments had to be made to account for that! How were they calculated? On what basis? Just instinct? Genius? One mistake would have led to as many different kinds of cancer as there are tissues in the limb! Not to mention circulatory problems, nerve damage, muscular atrophy—this is crazy!”Dolly felt herself leaning away from the crazy mer monster again as he went off on a nerdy tangent, but her irritation from earlier was washed away. “That impressive, huh?” she murmured. “ Perfect! ” Lust insisted. He glanced down at Crooks, and one look at the monster’s happy but confused face told him that he wouldn’t get an academic explanation from him if he tried. Lust pouted down at him, frustrated by the mershark’s unreproducible genius. Lust sighed and hung his torso upside down off the rocks. “Ugh, whatever then. Nobody else cares about a first-in-the-world innovation in healing magic. And because the only person who can pull it off is a stupid genius, the technique will die with him. Fine.” Lust felt Axe’s warning eyes on him and sighed again. “You had a biology question or something, human? Go ahead and ask.”Dolly wasn’t sure about sharing any kind of personal information with this emotional and talkative monster, but she did think he might know enough to give her an answer, at least. “Is there any way at all for a human and a monster to have a kid together?”“Obviously,” Lust sighed as if the question he’d come outside to answer was too easy. “It depends on your own talent and effort, but in theory it’s possible.”Dolly reached over the edge of the rock and dragged the Lamia back up to face her. “How?!” she demanded. Lust blinked at her, furrowing his brow. “Seriously? See, this is the problem with modesty: if adults are too embarrassed to talk about sex, kids grow up not knowing how their own bodies work.”“Answer my question already, you weird snake mermaid thing!” Dolly shook him by the shoulders. “Lamia!” Lust insisted, sounding offended. He broke out of Dolly’s hold and slithered around behind her. “Surface monsters don’t make use of magical biology to reproduce: they use their souls directly. Are you with me so far?”“Y-yeah,” Dolly nodded, thinking she remembered hearing that from Hit at some point. Although she also remembered “magical biology” being involved when they had fun together. “Two people are necessary to make one kid, whether that kid is human or monster,” Lust patiently explained. “The necessary genetic code wouldn’t be complete otherwise. That code itself can be physical or magical in composition. But monsters aren’t physical creatures, so you won’t get any physical genetic code from one. You also can’t combine physical code and magical code into one cohesive genome. Incompatible reproduction methods and gene compositions is probably why the people you first heard from assumed that humans and monsters can’t have cohesive offspring.”Dolly nodded, her brow furrowed in concentration. “So what’s the fix, doc?”“You humans have souls, don’t you?” Lust shrugged. “That’s proof of the presence of magical genetic code, existing alongside the physical. You can provide the other half of the genes that your monster partner needs to have a kid.” Lust folded his arms and continued rambling on about the finer details. “Of course, flesh is denser than magic, so humans typically resist magical things, and your souls are usually trapped inside your bodies. A monster child grows in a host soul until it’s strong enough to relocate to a womb. It would take a lot of power for either you to free your soul from your body or your partner to force their soul into your body. But if you were the host soul, the baby would be crushed by your physical body after trying to relocate to a womb. So you can’t rely on your partner’s prowess,” Lust extended one hand to poke Dolly on the sternum, above where her soul was located. He raised a brow at her challengingly. “ You have to become magically powerful enough to free your soul from the confines of your flesh and impregnate your partner by your own will.” He shrugged and backed up a slither. “From there, it would be smooth sailing. Human magical genetics are sparse, so the kid would mostly take after its mother instead.”Dolly seemed to be stunned silent, holding her hand over her soul and staring down at her chest in contemplation. “How does that theory help her?” Crooks asked. “Humans can’t use magic.”“I didn’t just hear you say that,” Lust groaned again in frustration at this uneducated genius. “Of course they can! Any creature with a soul has the ability to use magic! Souls are made of magic and they are thoroughly integrated to the whole of a creature—even physical ones! There have been dozens of human mages documented throughout history.”“Really?” Axe asked curiously. He’d been scouring the internet these past months to learn the surface’s common sense, but he hadn’t seen any evidence of humans being able to use magic. Just rumors for and against the idea. “I guess that’s one good thing about the clans,” Charm mentioned. “The elders are pretty obsessive about keeping information and passing it on.”“But how do I learn magic?” Dolly asked suddenly. “I mean, how do I learn it better? Hit’s been teaching me, so I can actually use a little already, but it’s been five years and all I can do is sense bloodlust.”“Oh?” Lust smiled slightly. “Prove it.” He signaled to Axe, who snorted, shook his head, and complied by releasing a wave of bloodlust at the human. She responded instinctively by reaching for the handgun hidden in her stylish jacket and aiming it at the mershark. She failed to fire, since a dainty skeletal hand slipped its perfect fingers behind the trigger and around her hands. Lust examined Dolly’s trembling, sweaty body and nodded. He effortlessly disarmed her and holstered her weapon back where it belonged. “Nice reaction,” the Lamia purred. “Deep ocean mer have strong bloodlust, right?”She nodded and took a few seconds to take deep breaths. “Sorry, Axe,”she chuckled after a while. “No hard feelings, right?”He shrugged, apparently not taking it to heart. “Developing a magical sense is a good start,” Lust explained. “Physical creatures tend to have trouble feeling how their magic moves with their material bodies in the way. You can take a shortcut by feeling how a more magically powerful creature’s magic moves through you. Practice taking bloodlust until you can pinpoint your own magic without it. Once you can,” Lust held Dolly’s wrist and shoulder, “it’ll still be too weak to move with your body in the way.” Dolly tried to take her arm back, but the lamia’s grip was like iron. Lust’s smile turned into a wince when he saw her other hand reaching for her purse (and the brick inside of it).“Stars, it’s just a demonstration. You can’t move your arm, right? Then what can you do to make it stronger?”“Hit the obstruction from the outside?” She asked with a raised brow. “My grip in this analogy is your body. Do you want to maim yourself? I’m saying you should just move however you can. You can still flex your muscles in this position, right? Your fingers are free too. Anything that can move, move it.”He released her then, not willing to push his luck any farther. Dolly breathed a sigh of relief. She really didn’t want to test her own faithfulness any more than that.“If that’s all, I’m leaving before somebody gets mad at me again for no reason.” Lust complained, slipping back into the ocean.***She apologized the second she saw him. “Sorry to make you work on your lunch break, Styles,” Dolly said, taking a seat at the sunny outside table her brother-in-law had secured. “I’m used to it,” he shrugged, setting down his coffee. They were meeting at a cafe the likes of which you could find anywhere. “Yeah, well, I knew you’d be booked after this, and the sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can rest.”Dolly got a latte for herself and they both ordered some variation of sandwich from the waitress. She was a pleasant-looking Latino woman, but she was practically shaking under Styles’ natural glare and severe atmosphere. Dolly spoke a little nicer to the server than she usually would have, pitying the poor lady. “Alright,” Dolly pulled up something on her phone for reference. “First up: product. In or out?”“Everybody deals with product,” Styles scoffed. “As if I could drop it.”Dolly made a note and nodded. “Alright. Justice?”“I don’t like doing the field work myself, but it’d be a waste of my talents not to. In.”Obviously the names of these jobs were purposely vague so that the family could talk about them in public. Product was drug trafficking and justice was putting a beat down on anyone who did the family wrong. Next, Dolly asked about the extortion ring: protection, which Styles agreed to keep doing also. “How about security?” she asked. Styles hesitated for the first time so far. Security was pretty on the nose as far as what the job meant: it was physically protecting people, places, or goods. “… Take me off field work for that,” he said.Not only was it a pain getting around anywhere when he didn’t personally organize the transport (he was just too damn tall for most vehicles), but people who wanted personal bodyguards tended to have a negative reaction to him. Styles was very good at his work, but he wasn’t good at customer service. He couldn’t seem to fake a pleasant business smile the way Hit could, his stern glare was basically permanent. Styles tended to make his charges almost as nervous as whatever they were hiding from. It was unpleasant for all parties involved. “I’ll take you off field work and administration,” Dolly said. “You’re already hanging on to a lot here.”Styles yielded with a nod.“What about pets?”“Out,” Styles pinched between his eyes, feeling stressed just thinking about the family’s modern slave trafficking business and how vile he found it. Dolly nodded and made a note, but she looked visibly a little confused. “I thought you’d like that one,” she mentioned. “I know what you think about me,” Styles growled.“Ain’t you an S?” Dolly pressed, a little more gently than her usual blunt nature, but still quite forward. “No.” Styles was going to leave it at that, sipping his coffee, but the doubt written all over the human’s face was insulting. “You people came to that conclusion yourselves when I took up working with them. I’ll remind you now that I didn’t have a choice.”Dolly hummed and read off several more fields of work that Styles either said yes or no to. Then they went on reducing the area he had to cover for product: Dolly took half of it. “I’m gonna be taking over the field work for all these,” she announced at the end. “My new little coz is gonna take all the desk work.”“The healer?” Styles raised a brow. “Nah, his brother.” Dolly explained, “I got in contact with the two of them this morning. Figured I’d ask both to join in as temps. Like you figured, Crooks didn’t think he’d be much help aside from healing, but Axe just finished some community service thing and his finals, so he was free.”Styles took a mental note of the names of Dolly’s new honorary blood. “You’re gonna put a student in charge of my work?” Styles scoffed. “Good thing his brother’s a healer; the poor sap’s gonna collapse by the time my vacation is over.”“He’s not a student anymore. Just graduated,” Dolly beamed. “With grades as good as Alpha’s and just as many fancy diplomas in his hands.”Styles paused, then he felt a wave of envy. If he’d had even one person like Alpha working under him, he could have reduced his burden significantly. “Jealous?” Dolly teased, spotting the minute changes in Styles’ demeanor. “Who wouldn’t be?” he sighed and confessed. “People competent enough to compare to Agnes aren’t common.”Dolly burst out laughing. “I almost forgot Alpha wasn’t her real name!” she admitted, wiping a tear away. “Stars. Anyway, coz, you don’t need to be jealous of me and Hit for having an Alpha. I’m pretty sure you are one.”Styles’ hard expression softened just a tiny little bit. “No,” he disagreed. “But it ain’t so bad to hear.”“No, for real, the amount of work you’ve been handling alone is crazy.”“You can’t ever just let someone else get the last word in, can you?” he snorted faintly. “I said no.”Dolly pouted, but their food arrived, so they took a break to eat. Styles had ordered two sandwiches for himself, and each disappeared in just as many bites. He was finished before Dolly had swallowed her third mouthful. “Was there anything else?” the giant asked, checking his watch for the time. “I have work to do.”Dolly quickly swallowed so she could berate him. “You’re crazy! I’m still eating, right? Take this chance to sit still for a few minutes, Styles!”“So I’ll have to stay up later tonight?” he countered.“I’ll come help out after this,” Dolly told him. “An extra exec should help you make up some time, right?”Styles considered her for a moment, eventually pulling the front brim of his hat down slightly. “Alright,” he muttered. While Dolly enjoyed her meal, Styles took a deep breath and allowed himself a few minutes of quiet rest, absently watching the cityfolk who hustled and bustled around. Styles insisted on paying when the anxious waitress returned with the bill, since she’d put them both on one check without asking. “I don’t need my brother to pay for my meals for me,” he bit. Dolly immaturely stuck her tongue out at him, but she let him have his way. “Whatever. It’ll be my money soon enough. I’ll take you out to eat sometime then.”“Like I would spend a moment of my first vacation subjecting myself to your attitude,” Styles scoffed. Dolly turned her chin up and hmphed at him. Then she regarded him curiously. “It wasn’t me, was it?”“You’ll have to be more specific.”“The person you liked who married someone else.”Styles scowled distastefully down at her, which was plenty for an answer already, but he made sure to reply with words too. “I have never for a moment understood what my brother sees in you.”“Obviously he’s got better eyes than you do,” Dolly flipped her short bob over her shoulder. “I’m a catch.”“Let me know when they figure out a vaccine.”They continued bickering until the check came back, then it was silence until both of them were riding off in Styles’ limousine. Dolly strapped herself into a side seat and regarded Styles, reclined in an almost relaxed posture, with his ankles casually crossed and his hat tipped forward over his eyes. “How fuckin’ tall are you?” she blurted out. “Fuck you,” he answered. “No, I’m serious,” she pressed. “It’s gotta be some kinda record or something.”“World’s tallest human was about a foot taller than me,” Styles told her. “World’s tallest monster was almost twice my height.”“No way!” Dolly gasped and pulled out her phone to look it up. “Holy shit, for real? An eight foot eleven human?” She looked over at Styles again stubbornly. “So you’re what, eight foot?”Fearing she might never stop bothering him, Styles gave Dolly a straight answer. “I’m eight foot one. Happy?”“That’s crazy,” Dolly said. “You could almost pass for a deep ocean mer.”Styles flicked his cap up and peered at her curiously. “A what?”Dolly covered her mouth. “Oh shit, I forgot Alpha was blocking that.”“Blocking what ?” Styles pressed. “Mermaids are real,” Dolly grinned. “A bunch of other kinds of mer monsters too. Hit’s in a cooperative relationship with a few of them, but there’ve been poaching incidents, so we’re keeping the info locked down.”Styles hummed. “Monster poaching, huh? If the information’s on lockdown, then who’s poaching them and who’s buying?”“I dunno,” Dolly hummed, holding her chin. “That’s a good question.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It took about a week for Dolly and Axe to settle into their new jobs. But by the end of that week, Hit had made Axe’s request a reality. There was now a single, above water shelter perched on the outcropping of rocks near the den. It was built for sturdiness rather than looks, resembling a concrete bunker from the outside—at least it did before they camouflaged it to look like the surrounding rocks. The interior had heating and air conditioning, its own generator to provide electricity, and it was thoroughly protected from storms. There were two entrances: one through a simple doorway hidden in the rocks; the other via the sea. Both led to the main room, where half the floor was missing to allow water bound creatures to swim. Aside from the main room, there was also a small kitchenette, a cozy little living room, and a single bedroom. It wasn’t like Axe had asked for any of those things, but Hit had likely caught on that the little outpost would be a good place for the surfacers and mer monsters to meet up, in which case, it couldn’t be just a concrete box sitting on the ocean. For a rush job, Axe was very satisfied. But Hit wasn’t the only person who saw potential in the outpost. Lust and Charm knew what interior heating was and what it might mean for them. In short, weather alone wouldn’t force them away from this place anymore. Obviously, that was the whole point behind it; that was Axe’s plan. Now, the plan didn’t go exactly like he’d calculated. He had expected to have to run around the ocean for a bit doing favors for the mob before they’d agree to build a heated outpost for him. He hadn’t expected to get away with just doing their paperwork—hadn’t expected to be trusted with it immediately after graduating. I could’ve skipped the community service, Axe mused with a chuckle. But he wasn’t going to complain that things were going better than expected. There was only one thing left now. “Are you ready?” Charm asked in a gentle voice. He, Axe, and Crooks were gathered together in Red’s old chasm-side den for privacy, with his permission, of course. “I’ll walk you through the process one more time, okay?”Both mersharks nodded their heads quietly. They were both extremely tense and nervous, which Charm hoped to fix. “First, you’ll both take out your souls. Touch them gently together and wish for a child. You’re soulmates, so there will probably be some strong emotional feedback as your souls come closer, but it’s just the two of you, nothing to be scared of. “An infant soul will form as long as your wishes are in harmony. Crooks, you’ll will it to come to you as you gently separate your souls again. But don’t put your soul back. I’m going to reach in with pink magic at that point and transfer the child to me. And then we’ll go home. So are you ready? Do you have any more questions?”They shook their heads. Crooks took a deep breath and held his thin hands over his sternum, gently drawing the core of his being out of its cage. Axe followed suit, his round red rings locked onto Crooks’ spring green soul, rather than his own. Both heart-shaped objects were glowing with a gold outline that pulsed against the walls of the cave. Crooks held his cupped hands out in front of him, and his soul floated along obediently. In this moment, he was surprised how calm he was. The fear and anxiety he’d been feeling until now seemed to wash away before the smooth, green, gold-glowing surface of his soul. It looked proud and impenetrable, Crooks felt like he could trust it. But separate from his own feeling, Crooks also felt Axe’s feelings. It was more clear and acute than usual because their souls were so close. And it was a somewhat worrying feeling, so Crooks looked away from his soul to check on his brother. Axe’s eyes were locked on Crooks’ soul. Despite that he was holding his own soul in his hands, he didn’t pay any attention to the blood-red thing. His breaths came in a quick and shallow rhythm, his face flushed, and nervous sweat beaded on his forehead. His dazed smile twitched at the corners. Axe was swimming neck deep in love, longing, and a more than healthy helping of lust. “Axe,” Crooks called out gently, trying to jog his brother’s consciousness. Axe blinked and the rest of the world came back into focus a little. “M’ fine,” he managed to say. Crooks looked at him skeptically but shrugged and brought his soul a little closer. Immediately, Axe’s focus was stolen again. He stared at Crooks’ soul, transfixed, and didn’t move in like he was supposed to. Crooks cast an exasperated glance at Charm, who merely tossed him a thumbs up while pink hearts swam in his eyes. Crooks sighed and decided to do it himself. He swallowed, though his throat was completely dry, and brought his soul over to where they touched. Instantly on contact, the presence in the back of Crooks’ mind that was Axe multiplied. It was like the two of them had become one, but the apparent thrill of that union threw Axe’s already volatile emotions into a spiral. It quickly became so intense as to overshadow Crooks’ own feelings and become his, and that then again spiraled. But lust wasn’t a pleasant feeling for Crooks. It had nowhere to go when he felt it: no release and no reward, and so it just made him feel uncomfortable. So he managed to find enough presence of will to pull his soul back before the incoming flood could break it. As soon as they separated, Crooks was left reeling and panting, sweat dripping off his body. Axe directly lost consciousness. Worryingly, there was a red line of liquid magic dripping from his nose, too dense to be carried away by the minuscule current present in the cave. As soon as Crooks had his bearings back, he did a quick medical check on both of them, and they were fine. Axe’s condition looked like he’d been injured, but there was essentially no damage done. His own magic had just run so out of control from sheer excitement that it broke free from wherever the weakest place was. Fortunately mershark magic didn’t manifest well outside the body, otherwise that rampant magic might have caused some damage to the surroundings. Also, the flow had clearly stopped already. Charm leaned over and asked Crooks, “How is he?” “He’s fine,” Crooks sighed. “We’re both fine.”Charm nodded, glad to hear a positive prognosis. “Honestly, I expected him to pass out, considering, well, it’s Axe.”Crooks dragged his hands down his face and breathed out a long breath. “So what was your plan after this? He can hardly assert his will to have a child if he’s unconscious.”“Practice,” Charm said simply. “Eventually he’ll get used to it, right? Though it’ll be a bit of a pity too. It’s cute how excited he gets over every little thing.” The Lamia examined Crooks’ tired smile curiously. “What’s that look for?”“I’m just relieved it wasn’t my fault this time,” Crooks chuckled dryly. “Who knew you really could love somebody too much?”Charm laughed and repeated himself, “Practice. Let’s give it a few more tries before we head back. If we still don’t get it today, we’ll try again after Axe is done with work tomorrow.”Crooks nodded and gently shook his brother awake. Axe’s eyes darted cautiously around the room when he woke up, securing the area by habit. He smelled magical blood close by but didn’t see anything that could’ve caused it. Soon enough he put the pieces together, swiping his thumb under his nose and peering at the dark red magic. Axe smiled awkwardly at Crooks. “My bad?” he guessed that an apology was in order. Crooks sighed. “We’re trying again,” he stated, helping his brother wipe away the blood with his thumb. He briefly considered washing the blood away with cleaning magic, but his common sense from his famine-plagued childhood wouldn’t stand it. Crooks licked the blood away instead. Axe barely had time to visually register and enjoy the scene before he felt his soul pulse rapidly accelerating again. His body’s own self-preservation instincts hit the brakes hard in response, and his vision blacked out. “Oh my gods, Axe!” Crooks exclaimed in exasperation when his brother passed out a second time. He drummed his fingers impatiently while waiting the few moments it took for his soulmate to rouse again. Then the berating continued. Crooks sighed and lowered his flushing face, arms crossed stubbornly. “We’ve hardly even done anything yet, Axe! I understand that you’re very passionate, but is it really that hard to focus on me when we’re being intimate? Must you be this way? I would be much more flattered if you couldn’t look away from me than if you couldn’t stay conscious.”Crooks peeked up at his brother, who nodded eagerly while clutching his chest tightly and flushing bright red. “M’sorry,” he said breathlessly. “M’ tryin’. Promise.”Charm raised his voice with an offer. “It’s up to you, but I can help you keep just a little bit calmer with magic. Would you like that?”Axe shook his head. He didn’t want any artificial feelings mixing into such an important moment in his life. “If we can’t work it out ourselves, we’ll consider it,” Crooks said, “but no thank you for now.”Charm swayed the tip of his long tail cheerfully. “That’s fine,” he assured them. “We’ve got plenty of time anyway.”After what felt like countless failed attempts over several days, Charm held his plump pink soul in his hands. Inside of it swam a colorless infant soul. His job started from this moment on, and it probably wouldn’t stop for the next four months. No, probably longer. He didn’t have to worry about winter driving him off anymore, and his priority was to ensure that this child would be born as healthy as possible. He might even deliberately slow down the gestation time if he thought it would help. “Good work you two,” Charm said softly, letting his soul slip back into his body. “It has a lot of growing to do, but it’s a completely formed infant soul.”***A bell chimed overhead as Styles ducked into a small shop. The place was mostly empty, with just an anxious pyrope manning the cash register. Styles swept his eyes over the interior, seeing right over most of the shelves, and then strode over to examine the goods more closely. There’s more different kinds than I thought, he mused, reading the warning labels on the variously shaped and colored bottles. This was an alcohol shop; one specifically for fire monsters. Since the only booze that had ever worked for him had been designed for a fire monster, he was hoping to find something equivalent commercially available. But not all alcohol designed for fire monsters was intended to get them drunk, apparently. Some milder ones were essentially water substitutes. Others were for… well, Styles didn’t really know what the point of them was, but they were there to act as fuel, reinvigorating the monster’s flames. Could’ve been a health thing or a beauty thing, maybe. Styles found the truly alcoholic beverages, the ones meant simply to be enjoyed, in a smaller corner of the shop, closer to the checkout counter, where the receptionist could more easily keep an eye on the people browsing. Styles took a bottle off the shelf and examined the multitude of warning symbols plastered all over it. It was a dull orange brew. He didn’t see anything here than was bright green. Well, he just took three different bottles at random for variety. Hopefully he’d like at least one of them. The pyrope behind the counter shrank under Styles’ gaze, but he stammered out a warning anyway. “S-sir, those aren’t meant for anybody but fire monsters to drink. Y-you could go to the hospital.”“Do I need a permit to buy these?” Styles asked. “N-no, just an ID, but—”“Then it’s none of your business.” Styles showed his ID and payed for the bottles then left the shop. His vacation started in the morning. Supposedly, it would last for two weeks. He didn’t believe that Dolly and her new little helper would last that long, so he planned to front-load everything he wanted to do. Problem was, Styles had no plans at all. He arrived back at home, deposited the alcohol on his kitchen counter and sighed while pulling out his cellphone. He googled what people do on vacation. Styles snorted when he saw the results. Parasitic, he criticized the obvious advertisements. Most of the top results were expensive activities like international travel, theme parks, cruises, and so on. He could easily guess how those results ended up at the top. Money.Speaking of money, Styles had plenty of it. More than enough. But he didn’t believe that spending it was the best way to have fun and relax. As if he would get sincere advice like that from businesses whose only goal in the first place was profit. So he kept scrolling until he started to see things that could be arranged for free. Some of them were simple things like turning your phone off and sleeping in. Others were more adventurous like hiking or going to the beach. Find somewhere scenic to take pictures; read a book; these were things Styles could believe produced more relaxation than stress. Styles stroked his chin, wondering if he should just find a way to incorporate everything. After all, who knew if he would ever go on another vacation? But the suggestion to turn his phone off made him realize something else he very much wanted during this period: privacy. Looks like it might be better to spend some money after all, he mused. Yeah, the idea was forming in his head now. He could rent a boat and a small island, and if anybody tried to intrude, he could tell them to fuck off or he’d shoot them. He could hang out on the beach reading a book, and he could hike around the island taking pictures. Since he’d have a boat with him, maybe he could try fishing?In that case, he needed to do a little research and make some calls. Styles started up the desktop computer he rarely ever used and searched for private islands nearby that were available to rent, and his gaze was drawn to one particular little port town. Styles leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, drumming his fingers against his shirt sleeve. He contemplated silently for several minutes before picking up his phone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
By eight in the morning the following day, everything remaining had been arranged. Styles had reserved a small island with just a single house on it, as well as a boat, for two weeks. His things were all packed and ready, including enough sleeping pills to fill a small handbag. As for clothing, Styles didn’t have anything casual to wear except for a couple of sets of workout attire, so it was mostly silk suits just like usual. Even if he wanted something else to wear, there just wasn’t enough time to tailor something new.
By eleven in the afternoon, Styles had arrived in the town where he would pick up his boat. It was a quiet place, with the smell of sea breeze in the air.
It was the town Edge ran off to after eloping, but Styles had no intention of meeting him.
The island Styles had rented happened to be not far from here. And according to Dolly, there were mer monsters in the area too, which would be interesting to see. He also wanted to check in on the town his family was protecting.
It was peaceful. Not just on the surface, but the underbelly too was quiet.
Styles had relinquished his security management duties during the restructuring, but the person in charge of it now was Dolly, who had personal stakes in keeping the town safe given that her honorary mer monster family seemed to use this place as a point of contact with the surface. He could probably trust her not to screw up the work he’d done.
For all his efforts keeping anything mob-related from setting foot in this place, this was the first time Styles had been here.
He’d done an almost perfect job.
Not that long ago, a small group had tried shipping some goods through here. The group had been dealt with. It was technically Styles’ job to do so, but Hit had insisted he go personally. The oldest brother had been royally pissed off by unknown rats almost killing his youngest brother. He treated it like a personal offense. Since Styles had no interest in “avenging” their little brother, he agreed to hand his responsibility over to Hit, just for a day.
But no matter how hard Hit and Alpha searched after that, they couldn’t figure out who was supplying that little group with so many valuable goods. The trail was already cold by the time Hit passed operations back to Styles.
He would’ve been pissed if he didn’t understand that he couldn’t possibly do a more thorough search than Alpha could.
What was the point of hiding their tracks so thoroughly and then docking the shipment in enemy territory? It’s like it was a taunt, but the losses that resulted from it were no small change, so it just didn’t make sense.
Styles shook his head to clear his thoughts. He shouldn’t be thinking about work while he was on vacation. He started walking through the town to the docks.
As with most places he visited for the first time, Styles got lots of stares. His sleek form of dress probably didn’t help any, considering the casual local attire most people were wearing. Still, all that was fine until he heard a digital camera shutter sound out.
Styles’ natural glare settled instantly on the young woman who’d taken his picture. She was wincing; probably didn’t know that the sound on her phone was on and was embarrassed to get caught.
This wasn’t Styles’ territory, and he had no intention of breaking the serenity of the town he’d helped shelter for so long, so he tried for a diplomatic approach.
“It’s not polite to take somebody’s picture without permission, dollface. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate if you deleted it.”
“Sorry,” she hung her head and peered up shyly. “I won’t post it anywhere. I just thought you looked kind of cool with the suit and the hat and all.”
The irritation at being back-talked was offset somewhat by the girl’s rightful appreciation of clean dress.
“I’m flattered, but it’s a matter of principle.”
“If I delete the picture I took, will you let me take another one? With permission this time?”
“Sorry, but I’ve got somewhere to be.”
“It won’t take long!”
Styles didn’t expect her to persist this much. His legs had almost started to move on automatically, and he had to forcibly stop himself. For some ungodly reason this encounter wasn’t over yet.
Truthfully, it didn’t matter if some girl took his picture, kept it, and tried to disperse it all over the Internet. Alpha would take care of it. But if things went that far, then Alpha would know—Hit would know—that Styles came to the town where Edge lived. There was a chance of an annoying conversation starting up if that happened, which he wanted to avoid.
But it really was the principle of it.
“What the hell is your problem?” Styles whispered harshly down at the woman. “Can’t you understand what no means? Are you stupid or just rude?”
Snap.
Styles blinked incredulously at the young woman, hiding behind her phone and blushing as she snapped a photo of his scowling face.
When he failed to find any words after a few more beats, she tried her luck. “So, um, are you doing anything for lunch, or…?”
Styles experienced the illusion of hearing white static in his ears, and the girl’s words felt far away. Inexplicably, everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion about him. Why? How? What about him looked so obviously like a sadist? And what were the odds of him running into a random masochist like this just walking down the street?
“Do what you want. I’m busy,” Styles clicked his tongue, striding away down the road.
She might have tried chasing him, and he might’ve walked farther, if another pissed off skeleton monster wasn’t quickly approaching him from the other direction.
Edge happened to be out on a casual patrol around town when he spotted his adoptive brother, a hard man to mistake, to be fair.
“Come with me,” Edge spat.
Styles rolled his eyes and breathed an exasperated sigh, cursing that pushy, annoying woman in his head for delaying him, but he complied, if only to keep their family drama private.
Edge took him to an isolated spot down by the local police station. They were the only two around, so Edge abruptly spun around, grabbing Styles by the collar.
“What the hell are you doing here?!”
Styles narrowed his eyes at Edge’s hands stretching his shirt fabric and forcibly removed them. “I’m on vacation. Can’t a guy take a walk?”
“Not in
my
town. Not
you
!” Edge jabbed a finger up at Styles, who snorted, looking away derisively.
Honestly, the height and power difference between him and his brothers pissed Edge off. His attempts at intimidation always failed.
“What the hell were you doing with that girl, huh? Were you thinking about taking her? Torturing her? Turning her into some plaything?”
“She might’ve liked it,” Styles muttered.
Edge had left his family in part because he couldn’t condone murder for any reason, but he did
so
want to stab his brother in the eye sockets.
“There isn’t a single thing about you that’s redeemable, is there?” Edge spat.
Every word out of Edge’s mouth seemed to grate in Styles’ ears and on his nerves. He gritted his fangs in irritation.
“Irredeemable,” he sneered, “right.” Then Styles stuffed his hands in his pockets and loomed down over Edge with cold hatred in his eyes. “Because you understand enough about my life to have the right to lay that kind of judgment.”
Styles straightened up again, and Edge was relieved, although he wouldn’t ever admit it. Edge was keenly aware that his older brother could be dangerous, but that was all the more reason to stand up to him and make sure he never came back.
“I know plenty,” Edge growled. “I know you’re a criminal, a murderer, a sadist, and a slave trafficker. Whatever petty
inconvenience
in your life you think justifies all that, it doesn’t.”
Styles felt like he had heard that goddamn S word more than enough these past few days, and it was seriously wearing on his nerves. Somewhat impulsively, he returned the favor from earlier, grabbing Edge by his shirt collar and lifting him up. Being considerably taller and stronger than his little brother, he managed with one hand and pulled him up enough that his high heels left the floor.
Edge glared at Styles and summoned about a dozen sharp and dangerous bone attacks. They hovered threateningly in the air around them.
Honestly, it was a fair response. Styles had more physical training than Edge, but because of all the things he had to learn, he didn’t have as much time for magical training. Edge was definitely his better in that field.
But so what? Styles glanced calmly at the needle-like points bearing down on him and smirked. He peered down at his adopted brother as if daring him to go through with it.
Of course, Edge wasn’t going to fire off his attacks as long as Styles wasn’t making any further moves. They were at a stalemate. One that was only possible because… Edge had no idea that Styles could regenerate.
Since he kept out of the family business, their father thought it best to keep a great number of things from Edge, and the unique magical abilities of his other two sons were among them. After all, they were tools to be used for the benefit of the family. If everybody knew about them, they would lose the element of surprise.
Edge, who didn’t know any of that, was struck by the calm and confident look on his brother’s cruel face. He essentially had multiple guns pointed at his head, so how was he so calm? Was he convinced Edge wouldn’t actually hurt him, or did he have the ability to get out of a situation like this so easily? Was he just used to threats like these because of his work?
Styles released a curt and dry laugh between his teeth and tilted his chin mockingly. “What’s the matter? You can shoot, you know? I won’t even be mad, as long as you don’t ruin my suit.”
Styles watched as Edge desperately tried to hide the interior battle he was facing. Ultimately, the magic attacks didn’t move. Slowly, Styles lowered his brother so that his feet touched the floor again, though he didn’t release his collar.
“You don’t know nearly as much as you think you do,
little brother
,” Styles stated. “Ever since you pulled out of training as a kid, pops kept you in the dark about practically everything. Told me and Hit to do the same. I never agreed with that decision. In my opinion, it just made you ignorant and ungrateful.”
“Should I be grateful?” Edge smiled mirthlessly. “I never asked you to kill people for me. It’s disturbing when someone who’s just a little rude to you one day turns up missing the next. I don’t think I have anything to be grateful for.”
“Rude?” Styles barked a laugh. “Sure, sure. They were just
random
strangers who came up to
you
in particular for no real reason and acted
just a little rude
. Are you really that dense?”
Edge’s gaze was hard and steely, as if he wanted to wall off any unpleasant truths or lies Styles might be preparing to throw at him. Still, he couldn’t quite hold back his curiosity.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that no matter what
you
think, the rest of the underworld just sees you as pops’ kid. The ones who would wanna beg for favors know better than to come to you, but to the ones who just wanna hurt us, you’re a big red target.”
Styles slowly released his grip on Edge’s shirt. “You were approached by murderers, pedofiles, rapists, kidnappers—the works. Since you skipped out on training, your instincts were so dull that you couldn’t even tell you were in danger. Well, looks like you finally grew into them a little though.”
Styles smiled pointedly at the floating attacks, which Edge reluctantly unsummoned.
He narrowed his eyes. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked.
“Because you piss me off,” Styles folded his arms and glared down at Edge. “And the truth is unpleasant. Here’s another: you remember your old man? The one who died trying to donate bone marrow for your life-saving surgery as a kid?”
Edge continued glaring and clenched his fists tightly. He was too curious to stop Styles from talking even though he hated every moment of it.
“It failed,” Styles went on, rolling his eyes up and examining a dark corner of the ceiling. “The doctors didn’t get what they needed, and your old man died. Pops put himself under the knife for you after that.”
Edge felt as if lightning had jolted down his spine. That calm, quiet, menacing Don did something so impulsive and kind? And he said nothing about it all these years?
“There’s no way,” Edge denied it. “Why wouldn’t he take credit for it if he saved my life?”
Styles looked about as disgusted as Edge felt. He clicked his tongue before continuing. “Don’t ask me because I don’t get it either. I’ve got no idea why he cared enough about the kid of his dead friend to risk dying for him and not enough about his own kids to keep himself safe. Family this, family that, kill for your stupid little brother, scar yourself for your stupid little brother, pick up your stupid little brother’s slack. What, you don’t like it? Suck it up and do it; for family. The hypocrisy of it all.”
Styles’ eyes rolled back down to Edge’s face but they didn’t linger there long. The ceiling was much more interesting, apparently.
“I really didn’t come here for you. Like I said, I’m on vacation. I rented a boat and I was trying to get to it.”
“Why’d you rent a boat from here in the first place if you didn’t want to see me?” Edge scoffed.
Family this, family that
. Styles tipped the brim of his hat down over his eyes and scowled at himself. “Fair enough,” he grumbled. “If I did run into you, I wanted to make you an offer. I hear you’ve got yourself a kid these days.”
“Don’t you dare so much as look at him you—!”
Styles wasn’t sure he could bear to continue if Edge kept insulting him, so he physically shut his mouth, the palm of his large hand completely engulfing it, and his long fingers wrapping around Edge’s skull.
“The condition you had is genetic. Hit got it in college, just like our mom, just like your mom, just like you. You can’t be a donor if you’ve had it, and pops is too old to do that surgery again—it’s dangerous even for a healthy person. Look, just,” Styles hid his own mouth behind his free hand and looked away from Edge’s piercing eyes, “… Call me when your kid needs a donor.”
Edge couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Styles pulled his hand away and folded both arms tightly. He leaned back against the wall, but he looked more uncomfortable than anything.
“Why would you do that?” Edge asked him, baffled.
“Shouldn’t I? He’s my nephew.”
Edge narrowed his eyes at the flippant tone in Styles’ voice. “Is this some kind of trap to get me to owe you? You aren’t the only donor in the world. I’m sure we can find somebody else if we have to.”
Styles gritted his teeth and raised his voice slightly. “Are you crazy? Do you know what the success rate for that donor surgery is?! Fifteen percent! Most doctors won’t even try it anymore—they’ll just tell you to wait for a registered donor to turn up already dead!”
“So why would you risk it?” Edge pressed. “It doesn’t make any sense. You hate me.”
“Yeah, I do!” Styles stood up straight and admitted blatantly. “But how’s that the kid’s fault?! And anyway, I can get through the surgery fine. I did it once for Hit already.”
“You think your odds of surviving a surgery that dangerous are better just because you got lucky once?” Edge retorted. “Are you planning on ‘finding’ a dead donor and taking the credit?”
“I’ll do it myself!” Styles snarled.
“You’d die.”
“I won’t.”
“You can’t know that!”
Styles gritted his teeth, “What the hell is wrong with you?! Why can’t you just accept a favor?! So what if I die? Between me and your son shouldn’t your choice be obvious? You can’t stand me!”
“That’s why this is so suspicious!” Edge snarled back. “The Styles I know doesn’t have a nice bone in his body. What the hell do you get out of this?”
“Oh, right!” Styles scoffed. “I’m an evil sadist who doesn’t know the first letter in kindness! I’m just a heartless criminal who doesn’t bleed or feel pain! Do you think it’s
nice
hearing this sort of shit every time I see you? Do you think anyone would
want
to do nice things for you after you attack their character nonstop? Is it
that
hard to believe that I don’t want an innocent kid dying to the same disease that killed my mom and forced
you
into my life? It would weigh on my conscience if I just let it happen, alright?!”
Edge flinched but didn’t back down. “No, I don’t believe you. If you really had a conscience, you wouldn’t be in the mob anymore.”
Suddenly, Edge felt his shirt getting grabbed again and he was slammed back against a wall. Thankfully not hard enough to hurt him, just enough to knock the wind out of him.
Styles leaned in his face and shouted. “Unlike you who doesn’t give a damn, the mafia is my family! If I quit, I won’t get to see my pops or brother anymore! You can’t imagine how hard I worked and how much I gave up just for pops to look at me!”
Styles’ voice cracked, so he begrudgingly let go of Edge and backed up. He dusted and straightened his suit somewhat awkwardly.
“Whatever. I made you the offer, take it or leave it. I’m gonna go and try to enjoy my vacation.” He tipped his hat down over his eyes and chuckled, muttering as he turned toward the door. “The others are worried I’m close to a breakdown, if you can imagine.”
Edge watched Styles leave, wondering if maybe… he was a little too harsh. Did he make a mistake? Was he wrong to press his older brother so hard? Styles wasn’t a good person, but… it seemed like he was dealing with some stuff.
“Wait!” Edge called, and Styles’ shoes stopped for a moment.
They stood there for a moment in silence, Edge staring at his brother’s back.
“I…” Edge wasn’t sure what to say. All he knew was that his soul was twisting into knots.
“Yoo-hoo, anybody home?”
There was a knock and a voice at the door leading into the room they had secluded themselves in, causing both monsters to flinch and go silent. Edge hurried past Styles to the door and stepped outside, acting as a physical barrier between his older brother and the new arrival.
“We were going to go on a picnic together for lunch today, right?” Papyrus asked, hoisting up a quaint wicker picnic basket and smiling brightly.
The soft and friendly skeleton blinked as a very tall and imposing figure stepped out of the room behind Edge. He said nothing, simply tipped his hat and walked past them toward the docks.
“He looks familiar… wasn’t that another of your cousins, Edge?” Frowning, and remembering how poorly Edge got along with his family and what sort of industry they worked in, Papyrus lowered his voice, “Is everything alright?”
“I’ll tell you all about it over lunch,” Edge sighed. “Just don’t go anywhere near that guy. He’s a lot less friendly than Hit.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“So what exactly happened back there?”
Edge laid out a picnic blanket for him and Papyrus to rest on and sighed.
“It’s not a very good subject to discuss while having a picnic.”
Papyrus set the basket he’d brought down in the middle of the blanket and took a seat. “It’s rather too late for that, isn’t it? You’ve had a sour look on your face the whole walk over here.”
The gentle skeleton took two sandwiches out of the basket and passed one to Edge. He sighed and accepted it, taking a bite before starting his explanation.
“Styles and I have never been on good terms,” he began. “Once upon a time, I was close with Hit and Don, but I always had this sense that Styles didn’t like me.”
Edge took another bite of food, the sustenance already doing a little to improve his mood. “In hindsight, it’s probably because Styles was younger than they were… and older than I was. Back then, I was in shock. Before I knew it, both of my parents were dead and I was joining a new family. I could barely process what was happening around me. But I think Hit and Styles were very aware of it all.”
Papyrus nodded quietly, encouraging Edge to keep talking. He rarely had opportunities to hear about the more painful parts of his husband’s past, and he wanted to help carry that burden.
Edge smiled faintly at him, “You’ve met Hit a few times, so you can probably tell what kind of personality he has. For a cold blooded criminal, he can be deceptively warm and welcoming. He was that way with me after I was adopted too. I think he used caring for me, a helpless child and his new little brother, as a way to deal with the grief of losing his mother.”
“Everybody handles loss differently,” Papyrus nodded. “My mother was the same.”
Edge nodded. “The problem is that a lot of attention ended up on me, and I don’t think they gave Styles as much as
he
needed. I think that’s where our relationship started to go bad. I must’ve seemed like a usurper to him.” The sharp skeleton’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know if he ever complained about it to Don, but if he did, I’m sure he was punished for it.”
“What? Why?” Papyrus jumped in surprise.
Edge shrugged. “I can’t understand that man. I think he’s mad, frankly. He’s obsessed with his own definition of “family”, where unity and self-sacrifice are the main tenants. So, if a family member is suffering more than you are, you’re supposed to suck it up and support them. Styles lost one family member, but I lost two, and they were all I had, and I was younger than him.”
Edge paused to finish his sandwich. Talking about Don in particular spoiled the taste somewhat, unfortunately.
“Aside from a vague sense that something was wrong, I didn’t really really pick up on it while I lived there, but now I’m sure that man was brainwashing us… The talk I had with Styles just now reminded me about all of that.”
Edge’s story was meandering more than usual, making it difficult for Papyrus to trace the threads of conversation back to the original topic. Still, he encouraged him to keep going. “How so?”
Edge sighed and scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know. He was rude, evasive, and threatening, as usual. But… isn’t that already strange?”
“Is it?” Papyrus tipped his head slightly. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
Edge waved a hand demonstratively, “I’ve said it before: Styles has
always
hated me. Considering the warped family tenants Don was constantly shoving down our throats, treating me that way is like an open act of rebellion.”
“Really?” Papyrus looked brighter just at the prospect. “Isn’t that a good thing, then? It sounds like he might not have gotten caught completely by the brainwashing.”
“I’m not sure,” Edge pondered. “It’s still not exactly pleasant dealing with him when he treats me like that. But more importantly, what does it mean when a man like that offers me a favor?”
“What kind of favor?” Papyrus asked curiously.
Edge gritted his teeth. “Assuming he was telling the truth—and Styles may be awful, but I’ve never known him to lie to someone’s face—then it might save Rus’s life someday.”
Papyrus’s eyes widened, mostly in worry. “Should we expect Rus to get into some kind of danger?”
“That’s where we’ll have to verify things. To my knowledge, Styles doesn’t lie, but even so…”
Edge told Papyrus what Styles had told him: that the condition he had as a child was genetic and likely to be passed down to Rus; that the treatment for it was very dangerous for the donor side; and that few doctors would even attempt the surgery anymore.
They used their phones to confirm the basics online.
Yes, Edge’s condition was genetic, with a low chance of being passed down paternally but an almost guaranteed chance of being passed down maternally. Yes, there was a treatment option which was, apparently, now illegal to perform with live donors due to the associated risks. Dead donors were, unfortunately, extremely rare.
A grim mood settled over the two young parents.
“I’m so sorry,” Edge said, hanging his head and holding his face. “I should have learned more about my own condition. I never would have pressed to be Rus’s mother if I knew.”
“Please, you were just a child back then! Isn’t it the fault of the adults around you who didn’t tell you anything?”
Edge sighed but didn’t protest further. “So what do we think about Styles’ offer? Is it genuine? Is it some kind of trap? Or has he finally been brainwashed into Don’s cult, perhaps?”
“I’m not sure,” Papyrus held his chin. “I don’t think I know him well enough to guess. But shouldn’t we consult with Crooks? He’s more competent than the doctors up here, as long as the malady in question can be treated with magic. Perhaps we won’t need Styles’ help in the first place.”
“That’s an excellent point,” Edge nodded. “We should see what our options are first and foremost.”
***
Styles woke up to his alarm at six in the morning, having successfully slept in compared to usual, and climbed out of bed. It was rather uncomfortable not having his own bed to sleep in, since a standard queen-sized was too short, but he had MacGyvered a solution by incorporating a twin-sized from another room.
Today was the second day of his vacation, and he went about the motions exactly as he did on the first day:
He checked for any messages before turning off his phone service for the day. He ate breakfast. He went down to the beach and read a book to completion. He ate lunch. He went on a walk around the island and took pictures of whatever seemed to stand out from the general scenery. He returned to the cabin to eat dinner and drink a bottle of alcohol. Finally, drunk and with nothing to do, he returned to the beach to stare at the stars until around midnight, when he went back to bed and downed a handful of sleeping pills.
Styles woke up to his alarm at six in the morning on the third day of his vacation.
He checked his messages, turned his phone service off, ate breakfast, and brought a book to the beach. Halfway through the volume, Styles shut the pages and held his head in his hands.
Fuck
.
I miss work.
Relaxing was a little more complicated than just doing nothing for hours—you were supposed to fill the time with something you enjoyed. Styles had prepared an assortment of relaxing activities to keep himself busy, but it turned out that none of them interested him.
Sure, he gave it two days to see if he might warm up to it, but that wasn’t happening. The fact of the matter was that Styles had never had the time or the freedom to figure out what it was that he personally enjoyed doing. It was literally what the saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” was warning against.
He had no interests. He was bored, and without work, he didn’t know how to fill that boredom.
There was nothing to do but experiment, right? He had about a week and a half to devote to figuring out what sorts of activities he enjoyed doing.
Styles pulled out his phone and searched for activities he could do while at the beach. He experimented with making sand castles first. That was unpleasant, and he ended up getting sand seemingly everywhere. It bothered him so much that he had to go and take a long shower in the middle of the day to get rid of it all.
After that, he tried rock skipping, which was much less messy. He got the sense that he was supposed to do this at a lake though. The sea waves kept disrupting the stone’s path even when he thought he threw it well.
Styles tried sailing the boat he’d rented around the island a few times. When he returned, he collapsed into a beach chair and stared vacantly out at the ocean.
Hit and Dolly make this look easy. Should I call them?
After a few minutes of deliberation, Styles turned his phone service on and called his sister in law. He heard continuous gunfire on the other end of the line when she picked up.
“Hey Styles, what’s up? It ain’t like you to call me ‘cept for work, and ain’t you supposed to be on vacation?”
“Is now a bad time? I hear shooting.”
“Nah, don’t worry ‘bout it.”
“You’re gonna get yourself hurt again if you’re not more careful.”
“Yeah yeah, it’s sweet that you care.” He definitely wasn’t imagining it: Dolly was being nicer to him than she used to be. It would be nice if that was a permanent change and not just something she was doing because she was worried about his mental state. “So why’d you call?”
“I wanted some advice.”
“You need
my
advice? Well this should be good. What about?”
“How do you usually have fun and relax?”
“You looking for more ideas for your vacation?” she giggled. “Personally, I like to go shopping at the mall, get my nails done, take a bubble bath in the middle of the day, stuff like that. I also like to fuck shit up with some firearms.”
Styles thought about it, but except for the addition of bubbles they sounded like typical chores to him.
“Anything else? Maybe something you can do at the beach?”
“Are you at the beach, Styles?” Dolly’s amused voice came over the line. “Why? You can’t swim, right?”
“I’m on an island. And I came here to be alone, so if you or anyone else tries to track me down, I might just try out your suggestion regardin’ firearms.”
“Alright, I get it. Like I have time to chase you around right now anyway,” she laughed. “Well, when I go to the beach, I like to swim, tan, and take long romantic walks with Hit. That help any?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Alright, sunshine.” The sounds of conflict in the background steadily grew louder and more chaotic, and Dolly had to raise her voice to talk over it all. “Sorry, looks like I’ve gotta go. Good luck figuring something out.”
She hung up and Styles turned his cell service back off.
Maybe I could try shooting practice? No, isn’t that just work?
Styles heaved a sigh and stared out at the waves for a moment. He thought he saw something dark flicker under the surface and squinted at it, but it disappeared.
Then, from closer to the docks, he heard a voice suddenly.
“I thought I saw a boat over here. This must be yours, huh?”
Styles scanned the area and spotted a small, pretty, doll-like skeleton in the water. Skeletons were hammers, he knew it first-hand, so most likely this was one of those mer monsters he’d heard were in this area.
Pretty,
Styles assessed the stranger reflexively.
Good facial structure. Lively eyes; strong willed. Hard to train?
He shook his head.
Bad habit. ‘Sides, it’s a fish.
Styles pulled his gun out of its holster and made sure it was visible.
“This is private property. I’ll have to ask you to vacate the area.”
“Are you threatening me with a gun?” The creature laughed. “Wouldn’t magic be a little more—”
The noise wasn’t ear-shattering, since a simple silencer was affixed to the muzzle, but the gun fired ruthlessly while the mer creature was still speaking.
Amazingly, it was able to react quickly enough to save itself: reinforcing its reflexes and durability with purple magic to catch the slug before it could burrow between its eyes.
The pretty creature stared at the bullet it was holding between its fingers in muted shock.
“You really shot at me? Just like that? You aimed at my head!”
In response, Styles cocked his semi-automatic again.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Seriously?! Damn, my luck in the temperates is seriously so bad! I just thought I’d take a look at whoever was over here and see if you wanted to have a little fun!”
Styles cocked his head and tilted the barrel of his gun toward the sky, relieving some mental pressure from the mer creature—even if it was skilled enough to stop a bullet or few.
“What kind of fun?”
“Well~” the creature smiled easily now that he’d found a crack in Style’s defenses. “I know lots of ways to have fun. Having sex is always a good option, though most people in this region prefer to get to know each other a little before they sleep together. What do you think about that?”
“I think you sound like a desperate whore,” Styles scowled.
“Alright, alright, I deserve that this time.” The creature shrugged and swam toward the beach. He slithered out of the water on a long, violet snake tail. “Why don’t we start by chatting then?”
“Is talkin’ supposed to be fun?”
“Depends on who you’re talking to.” The creature held out a hand to shake. “My name’s Lust. I’m a lamia from the Pink clan.”
Two thirds of that statement were lost on Styles. Also, this guy had a crazy name. Still, this was the first interesting thing that had happened in three days of his vacation so far, so Styles was a little more open to exploration than usual.
Instead, he stood up out of the beach chair and stepped forward to offer the Lamia a handshake. “The name’s Styles.”
“Wow. Talk about tall, dark, and handsome,” Lust cooed, raising himself higher on his tail so they could make the clasp more comfortably. “So what are you doing all alone on an island?”
“I’m on vacation.”
“Yeah? That’s nice.”
Lust settled comfortably into the sand and Styles reseated himself.
“Not really,” the mobster admitted with a grunt. “I definitely needed a break from work, but I don’t really know what to do with all this free time.”
“What kind of work do you do~?”
Styles propped his elbow on the chair’s arm and his cheek on his fist and stared out at the waves. “Trust me, you don’t wanna hear about it. What about you?”
“I’m a retired breeder and now I teach biology to kids in my spare time,” Lust smiled. “Or something like that. Jobs underwater aren’t as rigid or organized as they are on the surface.”
Styles winced. “Did you want to be a breeder?”
“Actually I did, until I started doing it. Some things happened, and I’m still pretty traumatized about having kids, but the activities leading up to that are A-okay, so don’t worry~.”
Why the hell would I be worried about that?
Styles scoffed in his heart. Then his mood took a dip. This random stranger he might never meet again really just told him something so personal out of nowhere. It felt somehow crass to be the only side keeping secrets.
“… I’m in the organized crime business,” Styles admitted. “For a while, part of my job was to break people and put them in a situation similar to yours.” He scratched the back of his skull and hoped the unspoken apology came through.
Unexpectedly, the Lamia rolled playfully in the sand and propped his smiling face up on his hands. “Wow, I thought you looked like you’d make a great S, but to think you did it professionally~.”
Styles scowled and folded his arms, avoiding looking at the big purple hearts in the mer monster’s eyes. He could swear it was the same gaze he’d gotten from that girl in the port town.
But he wasn’t in a hurry to run from distractions after two full days of boredom. This was still slightly more pleasant than watching the ocean sway like a lobotomy patient.
“Why does everybody think that anyway?”
Styles hated when people called him a sadist as an insult, but it was just awkward when occasionally someone said it as a compliment.
“Hm?” A mischievous cat-like grin overtook the lamia’s expression for a moment. “Probably because your face is perfect for it and you’ve got a nice domineering aura.”
“Seriously, what about my face—” Styles cut himself off because it would be pointless to argue about. “Nevermind. Not like I can change it.”
Lust didn’t care and answered anyway. “For me, it’s the eyes. They look like you want to grind everyone around you into pieces but also like you wanna make sure they’re okay.”
Styles covered his face when he felt his cheeks heating up. That was the first time he’d heard someone say anything remotely nice about his eyes. It was rare for him to receive compliments in general—he might have been weak to them.
“Wh-what does that last part even have to do with sadism?” he murmured.
“Everything!” Lust exclaimed, excitedly pounding the end of his tail against the sand. “Most people aren’t crazy enough to sleep with someone who’s going to abuse them without any care for their feelings. There are sadists like that out there who only care about themselves and don’t give a shit about other people. But people who’re bad at sex are a dime a dozen, so why bother with them?”
“Has anyone ever told you you could afford to mince your words a little more?” Styles asked, dragging a hand awkwardly down his face.
Lust smiled softly and laced his fingers together. “Constantly. My clan lives down by the equator. It’s a really sexually open place, unlike here. I’m a slut and I’m pretty open about that, but… I don’t know. I ended up with a bad reputation in this area? I’m mostly a pariah now.”
The Lamia smiled. “That said, I’m really good in bed if you’re bored and lonely. I don’t mind rough things either. And I’m decent at conversation too if you don’t mind my crassness.”
Styles clenched his fangs while the mer monster openly stared at him. Styles saw hope and resignation in equal measure, and not a hint of judgment. He felt himself starting to blush again and held his face.
“I… really haven’t had time to have a personal life until now, so I don’t really know. But I quit doing that training stuff I talked about. It felt dirty.”
Lust smiled and leaned back on his hands. “Sounds like that was weighing on you. Don’t you feel better now that you’ve talked about it?”
Styles lowered his hand from his face. “Kind of, yeah.”
A mischievous grin appeared on the lamia’s face. “Do you want to play around a little? We don’t have to go all the way, unless you want to, but we can both have a little fun, and you can get to know yourself a little better.”
Maybe it was because he was literally on vacation with his main goal being to enjoy himself, maybe it was because he had already opened up to this mer creature quite a bit, or maybe it was because he was just that pent up, but Styles nodded his head curtly.
“Fine.”
“Firstly, boundaries,” Lust raised a finger seriously. “The safe word is Jellyfish. If either of us says that, we stop what we’re doing. I’m fine with most things, but I’ll tell you in advance that I don’t like being bitten, punctured, or anything that enters the realm of actual torture.”
“Oh, right.” Styles hadn’t thought to check up on those things before starting. He began to appreciate a little bit that Lust knew what he was doing. “Jellyfish? Okay.” He stroked his chin and pondered. “I guess I’ll figure out my limits as I go.”
“Easy enough,” Lust nodded.
“Let’s head inside. If you can crawl onto my beach, so can anything else.”
“No voyeurism, noted,” Lust nodded.
Styles led the creature into his cabin freely. If it seemed like he was being too trusting all of a sudden… firstly, he was immortal. Secondly, he fully intended to kill Lust if things didn’t end well between them. But the Lamia showed almost no caution as he slithered into the beach cabin.
Styles stopped him before he could climb onto the bed.
“You’re soaking wet and covered in sand. Go take a shower and dry off. I’m gonna do the same.”
“Aye aye,” Lust chuckled.
They were both neat and tidy when they returned to the bedroom. Lust climbed up into the bed and posed himself alluringly.
“What do you want to do to me~?” he asked.
Styles climbed onto the bed and rested on his knees, examining the lamia’s sleek purple tail. Someone who could catch a bullet out of the air had to be pretty damn strong, right?
The monster reached for Lust’s throat… and then his fingers firmly took the skeleton’s chin and made him look straight into his sharp red eyes.
“I want you to break me into pieces,” he demanded. “I want it to hurt.”
Lust blinked in unabashed surprise. “Sure, I can be the S. Want me to call you names?”
“No. Call me nice things. Compliment me, but punish me. Don’t worry about my well-being. I can take it.”
“Well aren’t you big and tough~ Alright, sweetie~” Lust brought the end of his tail up and wrapped it around Style’s ribcage like a boa constrictor.
“Are you doing alright, honey? You can still talk, right~?”
Styles gritted his fangs. On the job, he never showed when he was hurting, but that didn’t matter here. “Of course I can,” he spat.
Lust smiled warmly and stroked his cheek. “I knew you could~” He then slapped Styles hard across the face. The mobster glanced down at the Lamia in surprise, but he was still smiling sweetly. “Is that good for you, handsome?”
Styles couldn’t help breaking out into a small smile. “As if. I barely felt that little girl’s slap of yours.”
Lust shrugged. Squeezed Styles’ ribcage tighter and curled his hand into a fist. “Alright. Brace yourself, big guy~”
Lust’s fist, augmented with purple magic, made hard contact against Styles’ cheekbone. He opened his mouth to deliver some more sweet words, but was struck by worry when he felt something crack under his constant squeezing. At the same time, he noticed a tooth suddenly missing from the surface monster’s mouth.
“Oh shoot. I didn’t think I hit you that hard. I’m so—”
He stopped still, even from the process of loosening the grip of his tail, when he saw a new tooth growing in at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“Haah~” Styles held his cracked but quickly healing cheek and let out a satisfied sigh. “I felt that one.”
“…” Lust stared with wide, disbelieving eyes. He’s an Incarnation!
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
He is an Incarnation… right? Lust was stunned and uncertain. Incarnations were legends—fictitious, unproven. Even the libraries in his clan barely contained any information on them, but he couldn’t think of anything else that explained a red soul with such formidable healing power. Hypothetically, generations of selective breeding could create one, but in practice? Even the Lamia clans hadn’t managed to birth any that Lust was aware of. Incarnations… well, they were the ultimate form of attack mages, supposedly, but that was just where red magic was concerned. An Incarnation existed for every color of magic, in theory. But whether two attack mages like Geno actually mated and produced a red Incarnation seemed to be a matter of luck. Usually, you would just achieve another attack mage, and if you were unlucky, the couple would prove to be sterile instead.But to say they were the “ultimate form” didn’t necessarily mean they had the same skillset as their parents. At least, Lust hadn’t found any documents to that effect; a red Incarnation wasn’t necessarily even a proper attack mage. No, the pursuit of Incarnations was to achieve just one specific trait they were rumored to have: immortality. According to myth, the ancient gods each had a domain that the God of Magic made shallow copies of to create, well, magic. Green magic was a lesser form of Life’s domain, for instance. Red magic was a lesser form of War’s domain. A red Incarnation theoretically had a war soul, not a red soul, and would be capable of war magic, unattainable by ordinary monsters. All of that should put them under the influence of the Goddess of War, not the Goddess of Life… or the God of Death… thus making them immortal.It was mythologically sound, but there was no proof of any of it! No living Incarnations had ever been confirmed that Lust was aware of. But red magic was the most stubborn kind of magic of all, and the least compatible with healing. Lust saw the color red boldly shining from Styles’ eyes and bleeding from his wounds, but it wasn’t acting anything like the red magic he knew!So could this surfacer really be a red Incarnation? An Incarnation of War?Lust was amazed and a little terrified to realize he might currently be sharing a bed with a legendary creature. If he could bring this man’s seed back to the clan—The lamia felt nauseous in the pit of his stomach and cut off his indoctrinated line of thought.
No. Never. I’m not a breeder anymore and I won’t ever be one again. Not to mention, what would be the point of contaminating a pure red bloodline with purple magic?
And, could a real Incarnation even have children? It would be reasonable to assume they would be sterile for the same reasons that they were immortal. All of this took just a few seconds to rush through Lust’s skull, but he still noticeably froze stiff for those few seconds. Styles interpreted his stunned silence in his own way. “Hey, I heal fast, see? I’m fine. You can hit me harder and I’ll still be fine.”“O-oh, uh…” Lust slowly came out of his stupor. “I’m fine, it’s just…To be honest, I have a lot of questions.”Styles raised a brow stoically. “That’s fine,” he said, reaching for Lust’s throat. He stroked it gently with his thumb first and then wrapped his long fingers around it, squeezing just enough that the mer monster started to go light-headed. “Ask as many questions as you want.” The mobster’s other hand stroked the Lamia’s waist, tempting him to manifest something to play with. “But I’m not answerin’ anythin’ until I’ve had some of that fun you promised. I’m on vacation, after all.”The conspiratorial thoughts swimming around in Lust’s head were swiftly washed away in a flood of excitement. It was freakin’ hard to find a casual partner in this region of the ocean! His only release so far had been a one-night stand with Geno, but this surfacer looked like he was into it. Lust realized that if he played his cards right, he might be able to play around with this guy for almost two whole weeks. The mysteries of the legendary Incarnations weighed in his mind against the joy of carnal pleasure. For the moment, the latter won. ***Lust was panting, drenched in sweat, his body aching. His gaze drifted toward a window where he saw the sun setting outside. Oh my gods, he shuddered happily, this guy is something else. The Lamia considered himself a professional, and he had a lot of confidence in his magic and stamina, but he was running low on both.
Given the season and the position of the sun when I got here, it’s been… six or seven hours?
That was crazy. Really crazy. Lust never imagined he would meet anyone who could keep up with him outside of the clans. People like that were rare even among Lamia. It hurt his pride somewhat to admit defeat… but Lust failed to make the surfacer climax once, and he was too tired now to keep trying. Soothing his ego with the question of whether an Incarnation beyond the cycle of life and death could orgasm in the first place, Lust sighed in exhaustion, slumping onto the sheets. He gently caressed Styles’ latest injuries as they quickly mended. The wounds stung, and the mobster sucked in a hissing breath, but he answered the gesture gratefully with a gentle kiss on the mer monster’s forehead. “Your stamina is incredible, Styles. But I’m sorry, I’m spent.”“We’re done?” Styles’ disappointed voice sounded like gravel; he’d done a fair bit of screaming throughout the evening, and both of them were about to dry up from thirst. “Really sorry,” Lust smiled sadly. “After I have a good rest we can go again, but I’m seriously at my limit.” He chuckled. “Was it fun?”Styles smirked faintly and nodded. “Well, you’re still alive, so.”Lust blinked and his smile tightened. “What?”Styles got out of bed and shrugged on a black silk robe. “Take it as a bad mafia joke.”“That’s… not very funny.” Lust wasn’t as confident about blocking bullets now that his magic was running dry. And he really couldn’t tell if Styles was joking or not. The more serious mood reminded him that he had questions to ask, though. Of course, he couldn’t just bulldoze a delicate issue like this. He had to be a little smart with it.“Hey, why’d you shoot me with a gun when we met? Why not use magic?”“I’m more comfortable with a gun,” Styles shrugged. “Got more practice with ‘em by a mile.”Lust blinked. “But why? Magic is way more versatile, and nobody can take it away from you.”“It’s also real easy to trace back to an individual,” the mobster shook his head. “Magic’s too personal, just usin’ it cuts the suspect pool down by half or more. Anyone can shoot a gun.”Styles vanished into the bathroom to clean himself up again, and after wrestling between his sense of self-preservation and his curiosity for a minute, Lust did the same. A few minutes later, he was in the cabin kitchen, sharing a simple meal and a cup of crazy-strong alcohol with the mafia man. Lust took a sip of his drink and coughed—it burned!“Wh-what is this stuff?” he gasped. “Quasar White,” Styles shrugged, quoting the name off the bottle. “It’s alcohol to get fire monsters drunk. I don’t got anything weaker by the way.”Lust felt that his head was already spinning a little and used some of his last magic to harden himself against it. He pushed the cup away. “Thanks, but no thanks.”Styles shrugged and downed his cup like it was a shot glass. Lust shivered mentally at the prospect. “Does your, uh, healing increase your alcohol tolerance?”Styles nodded, freely admitting it. “Alcohol, medicine, anythin’ that aims to mess with my body.”“Medicine? What could you need medicine for?”Styles’ expression turned somewhat bitter. “None of your business.”“O-okay?” Lust felt a wall rise up between them and some cold sweat dripped down his back. He hung his head to think for a second, hands fiddling in his lap. How would he get Styles’ wall to drop? How would he ask about Incarnations?Unexpectedly, he felt the tension unwinding before he even did anything about it. Styles held his face and sighed.“Quit it,” he ordered. “That pussyfootin’ around. I’m sick of it.” Lust blinked. He had a sneaking suspicion that Styles wasn’t complaining about just him here. Although it was hard for him to act as confident as before with his magic nearly spent and not-so-joking death threats hanging overhead, Lust took a deep breath and tried.The Lamia leaned over the table and held his chin in his hands, batting his eyes at the mobster. “Sorry for being timid. I’m not as confident I can stop a bullet after the workout you just put me through.”Styles nodded curtly and reached into his robes. Lust stiffened when he pulled out a gun.
Fuck?
It took Lust a second to realize he shouldn’t be surprised the mobster was armed. Styles must’ve left his gun in the bathroom before they started and picked it up after they finished. To Lust’s relief, Styles ejected the magazine, sliding it across the table toward him before reholstering his gun. There were probably a hundred other ways the mobster could kill him, if he wanted to, but the gesture still did a lot to help Lust relax.“Do you have any family?” the Lamia smiled and asked. Styles scowled deeply at that question, but Lust buckled down and kept up the carefree attitude, smiling apologetically. “Seems like it’s complicated.” He drew circles on the table with his fingertip. “I’ve got a brother I’m close to, parents I don’t know, and probably a dozen other siblings I’ve never met. In the lamia clans, we’re sorted at birth according to our genetic aptitudes and raised by the elders.”His gaze drifted down toward the table and his smile dulled considerably. “I used to be really happy there. I did well in my training, and I had good genetics, so I was all set to become a respectable breeder. But my first mission went badly. After that, I needed some time, but I found out the clans don’t take no for an answer. It was never about my needs, just the clan as a whole.”Lust forced a somewhat miserable grin onto his face. Styles stared at him with wide eyes and tiny pinprick red fires. Then he reached across the table and snatched Lust’s abandoned cup, draining it in one gulp. Lust flinched in surprise at the sudden animation. Styles slammed the glass down with a thud and scoffed. “Tch. Can’t believe I’m relatin’ more to a fish than my own family.”Lust lifted his head higher. “You can… relate?”Still scowling, Styles folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. “It’s one big happy family, except love comes at the cost of compliance… sometimes not even then. Once you start to complain, the hurt starts comin’. And where does playin’ along leave you once the illusion’s broken?” He huffed. It was Lust’s turn to stare wide-eyed at Styles. He nodded listlessly. “Yeah, exactly. The only people who get to be happy are—”“The people at the top and their precious favorites,” Styles finished for him. “R-right…!”Lust felt his heart skip a beat. He subtly held his chest while peering at the jaded surfacer, pouring himself another cup of alcohol. Lust felt a rare sense of kinship with him. “W-what do you think… about bringing kids into a world like this?”Styles sipped his drink and clicked his tongue. “They’ll be burdened with expectations before they’re even born, and they can’t even run from ‘em ‘cause it’s in their blood. It’s a vicious cycle, and I want no part of it.”Lust lifted himself off his chair and palmed the table. “Exactly! If they’re just going to be used and thrown away the same way I was, what’s the point?! Are kids people or are they experiments?!”Styles blinked at Lust’s sudden outburst, then he chuckled sardonically. “I’d’ve said tools. Anyway, sounds like the world is just as fucked underwater as it is on land.”Lust flushed, retroactively embarrassed about how heated he’d gotten. He lowered himself back into his chair and decided to switch tacts. He no longer wanted to fish for information from Styles. Instead, he wanted to pool their understanding.“It isn’t often I meet someone who gets it… It feels nice. Let me return the favor a little. Have you ever heard of Incarnations, Styles?”The mobster raised a brow and started lifting his glass again. “Can’t say I have. What are they?”“They’re immortal.”Styles’ hand stopped and then set down his cup. His fingers twitched with violent instinct, but he folded his arms and suppressed it. “Sounds Interestin’. Tell me what you know about ‘em.”Lust did. He held nothing back and shared all of the hearsay and myths he was aware of. He even told Styles a bit about the lamia clans’ millenia-spanning eugenics and neogenics projects to lend some authority to his intel and theories. Styles drummed his fingers somewhat impatiently on his arm. “In short, you don’t have any proof they even exist,” he sighed. “I admit, some of what you said hit eerily close to the mark, but other parts were way off.”“Which ones?” Lust asked. “There are a lot of red souls in my family, sure. Attack mages too, includin’ my ma. But my pops has a purple soul.”“I see,” Lust held his chin and his skull dug up everything he knew about focused color breeding. “Introducing a purple soul should definitely dilute the concentration of red magic you inherited from your mother… but you’d still be overwhelmingly red-oriented. Do you know what generation your mother was as an attack mage?”“Second. Also, she had this genetic condition. I never suffered from it, but it nearly killed my brother.”The Lamia shrugged, “That’s not unusual. Color breeding isn’t incest—usually—but it shares the same trait of homogenizing the genetics of subsequent generations. Anyway, you have a brother? Does he heal as fast as you do?”“No, he doesn’t,” Styles shook his head. “He’s got his own special kinda magic.” The mobster visibly debated with himself for a minute on how much he wanted to share, but curiosity over his condition made him press forward. “He can teleport.”Lust blinked. “Is his name Hit?”Styles’ smile bitterly twitched. He knew Dolly was involved with mer monsters these days, but the fact that just “teleportation” was enough of a clue for Lust to point at his brother meant that Hit wasn’t being as subtle about his unique advantage as he ought to be.Maybe he thought the mer monsters were an isolated community and it wouldn’t leak out, but here was Lust, a visitor to these parts, happy to gossip.“Yeah, that’s him,” Styles ran a hand down his face. “In case my brother didn’t make it clear, it’d be better if you and the others didn’t spread info about him too freely. His power is more useful if people don’t know about it… that goes for mine as well.”“Sure, I can pass that along. But teleportation isn’t as unique of a power as you think,” Lust admitted. “Aside from your brother, I know four other monsters who can do it. It’s not easy or common, but it’s possible for monsters to learn it if they have enough raw magic to work with and a little affinity for blue magic. Your healing, on the other hand…”“Can’t be taught,” Styles filled in the rest and picked his drink back up, keeping his arms half-folded. “I figured, considerin’ I’ve got no control over it myself.”“So it’s an autonomic response…” Lust hesitated to ask, but, “What’s the worst you’ve come back from?”“Depends how you define ‘worst’. Been shot through the head plenty of times. Been poisoned n’ exposed to other biohazards. Got blasted to pieces in a car explosion once.”“It sounds like you’ve led a pretty harsh life.” Lust shot him an awkward smile in sympathy. “Have you ever taken direct damage to your soul?”“I’m not a moron, so no. Maybe I’ll try it out if age doesn’t get me.” Styles sipped his drink. “This’ll sound crazy, but I know someone who claims to have actually met the god of death,” Lust mentioned. Styles grimaced. “You’re right, that does sound crazy.”Lust smiled. “Maybe I should introduce you two.”“Uh huh,” Styles sounded very unconvinced. “Well, whatever. I’ll be nice and not shoot at him if you bring him over.”Lust grinned mischievously. “That’s a deal.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lust himself didn’t believe Geno’s stories about knowing the god of death. His main intention in introducing the attack mage was to see if he couldn’t get a threesome going, and that was just a playful excuse.
He swam around in the den for a while, searching for Geno, and found him helping Asgore and Crooks sort plant seeds for the garden into little seashell containers. It looked tedious.
“Hiya,” Lust waved. “It looks like you three are a little busy right now, but can I borrow Geno for something today?”
Geno’s eyes lit up with hope. Clearly he didn’t enjoy this sort of work and simply got roped into it because he wasn’t doing anything else.
Asgore smiled and nodded. “Of course. It looks like we’re boring him to death anyway.”
“We’ll be fine,” Crooks smiled kindly.
Geno politely excused himself and left eagerly with Lust. “You saved me,” he sighed in relief. “Do you actually need me for something, or was that just an excuse?”
Lust smiled sweetly. “I made a fling—I mean a friend,” he said.
Geno smiled awkwardly. “What, you just needed someone to gossip about it with?”
“Yes,
and
. Come on!”
Lust pulled Geno along with him and swam out of the den. The attack mage wasn’t following entirely willingly, but he knew he couldn’t resist Lust’s physical power, so he didn’t particularly try to. The lamia’s tail twisted in a tight spiral and propelled them through the water at high speeds.
When they were far enough away from the den, Lust started talking again. “His name is Styles, and he’s a surfacer who came out here for a vacation. He’s actually really interesting!”
“I’m guessing you’re taking me to meet him now?” Geno deadpanned.
“Yeah. Hey, is Death still with you?”
“He is,” Geno frowned, glancing at the invisible deity effortlessly keeping pace with them. “I thought you didn’t believe me about that stuff.”
“I don’t, but
if
it’s true, this would be a good time to prove it. No hard feelings if it’s just some weird delusion though.”
“Gee thanks. Why?”
“Oh, you’ll see~ By the way, fair warning, Styles can be
just
a little bit intimidating.”
With that farce of a warning, Lust pulled Geno up to break the ocean’s surface, in front of a small island.
“Hey Styles!” Lust waved brightly then gestured to his side, “This is Geno, that friend I mentioned. Brace yourself, but he’s actually a third generation attack mage.”
From atop the dock, Styles scowled down at them. He was a tall and fierce-looking skeleton monster, dressed in black suit pants, a red dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a black fedora. The already small mermaid shrunk even more under the surface giant’s intimidating presence. Styles seemed to loom in Geno’s vision, and his glare was sharp and mean enough to kill.
“Dammit, Lust, phrasing. It sounds like you’re tryin’ to threaten me with him.” Styles’ gaze shifted fully onto Geno, making him flinch. He didn’t appear to be the least bit threatened.
Lust laughed, “Usually I get called out for innuendos, not threats.”
Geno trembled slightly and tugged Lust just below the surface of the water. “Just
a little
intimidating?!” He demanded, clutching the lamia’s shoulders. “That guy looks ready to kill me!”
“It’s not like he actually will, though,” Lust caressed the mermaid’s cheek. He was too flustered to be calmed by it or to slap the hand away. “Just think of him like Red. He
looks
scary, and he
is
dangerous, but he probably doesn’t really want to hurt you.”
“
Probably
?!”
While Geno and Lust bickered, Death floated above the surface of the water and stared in shock. He saw a monster, he could hear it speaking and so could the mortals. He was real but… to Death’s supernatural senses, he didn’t exist.
His hollow eyes widened when he realized why.
Death had no business noticing someone who was never going to die. This monster existed outside of his divine influence. He peered into the surfacer’s chest and saw a soul that
looked
red, at first glance… but there wasn’t a drop of red magic in it. Inside, it was full of war.
Fuck, I really found one. An incarnation. Does War know about this guy?
He debated flying off immediately to find her, along with Life and Magic, to let them know an Incarnation had finally appeared among the mortals, but decided to stick around for now to learn more.
Eventually, Lust and Geno stuck their heads out of the water again, one smiling and the other obviously still wary.
Styles folded his arms and glared down at them both. “Are you done?” His fangs cracked a slight, sarcastic smile. “For someone who’s supposedly met death, you sure are gutless. Come up already.”
Geno tucked his chin defiantly. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather stay in the water. I can’t move around freely on land like you two.”
Styles clicked his teeth and rolled his eyes, getting down on his knees and reaching one hand toward the water. His free hand secured his hat atop his head.
“Lust already said it, but the name’s Styles.”
After a moment spent dumbfounded, Geno looked at Styles’ hand and realized he was being offered a handshake.
Uh… good manners,
he thought dumbly, making the clasp with a feeble grip.
“Geno. Nice to meet you.”
Styles nodded curtly and took his hand back, dusting himself off as he stood up.
“If we’re stayin’ out here, I’m gonna go get some things from inside. ‘Scuse me for a moment.”
As Styles left earshot, Lust giggled at Geno’s expense. “You look ready to pass out.”
Geno blushed and snapped back with a whisper, “So should you! My instincts are screaming at me that that guy has killed more people than Red, Axe, and Hit
combined!
”
“Yeah, he shot at me when we met,” Lust nodded like that assessment didn’t surprise him. “Hurting people is more or less his job, from what I gathered. But he’s surprisingly nice, right?”
Geno pouted. “I don’t know if I see ‘nice’ yet. Civilized, maybe.”
Lust shrugged and pulled his hands out of the water for air quotes. “Anyway. What does “Death” think of him?”
Geno muttered something bitterly under his breath and looked around for the black jellyfish. He spotted him floating in the air in front of the dock, staring at the cabin Styles disappeared into. Geno frowned, since it was rare for the god to seem so spaced out.
“Hey Death, Lust asked what you think.”
The divine mer’s hollow gaze turned toward Geno for a moment before facing the cabin again. “What do I think?” Death squinted his empty orbits. “… I’m not sure. But thank your friend for helping me find that guy, would you?”
Geno tipped his head in befuddlement and glanced sheepishly at Lust. “Uh, he says thanks for helping him find that guy.”
He expected to be teased again for talking to his “invisible friend,” but contrary to Geno’s expectations, Lust looked surprised and worried.
The Lamia shut and rubbed his eyes, “Uh… wait, no…” He peered at Geno with a doubtful half-smile, “Why? He’s not going to kill him or anything now that they’ve met, right?”
Geno frowned, much more suspicious now of Lust’s motive for bringing him here. It felt like he knew something. Still, he glanced up at Death.
“I’m curious too. I didn’t think there was anyone you couldn’t find in the first place.”
Death shrugged. “I didn’t think there was anyone like that yet either. But hey, I can be wrong sometimes… I think I’d like to chat with him.”
“I’d rather the guy with the infinite bloodlust doesn’t think I’m crazy,” Geno grumbled.
“Oh, he won’t. I’ll do the talking this time.” Death smiled but it didn’t look very cheerful.
“Really?” Geno asked. “He won’t die?”
Over to his side, Lust, who was listening in, flinched, and Geno turned to him suspiciously. “Am I the only one in the dark here? Come on. What’s with that guy?”
Before either of them could answer, Styles came back, bringing a beach chair, a towel, a bottle of something, and three glasses. He set up the chair at the edge of the dock for himself and the towel along one of the sides, apparently for the mer monsters to come up onto if they wanted. The drink and glasses were set to the side for later.
Lust climbed out of the water and onto the towel without pausing to think about it. “Two glasses might’ve been more than enough,” he told Styles apologetically. “The stuff you drink is pretty strong, and it’s too early in the day for me.”
“Fine by me,” Styles shrugged.
“I’d take a glass.”
The mobster heard an unexpected third voice and instantly drew his gun on it. He saw a hooded black jellyfish monster with hollow black eyesockets floating in the air at the edge of the dock. Blinking and rubbing his eyes, he confirmed that the apparition didn’t disappear.
“Friend of yours?” Styles asked Lust.
Lust just glanced between Styles, his gun, and the empty air looking confused, concerned and a little bit excited.
“No way,” he murmured, and glanced down at Geno for confirmation.
“Uh, the black jellyfish guy?” the attack mage confirmed. “Yeah, that’s Death.”
Styles raised a brow and shot an incredulous glance down at the mermaid. Then he just… accepted it. Since his gun seemed useless, Styles put it away.
“You’re Death? Like the reaper of souls and all that?” He asked, sitting forward in his chair and clasping his hands in his lap.
“Yep, that’s me,” Death smiled. “Bet you never thought we’d meet, huh?”
Styles didn’t nod or shake his head. He just lifted his chin slightly and contemplated the… well the force of nature personified in front of him. “So what happens now?”
Death’s mirthless smile stretched wider. “What do you want to happen?”
The mobster shrugged. “Don’t pretend I've got any choice when I don’t. I wasn’t born yesterday. Just do whatever it is you gotta do.”
“W-wait wait wait!” Lust couldn’t see Death but he tried to put himself between him and Styles. “No, don’t kill him! Styles, a little self-preservation please?!”
“He’s literally Death. What do you want me to do?” Styles scoffed.
“I’m not going to kill you,” Death said, and Geno quickly parroted his words so Lust could calm down. “Or rather, I can’t.”
Styles stared Death in the face, frowned, and looked out at the ocean. “You can’t,” he echoed.
“I can’t,” Death said again and nodded. “An Incarnation like you isn’t alive the same way mortals are alive in the first place. Life is something that Life breathes into her creations to send them my way, like a sailboat journeying on the water. When the wind runs out, the journey ends, and so does the experience. You, on the other hand, are more like a modern metal ship.”
Styles frowned. “Which is to say?”
“You run on a different kind of fuel. As long as there’s war magic burning in your soul, you’ll keep sailing.”
Styles sat up straighter and folded his arms. “So I can’t be killed but I can die? Will that war magic stuff just burn up and be gone someday?”
“That’s between you and War,” Death shrugged. “I don’t know the details myself, but I’m planning to go find her after this.”
Styles tipped his head. “I’d appreciate being kept in the loop on this.”
Death nodded. “Sure. Anyway, I’m curious, have you learned any war magic?”
Styles tipped his head. “I heal fast. Is that war magic?”
Death shook his head. “No. That’s, well… War magic is what gives you life, and your soul is overflowing with it. It’s normal for it to patch you up if you get hurt.”
Styles shrugged, “Then I don’t know what war magic is. Is it useful?”
Death smiled faintly. “Useful? That depends. If you’re at war it’d be really useful.”
Styles drummed his fingers on his arm for a minute. “So you’re as clueless as I am, basically.”
Death reached up and scratched his skull, “Well, yeah, basically. Magic always said Incarnations could be born from mortals someday, but it was never a guarantee that it would happen.”
Styles smiled bitterly, “Polite way to say I’m an accidental freak of nature.”
He reached for the bottle of fire monster alcohol, pouring a couple of glasses. He held one out to Death, who took it. Lust stared at the floating glass with his mouth open, and Geno was equally surprised to find out that Death could, well, interact with things. He usually chose to ignore the rules of physical reality like some kind of ghost.
“What the hell? You could have proven you were real at any time?!”
Death glanced down at Geno while sipping from his cup. “I guess, but there’s a risk someone touches me when I’m doing this, you know?”
Geno’s eyes widened and he quickly warned Lust, “Hey, you’ll die if you accidentally touch him, so don’t get close.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Lust said, but still pulled his tail closer to his body.
Geno watched the Lamia and narrowed his eyes. “And another thing… You never believed me about Death, so why did you bring us here?”
“Uh, well… I mean, if it was true, I thought maybe Styles could get some answers? Sounds like that didn’t completely work out but…” just cleared his throat, smiled, and flicked the end of his long tail up innocently, “But yeah, I
was
thinking maybe we could have a threesome.”
Styles choked on his drink and Geno went pale from terror. The mobster coughed to clear his throat. “‘Scuse me,
what
?!”
“Why not?” Lust pouted.
Styles gave him an incredulous glare and started counting off the reasons on his fingers. “You didn’t discuss it with me about it first. You obviously didn’t talk to
him
about it either. He can’t come on land and I certainly ain’t gettin’ in the ocean. And most of all, why would I sleep with someone who looks at me like he’s lookin’ down a loaded gun barrel?”
Lust pressed his fingertips together and stared down at the dock, “If we took a few minutes to sort it out, it could still work, I think,” he muttered.
Meanwhile, Geno felt even more nervous now that he knew his trepidation had been noticed and the Incarnation found it offensive. “Uh, s-sorry,” he said quickly.
Styles lifted his chin and glared from behind his half-empty glass. “That’s a common mispronunciation, but I’m pretty sure what you meant to say was ‘please don’t hurt me’.” He sipped his drink.
Lust smiled at Geno, who was just sort of wading there baffled. He turned and tried explaining on behalf of his friend, “Geno has strong survival instincts and can roughly sense how many lives someone has taken, so he can’t help but feel nervous around you. But if you two take a little time to get to know each other, I think you could be friends.”
Styles’ hand stopped tipping his glass. There was a strange look in his eyes for a moment, and then he finished the last of his drink in one gulp. He set the empty glass down beside the unused one. (Death continued slowly savoring his drink since it was the first one he’d had in a long time.)
Styles glanced down at Geno, and the red mermaid felt chills go up and down his spine. He couldn’t seem to break eye contact, though, and just kept wading there in stiff silence.
“Killing is just part of my job,” Styles eventually said. “I’m on vacation.”
“You tried to shoot me though,” Lust teased unhelpfully.
The mobster shrugged, “You were trespassing. If you left when I told you to, I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger.”
“Haha, I thought you were bluffing—or at least that you’d give me a countdown or something.”
“I don’t bluff.”
Lust grinned, “Yeah, you’re really no-nonsense. I like that about you.”
The mobster set his cheek in his hand and stared out at the ocean. Geno questioned his eyes, but… he could swear Styles was blushing a little.
The mobster snorted faintly. “You ain’t so bad yourself. Honest people are hard to come by.”
Geno blinked. The exchange… confused him. Some dots started connecting in his head and he
hoped
he had something of a read on the surfacer. It seemed like he would open up a little as long as the other person did it first.
“Um, so, I’m not interested in a threesome right now, but I don’t really have anything better to do, so I wouldn’t mind getting to know each other a little. … Do you have any hobbies, Styles?”
The mobster glanced at Geno and shook his head. “Not really.”
…
Why do I try?
Geno felt discouraged. While he was trying to think of another direction to start a conversation in, Styles eventually supplemented his answer.
“I never really had time for hobbies, but I am looking for things to do while I’m on vacation. What do you like to do?”
“Oh, well…” Geno paused to think about it.
“Geno just lazes around all day,” Lust ratted him out casually.
“Hey!” The mermaid voiced his protest, but he couldn’t really refute it either. Sometimes he helped teach the kids about magic theory or helped out with little chores around the den, but there were other members who were more…
enthusiastic
about cleaning. His defensive magic was more likely to be useful if he stayed near the den, so wandering around seemed like a waste.
Unexpectedly though, Styles sounded interested when he replied. “How do you keep from getting bored?”
“Uh,” Geno scratched his head, “I guess I just enjoy the water and the view and let my mind wander? It’s not boring so much as peaceful.”
Styles nodded. “That reminds me, Geno, you’re a mermaid aren’t you?”
“Yeah, why?”
Styles leaned back and folded his arms, “I heard there was an incident or somethin’ with trafficking mermaid tails—” Geno immediately stiffened and raised his guard, and Styles picked up on it, humming. “I heard about it from Dolly. And, see, I’ve been thinking about it and it just seems strange.”
“What does?” Geno asked, trying to keep the venom out of his voice. It… probably wasn’t Styles’ fault he went through what he did, after all.
“Mer monsters are considered a myth on this continent,” the mobster explained. “And I don’t just mean you’re a secret from the general public like the mafias are; even the mobs don’t know about you. I’m pretty well-connected so I’m confident about that. If I had to guess, this tail-smuggling is bein’ done by some group across the pond. Maybe they overhunted and had to expand their area. Somethin’ like that.”
Geno blinked his wide eyes and felt a lot of the tension leave his body. “… That’s good info. Thank you.”
Styles shrugged. “It’s just an educated hunch.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Styles, Geno, and Lust chatted for a while longer at the docks, and after a few hours Geno decided to return to the den. Death didn’t go back with him. He went to find War instead. After searching for a while, he finally found her hovering invisibly over a stadium where two teams were competing rigorously in sport. The mortals couldn’t hear her thunderous cheering and negging, but that was for the best. War spotted Death and was momentarily distracted from the game. “I like that coach,” she said unprompted. “Really hope you’re not here to give me bad news. Even if you are, just let the game finish first, alright? Those little guys all worked hard for it.”“I’m here about something else,” Death said. “Alright, good.” War focused on the next play, evaluating the positioning, tactics, physical performance, and drive of both teams with a grin. “Touchdown!” she roared. Sounding fairly unconcerned, War asked, “So what’s up?”Death got straight to the point. “Did you know you have an Incarnation?”It took War a minute to place that word. Not much had been said about those theoretical half-mortals since mortalkind was first created. But soon, recognition dawned in War’s lively eyes. “Seriously? I do?!” a sharp-toothed grin split her face. “I had no idea! That’s great news!!”“Uh…” Maybe Death should have expected War to be more enthused than concerned, but he’d just been thinking from his own perspective since discovering this latest development. But War loved outstanding people. Just like how she enjoyed watching that mortal coach and his team down below doing something as mundane as competing in a sport, it seemed natural that she would want to watch over her own Incarnation if she knew she had one. “So? You found him right? Or her? Take me to them!”“Didn’t you want to watch the game?” Death teased mildly. “You know I can watch from anywhere. Stop stalling and let’s go, you gloomy little janitor!”Death sighed, wondering why he bothered trying to be friendly with any gods besides Life. They just weren’t a good match. But he led her back to meet her incarnation. Death didn’t intend to interfere from here or make himself known, but he did get War’s permission to hang around and see how things went between them. They arrived at the island late in the afternoon. “Oh~” War’s lips curled upward and Death averted his gaze, reflexively giving the mortals privacy. Styles and Lust were deep in each other’s embrace when they arrived. “Look at him go,” War chuckled. “Why are you watching?” Death asked her reproachfully. “Because I like it,” she said boldly. Death was utterly baffled and midway through reevaluating War’s character until she elaborated. “He’s totally in my domain, right? Life didn’t make him, so he can’t have offspring and shouldn’t even want any. So then isn’t that interesting?”War’s first impression was that her Incarnation seemed passionate and defiant, and she liked that. The gods waited patiently for the mortal and Incarnation to finish their coupling ritual—accompanied, Death thought, by a concerning amount of violence. By then, the sun was setting. After the two ate dinner and the mortal lamia left, War no longer cared to wait and revealed herself. “Hello, my little Incarnation.”For the second time that day, Styles drew his gun pointlessly upon hearing an unfamiliar voice come from nowhere. There was a giant man o’ war jellyfish mer in the living room—and when someone like Styles said something was giant, it really was giant. The creature practically filled the room. Her face was shark-ish, with coarse blue skin and sharp teeth. Her long red hair literally burned like a flame and her eyes shone with limitless vitality. A wide smile stretched her lips as she peered down at Styles.He should’ve expected it, but Death was rather understated compared to War. And another thing. Styles could feel his soul reacting to the deity’s presence, drumming and burning in his chest. Styles holstered his gun and faced the goddess. He breathed in through his nose, tried to ignore the strange sensations in his soul, and greeted her as politely as he ought to. “Would it have killed you to knock like a civilized person?”War’s grin stretched wider. “Feisty. Shall we get right down to business then?”Styles nodded curtly and took a seat on a nearby couch. War somehow shrunk herself down to a size where she could fit in a neighboring armchair, though her stature was still comparable to Styles’—even a little larger. Death lurked invisibly nearby. He listened in from the neighboring room to give both parties the illusion of privacy. “Magic invented mortal souls,” War started. “It’s usually Life and the younger Death who work with them. Compared to them, I don’t know as much. But you’re special. I know a lot about you.”Styles drummed his fingers on the couch arm, his other hand placed calmly in his lap. “Younger Death?” he asked first. War’s smile faded and she shrugged. “There’s two of them,” she said. “The one you met is the older Death, the Reaper. Basically a ferry for dead souls to the netherworld. The younger Death, the gentle death, works with those dead souls to prepare them to give up their former selves and return to Life as clean slates.” The goddess fixed him with a pointed look. “That stuff has nothing to do with you. You weren’t born into the cycle of Life and Death but into my domain instead.”Styles yielded, propping his temple against his knuckles. “Alright. Tell me about your domain. What is it? How and why was I born as part of it?”“I didn’t make your soul,” War explained. “Nobody did. The conditions were just finally right for the magic in a pair of mortal souls to mix into something that isn’t really magic at all. Your soul is made of the same stuff I am.” War shrugged. “You can call the application of that power magic, but technically it’s higher ranking than that. From the beginning, magic was just a lesser expression of divine power that Magic used to craft mortal souls. It was always theoretically possible for all the exact building blocks to come together into a perfect whole again. That’s how you were born and that’s why you’re part of my domain. It’s your birthright.”War paused to see if her Incarnation had more questions because of her explanation. He gestured for her to continue. “As for my domain,” War said, “it’s not a well-defined idea, but basically I’m responsible for you, have some innate power over you, and we can expect you to operate under similar rules as I do. You’re the first Incarnation we’ve seen, but we can guess how you work by using me as a template.” She smiled a shark-toothed grin. “I’m happy to help you understand what being my Incarnation means. All I ask in return is that you live up to the title.”Styles frowned. “How do you mean?”“Don’t you want to do more? Be more? Champion a cause?” War spoke passionately. “Believe in something, anything, and fight like hell for it. I’ll teach you what you can really do, so show me war once you learn it.”Styles felt his soul thumping harder, burning hotter. He scowled. “You want to use me as a tool to kill people, just like everybody else does. And for what, entertainment? Why the hell should I? You can fuck off right now if that’s all you’re here for. I’ll figure my life out on my own.”“Oh, my cute little Incarnation,” War cooed. “You don’t know me yet. I don’t use people, people use me. I’ll generously teach you how to use me, but you’ll decide what to use me for.”“Platitudes,” Styles scoffed. “What if I fight for peace?”But War just smiled at him. “I’d love that.”Styles frowned. “What if I decide to be a pacifist from today on? Not fight at all.”“It’d be a battle in its own right to stick to that sort of principle in a world like this.”Styles scowled. “What the hell?” he demanded. “I thought you were the Goddess of War.”“That’s right,” War said, combing a hand through her mane of flaming red hair. “And I think you know what that means deep down, but your conscious concept of what war is is more limited than mine. Think of it like this: Life and Death are two sides of the same coin, right? But there is no god of Peace. That’s because there is no other side to War. All of existence, as long as there’s free will, is conflict. No matter what you do, somebody or something out there wants you to do the opposite. Even just sitting up like this is a tiny battle against gravity. What I represent is the struggle born of free will and passion.”Styles lowered his hand back to the arm of the couch and drummed his fingers again. “Sounds pointlessly broad to me,” he mentioned. “Why ask anything from me if anything will satisfy you?”War smiled faintly, but her eyes narrowed coldly. “Because not just anything will satisfy me. Especially not from my own Incarnation. There’s still something I hate and something I want.”Styles gestured impatiently for War to continue when she paused. “I hate people who give up, fight for nothing, stand for nothing, live without any ambition. That’s the antithesis of War, and if you ever want to die, then just give up on everything. Your soul will fizzle out of existence the moment you quit struggling.” She snapped for emphasis.Styles wondered if he hadn’t been depressed enough during his past suicide attempt for it to count. I guess, to some extent, I was hoping my death would somehow spite them all if I succeeded. Is that a kind of war too by the gods’ definition? If complete and total apathy was what it took for him to die, rather than anguish… maybe just living forever would be better. “What I want, on the other hand, are remarkable battles,” War grinned. “People who would do anything for their cause, unrelenting efforts that outlast seasons, tactics and strategies that keep me on my toes, valiant battles that shake the earth. I want to see people living to their fullest, even if it kills them.” Her smile widened and looked rather dangerous now. “And since you can’t die the normal way, I’m looking forward to the battles you can show me.”The goddess’s smile tamed and was more inviting now. “What stokes your fire, Incarnation of mine?”“First,” he snorted, “I have a name. It’s Styles.” War grinned, confirming that even his stubbornness about how people should behave was a kind of battle. It seemed to please her. Styles almost smiled, but a far less pleasant train of thought rendered it stillborn, and his soul was boiling again. “This whole society, down to its roots, is rotten. My family is sinking in it like quicksand, and I can’t even make up my mind to do anything about it. I’m just as bad as they are. Sometimes I want to just burn everything to the ground. Sometimes I wish I would do something to fix it. But there isn’t a way to have everything I want without ruining something and I just… All I do in the end is what’s expected of me.”War nodded her head, “Frustrating, isn’t it? Choosing lesser battles because of weakness.” The goddess stood up and drifted closer to her Incarnation, taking a seat beside him on the couch. Styles cautiously crossed his legs to move them out of the way of her stingers. He felt her arm wrap around his shoulder. It was heavy and overbearing. “So do you feel like learning war magic? Get stronger, fight a bigger battle? If you’re wise and powerful, maybe a way to have everything you want will reveal itself.”Styles looked at the goddess passively for a moment, then he gently removed her arm from his shoulders. “Somehow, I don’t think you really have my best interests at heart. I think, if you’re war and war is like you told me, then you’re probably the most selfish, self-indulging, self-gratifying woman I’ll ever meet.” He narrowed his eyes, “But you’re right that I’ve only got as many options as I’ve got power. So teach me.”War beamed and lifted off the couch. “Fantastic! Let’s get started.”Styles checked his watch. “I’ve got an hour before bed,” he warned. The goddess’s enthusiasm was replaced by confusion. “Bed? Why the hell would you need to sleep?”Styles opened his mouth to say something scathing, but paused, held his chin, and pondered it. “… Do I not?”“Styles, my Incarnation, you run on war—on struggle and passion! That’s your lifeforce! Nevermind not needing to sleep, laying around unconscious for hours every night can’t be healthy for you.”Styles blinked and reflected on it. The fact that he needed pills to sleep, how he didn’t sleep that long even with them, how sleeping less didn’t seem to affect his performance during the day. Have I been basically poisoning myself? he realized. In general, people needed sleep, but since he was different from most people it seemed like he was more or less… allergic to it?Strangely, he felt good about it. So I do have an escape button. I can just drown myself in sleeping pills and out goes the fire. He just… liked having the option. It gave some meaning to not choosing it. “Well in that case, you have until breakfast.”“You don’t need to eat either,” War said. The monster stared at her. Sleep was one thing, since it actually harmed him, but Styles somewhat liked eating regular meals. He didn’t want to waste excess time on them when he was busy, but they were good to bring structure to his day. He folded his arms, “You have until breakfast,” he said again. “Then we’ll schedule our next session. By the way, I’m a complete novice when it comes to magic.”War barked a laugh. “Fair enough! Alright, stand up. The first thing you need to know is…”***A few hours later, Styles was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. War was seated at the table and watching him thoughtfully, a pleased smile on her face. “I finally know what Knowledge means when she says teaching is fun,” the goddess said. “At this rate, you’ll have come far enough to learn the rest on your own in just another day or so.”“The end of the week,” Styles corrected her, transitioning his breakfast from a pan to a plate. “I’ll take lessons from you at night and that’s all.”War blinked and sat up straighter in her chair. “What? How come?”Styles set his food down at the table and sat across from the goddess. He sent her a look like the reason should be obvious, “I’m on vacation.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
H-how do I keep getting talked into this kind of thing?
Geno looked around Styles’ bedroom, feeling mildly out of place. Not the least of which because he was currently being cradled in a towel in the surface giant’s arms. “This bathroom here has a bathtub,” Styles patiently explained. “You’ll be fine on your own, I figure. Lust and I will take turns with the shower up that way.”“O-okay. Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Or so he said, but he tucked his arms and shoulders in shyly. He had been chatting with Styles and Lust for the past few days, and things just sort of… happened. It was hard to explain. Lust was just very clever and magnetic when you gave him time to express himself. Styles was surprisingly thoughtful and empathetic beneath the harsh exterior. Case in point, the mobster noticed his discomfort and stopped before opening the bathroom door. “…” Geno knew by now that Styles was just examining him out of concern, but his eyes were scary and it felt like he was being glared at. He started sweating a little. “… Stars,” Styles let out an irritated-sounding sigh. “If you’re not into this, just say no, Geno. I ain’t got you at gunpoint here.”“N-no, I just… uh…” Geno wrung his hands. “I just kind of got swept up in it earlier but now I’m nervous.”Styles raised a brow skeptically. “Really gonna need a solid yes or no here, pal.”The mermaid winced. “Right, yeah, of course you would. Uh… So since the mood has calmed down a little and we’re being rational and stuff… What should I expect?”Styles furrowed his brow. “You a virgin?”Geno blinked. “What? No! I mean, uh, well… I’ve only done it a couple of times before with Lust. What’s going to be different from usual, I guess, is what I’m wondering. T-to prepare myself.”Styles nodded and shrugged, opening the bathroom door and carrying Geno inside. He set him down gently in the bathtub. “Lust has been my only partner so far too. He’s the expert if you wanna ask anybody.”“Right…”Styles started the water, taking the time to carefully adjust and check the temperature with his hand before plugging the drain. He moved over to the doorway and leaned against it, folding his arms. “I guess, there’ll be an extra person and we’ll be on land. ‘Sides that s’probably not much diff…erent…” He trailed off and furrowed his brow. “Well, maybe not. How d’you feel about pain as pleasure?”Geno blinked and his fins instinctively curled. “N-no thanks. I can take pain, but I don’t like it.”He heard Styles mutter something under his breath but the running water made it hard to make out. “No, I like it,” the surfacer clarified. Then, to be extra clear, he hurriedly added, “I like it inflicted on me, I mean.” “O-oh!” Geno awkwardly patted the rising water level with his fins. “Oh...”Styles shrugged. “Think about how much of that you’d be comfortable with and we’ll come to a compromise. Anything I should know about on your end?”“No, not…” Geno paused and paled slightly, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “A-a-actually, uh, I guess there is?” He had unfortunately remembered the notice he got from Lust after their first time together. The Lamia had put in some effort since then to explain what that was about and whether it was, uh, healthy—since the one medical aspect Crooks was helpless with was anything sexual. So now, Geno was forced to explain that, as a third generation attack mage with zero capacity for lifestyle magic… the way he climaxed was closer to a red magic attack than one would typically expect and something to be cautious of. Frankly, he was lucky that his first partner was someone unusually durable like Lust.After explaining, Geno peeked shyly up at the giant. Styles’ expression was just as stern as usual—no more no less—but he was blushing faintly, which made Geno blink. The mobster cleared his throat before replying deceptively calmly, “Sounds good to me.”Geno felt his face heating up as he mentally connected this topic with their previous one. Styles conveniently picked that time to step outside and let the mermaid bathe in privacy. ***Several hours later, the three monsters were eating dinner together in the kitchen. The mood was finally growing heavy between them. Styles sensed it and broached the topic that was on all of their minds. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning,” he said. Geno was a little sad to see the guy go, but they still weren’t really that close. Lust, on the other hand, was very obviously disappointed to have to say goodbye. Not only did he find Styles fun to talk to, but the man was down for it, very durable, and had no desire to have kids. From his perspective, it was a friendship with great benefits and not a string in sight. “Can we meet again?” Lust asked pitifully. “Can I go with you?”Geno looked at Lust in shock. Does he really like him enough to leave Charm behind? Then again, they did have several people around who could teleport, cellphones to keep in contact, and Charm was in a very stable position now in the school, even if he still wasn’t an official member.“We can stay in contact,” Styles said. “Keep in mind, I’m not gonna be able to spend entire days with you anymore.”“What about entire nights?”A small smirk snuck onto Styles’ face. “Sure, sometimes. Like I said, I’ll contact you.”Lust took out his cellphone and offered it to the surfacer, but he shook his head and gently pushed it back. “Listen close, both of you. You don’t know me. We’ve never met, and we certainly ain’t close, got it? I don’t want any traceable contact from either of you until further notice.”Geno furrowed his brow anxiously and Lust blinked with wide, worried eyes. “What? Why not?”The mobster frowned. “‘Cause I don’t want either of you gettin’ killed ‘cause of me.”“Well then how are we going to keep in contact?” Lust begged. The Incarnation closed his eyes and concentrated. He focused on a pair of ethereal red threads connecting his soul to his friends’ and managed to temporarily make them visible.Lust and Geno stared at the threads in surprise. They were a very vivid red color… it felt somehow wrong to even call that shade red anymore. “… Threads?” Geno spoke first. He cautiously tried to touch the ethereal string, but his finger just slipped through, sensing nothing at all. “Not what I pictured for something called war magic, but that’s what this is, right?”Styles smiled cynically. Divine power taking the form of threads made sense once you knew that the gods were mystical jellyfish essentially spreading dormant stingers across the entire world. Styles could see them if he tried. If he focused especially hard, sometimes he saw flickers of various divine threads stretching across the world. There was a pink-colored thread attached to Lust that he occasionally noticed, as well as black and gold threads on both his friends. But there was one kind of divine thread he could see much more clearly, and it was the only one attached to him besides the ones he made himself: a radiant, bloody War thread from the goddess.The presence of War’s thread did bother him on certain occasions. There was absolutely nothing he could do to remove it, and Styles knew she could see everything he was doing with a thought, so he learned how to make an invisible cocoon of his own threads for privacy during intimate moments. It was like putting up a thin curtain: the goddess could still force her way though if she tried, but she had no reason to make an enemy of her own Incarnation by doing so.Actually, Styles felt conflicted about connecting his threads to other people. It was uncomfortable to him that ordinary mortals basically had no way to resist, and the threads were… versatile. “We’ll be able to talk to each other through these,” Styles said, pretending the threads were little different to the string for a cup phone.“How?” Lust asked.“You should just be able to think in your head as if you’re talking to me. With intent.”One relieving deficit of the war threads was that they couldn’t be used to outright read minds… Apparently Knowledge and Wisdom could do so, but War and the others couldn’t.Lust and Geno tried mentally talking to Styles, and suddenly there were two voices in his head at once. For some reason, they were shouting. He covered the sides of his skull with his hands, but it obviously didn’t do anything. “You don’t gotta yell!” he yelled back at them. After a minute or two, all three got the hang of it. “Go easy with it, alright?” Styles sighed. “I don’t need a bunch of voices in my head at all hours. If I ignore you, just take it that I’m too busy to talk and try again later.”***Lust was quiet the whole while they were swimming back to the den. He felt really melancholy… maybe because Styles’ vacation had been a bit of a vacation for him too and it was over now? On top of that, the water was steadily getting cooler. They were clearly in fall now and soon enough it would be winter. Lust’s only options would be to return to the clans or find somewhere warm up here to spend his time. Axe had arranged a place to be built where he and his brother could keep warm, so that they could continue watching over Crooks and his pregnancy, but it would be boring being stuck in one little building for a whole season. Lust found himself hoping Styles would come visit him somehow. It wasn’t totally accurate to say the immortal had a high libido, but he was down Tom for some fun in the sheets whenever he had time, and his stamina was incredible.Aside from the sex being satisfying, Styles was fun to chat with. He had a lot of very deep thoughts that it felt sort of like he’d never told anyone else. He was strict but polite and thoughtful, and whenever he criticized, it was for something reasonable. Lust didn’t know if Geno had noticed or not, but Styles always delivered advice about the right way to do something in the same hand he dealt reproval with. He never complained about something that didn’t need fixing or had no solution. The way Styles reacted to compliments was both really cute and really sad. Every little thing made him happy as long as it was genuine, as if he hadn’t heard enough kind words in his life. Lust felt his chest tightening the more he thought about his newest fling. Good memories and bitter sadness just kept pouring out.They returned to the den, and Lust was headed to his room to decompress for a while, but Charm noticed him and followed him there. The pink Lamia peeked through the doorway with sparkling eyes. “Hello brother~” Charm greeted. “Welcome back again~”Lust forced a smile on his face. “Hey, I’m back. I think I’m gonna take a nap, so do you mind leaving me alone for a bit?”Lust was surprised when his brother didn’t leave right away. He had been acting weird lately, to be honest. Charm’s eyelights morphed into little hearts and his tail swayed in subdued excitement instead. “Sure thing. I’m always here if you need to talk, you know?”Lust tipped his head and nodded. “Right, I know.”As Charm retreated, Lust wondered what on earth that was about. He actually wished he could talk through his feelings with someone to share the burden, but Styles made it clear he couldn’t tell anyone about him for his own safety, and Geno was really bad at consoling people. Having heard about the mermaid kidnapping incidents, Lust took the warning seriously and didn’t want to push his luck.But again, Charm was acting weird lately. Why was he so… quietly enthusiastic around Lust? His brother didn’t care about Lust’s usual hookups, so what had gotten his attention this time? The only thing that usually got his interest like that was…Lust’s eyes widened in a mixture of shock, sudden comprehension, and mild panic.
L-love… Am I in love?!
***“And there’s the sun,” War smiled, officially stopping the final lesson they would have while Styles was on vacation. God and Incarnation paused to watch the sun coming up over the horizon together. Actually, she thought it might be his final lesson in general. Training him more from time to time could be fun, but she didn’t want to overteach her Incarnation and stifle his creativity. War looked away from the sunrise at her cute baby apprentice. “You can at least use all the basics now, so now you know what your options are,” the goddess smiled. “What are you gonna do with them?”Styles snorted in bitter amusement, “I’m gonna see if I can convince my family to do somethin’ crazy with me.”“Oh?” The excitement War was feeling was obvious. “What crazy thing are you going to do? And what if they say no?”Styles’ face darkened. “If I can’t convince them, this is gonna take a lot longer and be a lot uglier than it has to.” He glanced at War who was impatiently waiting to hear about his intention. A pale smile touched his stern face. “I’ve decided I want everybody to shake hands and play nice for a change.”A wide grin stretched War’s face, her entire body felt electric, and she shivered in anticipation. To make people get along in this world full of petty conflict and organized crime… necessitated nothing less than total victory over all parties involved. And if everybody meant everybody…Her cute little Incarnation wanted to be a dictator when he grew up! She couldn’t be happier.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Styles returned the boat he’d rented to the company that owned it at the docks. He was tempted to just outright buy it, along with the little island he’d vacationed on, but he was concerned about the paper trail it would leave. Letting anybody know what was important to him was a good way to put them in danger. Security on the island would need a major upgrade if he was going to consider making it a permanent retreat for himself. Now just wasn’t the time for it. So, being that he was in Edge’s little seaside town, Styles figured he might as well start his next venture according to proximity. One of the things War had taught him may have been how to teleport, but he wasn’t good enough at it yet to ignore distance like Hit could.Styles pulled out his phone and dialed Edge’s number from memory, knowing his adopted brother wouldn’t like him turning up unannounced. The call went to voicemail after a single paltry ring. Blocked. Styles held his head and sighed. He shook his head and called Edge’s work instead. A monster whose voice he had never heard before answered the phone. “Police department. How can we help you?”“Is Edge there?”“Yes sir, would you like to speak with him?”“If you’d please.”“Police department, this is Edge speaking.”“Where do you wanna meet?”Edge obviously recognized Styles’ voice and tried not to show a big reaction in front of his coworker. He excused himself and transferred the call to his office phone so he could talk more privately. “What do you mean where?” Edge hissed, shutting his office blinds, “I’d rather not meet you at all! How dare you call me at my work?!”“You blocked my number, moron. Anyway, this concerns your family’s safety, so bring them too. Where do you wanna meet?”Edge bit back an instinctive vile remark. He couldn’t ignore what Styles was saying on the off chance it was true. But still…“How do I know you’re not the danger?”On the other end of the line, Styles was pinching his nasal ridge and trying hard not to groan out loud. I swear to god, this naive, entitled little bitch… “Because I wouldn’t need to ask for your goddamn permission if I wanted them dead.”Edge scowled but couldn’t deny that logic. “… Come to my place after Rus is out of school for the day,” he said with difficulty. It felt disgusting to let a man like Styles enter his home, but it was also the place where Edge’s family had the most control and privacy. Styles nodded and hung up. ***“Would you like anything to drink, Styles?” Papyrus asked politely. “Tea, coffee, water?”“I’ll take some tea,” Styles said, hanging his hat and coat at the entrance out of respect for the fact that they actually kept a proper coat rack there. Somehow, Edge didn’t like the idea of Papyrus serving the brother he’d disavowed anything. “I’ll go fix some,” he volunteered, making his way to the kitchen. Papyrus called their son closer. “Rus, come say hello to your uncle Styles.”Styles got down on his knee to greet the timid little kid hiding behind his dad’s leg. “Hey kid.”Orange tears immediately started gushing from the elementary schooler’s eyes in response to the scary stranger glaring at him. Styles simply stood back up again, completely unsurprised. Well, he thought there was a chance Edge’s kid would be fine with him, since Edge usually had a pretty mean face himself, but his expression softened considerably around his own kid. Children also had a surprisingly good sense for which adults were dangerous, so Styles would be more worried about a kid that didn’t cry when he came near. “Oh, sorry about that. He’s shy,” Papyrus excused. “It’s fine.”Styles had already taken the chance to stick threads to all three of them thanks to this meeting, so even if everything went wrong from here… it would be alright. Papyrus was a considerate host and changed the topic quickly. “Why don’t we have a seat?”Soon enough, Styles was calmly sampling the tea Edge had prepared while the adults all sat around the dining room table. Styles had given permission for Rus to return to his room since he was obviously afraid of his uncle and since the topic was about to get very adult. “You said this was important,” Edge hurried him. “So spit it out.”“Edge,” Papyrus urged his husband to be a little more patient and delicate. It always hurt him to see the tension between him and his adoptive family, even if he understood why it was there. “The tea is good,” Styles said at his own pace. Edge glared at him, so he sighed. Setting the cup down, Styles laced his fingers and explained calmly, “I’m quitting.”The hostility was snuffed out of Edge’s gaze in a heartbeat, replaced instantly by shock and doubt. “… You ? Quitting?”Styles momentarily unlaced his fingers to wave away the myriad of unspoken, incredulous questions his adopted brother surely had. “I know. Hear me out though.”Edge, seated ramrod straight in his chair despite his apparent confusion, folded his arms. “Alright, explain then. Why are you quitting and why did you imply that my family is in danger?”Styles avoided Papyrus’s curious and concerned gaze and stared at the tea in his mug instead. “I’m hoping I won’t be the only one. I’m going to try and convince Hit and pops to go legitimate with me. I don’t wanna see them in jail.”Edge’s fangs twitched into an unhappy smile. “Arrest a kingpin like Don? The world would be a better place if something like that were possible.”“It is possible,” Styles said solemnly. Edge gritted his teeth and snapped back, “No it isn’t! I hate to say it, but the justice system can’t handle people like him. Even if you locked him away, he’d just buy his way out again or live like a king inside, but more likely crooked judges would find him not guilty even before getting that far. If the law had that kind of power, I’d use it myself. I’d have put all three of you in jail decades ago!”Styles let out a dry chuckle. “Not quite as naive as I thought you were. But no, it is possible.”Edge became more curious. Had Styles had truly found a way? “How?”“Change the laws. Rewrite them to remove the loopholes everybody exploits, and then actually enforce them.” Styles looked up from his cup and lifted it to take a sip. “I’m going into politics.”Now Edge just looked at Styles like he was stupid. He shook his head and threw away the questions he no longer believed he would get a sane answer to, asking a different one that was bugging him. “What’s with the sudden change of heart? You’ve been a criminal your whole life and after one vacation you suddenly decide that crime is bad?”Styles set his mug down firmly on the table. “Even toddlers know crime is bad,” he snapped at Edge. “As much as pops tried to educate us into thinking anything was fine if it was for family, I’m not an idiot. The people I hurt had families too. I knew that and I did it anyway. Fact of the matter is that criminals and the leading class have been rubbing elbows for so many generations now that the system is practically built to make criminal leanings the only way to get ahead. It’s a vicious cycle and there’s no way to take it down without a lot of people getting caught in the fallout. But I always knew it had to be done… It just couldn’t be me to do it.” Styles gripped his fists tightly, “Mom died when we were little. Then a stranger like you came in to leech off us. I almost lost pops, you bailed, and then I almost lost Hit too.” He forced himself to loosen his fists and pinched between his eyes where they were stinging. “Then Hit got married and even his wife almost died in an accident. It’s so fucking hard to hold onto family in this world. How could I turn traitor on top of everything else?”“What changed?” Papyrus asked timidly. He flinched slightly when the other two glanced at him from across the table. Styles in particular had a strangely heartbroken expression on his face… or was Papyrus mistaken?Styles sighed heavily. “I guess I’m just more interested in helping out the future generations who haven’t done anything wrong yet, instead of this one. Pops is a lunatic, Hit doesn’t care to notice me,” Styles looked at Edge, “and you hate me. Why should I keep protecting all of you ingrates over an innocent kid like Rus? I’d rather light a fire and force you lazy bastards to start working for the future of this rotten ship.”Edge smiled bitterly. “I’d’ve kept working for that with or without you, you know.”Styles shrugged. “You’d’ve kept playing house and arresting petty criminals. It was my efforts and our family’s influence that kept this town free of more serious criminal activity. Soon, this place won’t feel so safe anymore, and you’ll have to earn your keep.”“I’m fine with it as long as I don’t have to sacrifice my morals,” Edge assured him. “Hard work is no deterrent. You should be worried about yourself. Campaigning as half the world’s enemy is going to get you shot at the podium.”“I know,” Styles narrowed his eyes and picked up his mug, finishing the last of his tea. “They can try as many times as they like, unfortunately for them I’m unkillable.” Styles saw their expressions, trying to figure out what joke he was trying to make or what sort of scheme he had to protect himself. He set his mug down. “I told you before, coz, you don’t know anything about me.” The Incarnation leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I’m immortal. I can’t die and I can’t have kids—and neither can Dolly and Hit because of the species barrier, so you’d better take good care of my nephew.”“… What the hell… do you mean… immortal?” Edge barely managed to force out. Papyrus blinked. “Test it if you’d like,” Styles shrugged. “Preferably without damaging my clothes.”“Like hell I would!” Edge shouted back. He wasn’t about to be tricked into becoming a murderer, no matter how many times Styles tempted him.Styles shrugged and casually crushed his hand in his other fist. The other two at the table winced when they heard the bones shatter. Papyrus stood up to run and get the first aid kit, but froze when he saw the bones quickly mending back to perfect condition. “I’m serious. And I’m seriously invested in the future, since I’m probably gonna outlive you and your kid. I just wanted to stay with my family. I never wanted this hell.”“Can’t you feel pain?” Papyrus asked in concern, reaching for Styles’ formerly broken hand. He quickly pulled it away and avoided eye contact with the kind skeleton. “I feel it, but pain doesn’t really bother me, so don’t worry about it.”Edge was slowly processing this information, drumming his fingers on his arm. Eventually, he raised an eyebrow and said. “Well, between the Don’s “education” and your gradual desensitization toward pain, I guess it’s no wonder you grew up to be such a tyrant.”“Edge,” Papyrus urged. “He’s trying to be better! Now is a time for encouragement.” Papyrus turned to face Styles, “I for one think—”“It’s fine,” Styles held up a hand to silence the kindly skeleton. His soul twisted but… he couldn’t afford to hear any compliments from Papyrus of all people. They would burrow through his best armor like sickly sweet acid. “What I’m gonna be doin’ from now on ain’t exactly saintly either. Lots of people are gonna lose their lives, their livelihood, and their freedom. I’m puttin’ you three in more danger than you can imagine. Run to the ocean if things get bad. I’m serious.” Styles’ sharp eyes burrowed into Edge’s glare. “Your magic ain’t bad, but it won’t save you in a war of attrition. And there ain’t no damn afterlife, so you’d better fuckin’ stay alive to take care of your husband and kid. There ain’t no heavenly reunion if you fail.”“I don’t think we need to bring religion into this…” Papyrus murmured. Styles stood up from the table, walking to where his coat hung and shrugging it on. “I’m immortal. I’ve met the literal god of death and had a chat with him. Maybe take my word for it.” He set his hat securely on his head. “Bah. Nobody ever does though.”“What’s the meaning of life then, since you know everything?” Edge called snidely, arms folded. Styles froze with his hand on the doorknob. He glanced over his shoulder. He remembered the definition of war according to the goddess herself: freewill, passion, and struggle.
But that wouldn’t be relevant to someone properly born into the cycle of life and death, now would it?
“Bitch, ask someone who’s alive in the first place.” And he stormed out. One down. Two to go.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Knock knock—
Hit opened the door and was surprised to see Styles on the other side. It wasn’t like him to visit, let alone without notice. Guess he’s loosened up a little, Hit smiled slightly. Then he grinned and greeted his little brother. “Well, look who it is. Come on in. Have a seat, relax.”Hit went to grab a few glasses from the kitchen. “Pick your poison.”“Water,” Styles shook his head. “Suit yourself.” Hit shrugged and just served them both the same. “Gotta say, I didn’t expect you’d stop by during your time off.”“Is Dolly here?” Styles asked, sipping his drink.“No,” the woman herself said, sticking her tongue out as she rounded the corner. She stole Hit’s glass from him and took a swig before returning it. “So did ya take a bubble bath?”Hit raised a brow and Styles glared at her flatly. “What?” The human fluttered her long eyelashes innocently. She nudged Hit in his side, “He called me once to ask for ideas for fun stuff he could do on vacation~ You two lighten up, c’mon!”Styles shook his head. “Cheer up some other time. I’m here on business.”Dolly’s jovial mood deflated and she visibly drooped. “What? You’re literally off duty. Why do you got important shit to talk about?”Hit raised a brow, “Yeah, bro, what kind of business? What is there at a time like this?” He paused to sip from his glass, “Is it about your schedule once you come back?”“Yeah…” Styles nodded, tracing his finger around the lip of his glass. He picked it up and drank the whole thing like it was a shot. “I’m not comin’ back.” Pfff —!Hit spat his drink in shock. He inhaled some of it the wrong way and spent some time coughing to free his airway. “I’m sorry,” he braced himself against the marble countertop. “ What did you say? ”Dolly blinked multiple times with her wide red eyes. “Styles, if you need a longer vacation…”He shook his head. “Let me explain. I never liked working in the business. I did it for the family, and that’s it. I finally had a chance to get my head on straight and do a little self-discovery, and I finally feel ready to make the decision I’ve been putting off all these years. “I wanna go legitimate. I don’t wanna be part of the problem anymore.”Hit smiled in bitter disbelief. “You want out? You wanna go clean, like Edge?”The corner of Styles’ eye twitched, but he resisted frowning or snapping back.Hit swept his hand back over his skull. “Look, I’m happy for you and all, and I’ll make this work if I have to, but you’d be leaving some big shoes to fill, bro. You sure I can’t convince you to stay?”“Let me turn that question around,” Styles murmured, tipping his chin up. “Is there anything I can do to convince you to leave with me?”“And give up all this excitement?” Dolly was pouty… but not completely serious.Meanwhile, Hit spent a few moments in deadlocked silence. Styles could see that his brother’s eyes weren’t really focused on him for a few moments. A wry smile twisted his fangs as the haze passed, “C’mon bro, you know I couldn’t do that. What would pops do without either of us to look after him? Maybe if you could convince him to retire and get permission for us to quit, but aside from that? I don’t see it happening. Sorry.”Styles closed his eyes. “I already went to see pops. He wasn’t interested.”“Then—”“You should reconsider. Or at least finish hearing me out first.”Hit stopped talking and smiled with half his mouth, gesturing for Styles to continue. “I ain’t quittin’ to retire or hide away somewhere quiet and safe. I’m goin’ into politics, and I’m gonna crack down hard on organized crime. I don’t want my family in my crosshairs. So this is your warning. Get out of the way. I’m pullin’ the trigger regardless.”Hit frowned and furrowed his brow. “You serious? You can’t mean that, Styles. We’re family. Even if Dolly and I got out now, what’re all our boys gonna do for work? What about pops? Don’t tell me you’d narc on the man who raised you?”Styles’ face was cool and passive. “Maybe the two of us together could do more to convince him,” he shrugged. “I don’t wanna see pops in jail either.”Hit held his chin. “All of us leavin’ together? That sounds… huh.” A hint of something positive leaked into his voice. But before Hit could say more, his phone rang. Then Styles’ phone rang, then Dolly’s. With all of their cellphones making noise at the same time, they hurriedly took them out to see what was going on. They all heard the news at the same time. Dolly covered her mouth and trembled. Hit dropped his phone onto the countertop and braced himself to keep from falling to the floor, his face a contortion of shock. Styles gritted his fangs and lowered his chin, his sharp eyes sinking into shadows. Just now, while meeting with a handful of subordinates and discussing their ongoing business, the Don had dusted of natural causes: a sudden-onset soul attack, at the age of sixty-eight.***Six hours ago, Styles went to visit his father, hoping against hope that he could convince him to leave the business and clean up his act. He knew that no matter what he said to Hit, his older brother would defer to their father’s opinion, so he simply had to try here first. Styles pulled the rim of his hat lower over his eyes and did what he could to mentally brace himself. He ended up alone with the Don, in the family home he grew up in, in what could almost be mistaken for a quiet, warm, father and son meeting. “Heard you took a vacation, Styles,” the Don said casually, carefully lifting a cup of tea with his aged finger bones. He added a few cubes of magical sugar to it and stirred with a little spoon. “That must’ve been nice. I hope you thanked your brother and sister in law for settin’ that up for you.”Styles took a sip of his own tea to hide his frown and clenched fangs. “Of course,” he lied, “I’m grateful.”The Don nodded and chuckled. “Ah, good. I didn’t raise an ingrate, after all. But you know, Styles, when you take time for yourself, you take it away from the rest of us.” The old monster sipped his tea. “I’m sure you’ll work hard enough to make up for this little flight of fancy, won’t you?”It was like this sly old man suspected and was making it deliberately difficult for Styles to broach the topic of quitting. On top of that, You want me to work harder? Styles fought to keep his fingers from tightening and snapping the handle off his teacup. “I’ve always given it my all for the family’s sake,” Styles said in a low voice. “I used my free time to think about better ways to keep all of us safe and happy.”“Oh? Did you now?” the Don sounded pleased. “That’s my boy. Go ahead, I’d like to hear your ideas.”Styles sipped his tea and spoke while his eyes were locked carefully on his father’s reaction. “I think our whole family should exit the organized crime business and go legitimate.”There was a grandfather clock in the room, large and majestic. Its tick-tock tick-tock echoed in the silence between them for a few swings of the pendulum.“… I never expected to hear such naive words come out of your mouth.” Don’s voice was low but hid a cold, calculating anger. “The position we’re in now gives us the most power and freedom to protect who we gotta protect and punish who we gotta punish. What would we gain by shackling ourselves to the law?”“A lot,” Styles almost whispered. He spoke up to deliver the most convincing arguments he could. “I’ve got it on good sources that the law is gonna toughen up on crime. Going clean before that happens will keep everyone out of jail. I’ve also gotten some clues lately that the scene overseas may be a lot worse than what we thought. There’s two huge crosshairs trained on us, and we can dodge both with one decision. Don’t we got people to protect?”The Don slowly closed his old, droopy eyesockets. “You’re tellin’ me you can’t protect them yourself?” He opened his eyes and fixed his gaze sharply. “Are you weak or just scared? If we pulled out every time things looked a little dicey, we’d’ve been chewed up and spat out decades ago. You want people to think our family is soft, Styles?” The Don shook his head and clicked his teeth derisively, “You leave the officials to me—nothing some grease in the palm can’t fix. And you, Styles, man up. You got a lotta nerve sittin’ there and tellin’ me you can’t protect your own family from some pond-hoppin’ scum. Instead of thinking about how to run, you better start thinking about how to win. If those bastards want a war, we’ll give it to them. I expect you on the front lines.”Styles lowered his head, staring at his reflection in his teacup. He murmured, “… Alright. Frontlines of the war, that’s where I’ll be.”The Don smiled warmly. “Attaboy. What’s got you so soft-hearted lately? Should I be expecting a new grandkid to welcome into the family? A new daughter or son in law? You sure have kept your old man in suspense, Styles. I ain’t getting any younger.”“I’m infertile,” Styles sipped his tea. “Found out not too long ago. Wasn’t sure how to break it to you.”The Don had to bring up his other hand to steady his grip on his teacup. “Oh, my boy…”Contrary to Styles’ worries, his father sounded concerned and sympathetic. He reached across the table and grabbed Styles’ free hand, holding it tightly in his feeble old grip. “My poor boy. That’s devastating news.” He squeezed his hand. “The doctor?”“Silenced,” Styles lied. “And I erased the records too.”“Good,” the Don nodded. “Don’t you worry, son, your brother and I will take care of this for you.”Styles frowned slightly. “Take care of it how? What’s there to do about it?”The Don loosened his grip and patted the back of Style’s hand, smiling reassuringly at him. “I’ll let Hit know it’s time for him to get his act together. Once he’s got an heir under his belt, we’ll make sure you get a kid of your own to raise too.”Styles fought to keep from clenching his teeth. “What about Dolly?” he asked. “She’ll understand,” the Don nodded sagely. “She’s just gotta toughen up and look the other way for a bit. You’re hurtin’ more than she is.”“I see,” Styles lowered his head, smiling in faint bitterness.
I see that you have no respect for Hit and Dolly’s love.
“Thanks, pops.”
Thanks for being irredeemable garbage until the end.
“Thank your brother,” the Don smiled. “I will.” Styles pulled his hand away and stood up. “I think I’ll go see him now. Let him know I’m back from vacation and ready to work my tailbone off.”“Attaboy.”Don grinned and waved him off. Styles took a peek at the blood-red thread he’d attached to his father’s soul. With a polite nod, he turned and left. Styles went to see Hit and Dolly. He chatted with them, and he spied on their father through the thread. Once his alibi was secure and it was clear that Don’s presence was going to chain his brother to a life of crime forever… Styles made the decision to at least save one of them.Wouldn’t his father be proud, sacrificing his life for his sons? That was the message he preached, after all. With a twitch of war magic, Styles tightened his thread around the Don’s soul… and sliced through it like tapioca pudding. No physical evidence, no magical residue, no witnesses, no case. It would be deemed natural causes.
Fucking finally. He’s dead.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Death hovered in the salty, sunny water, within a stone’s throw from Geno and Lust. The two mortals were outside enjoying what would be one of the last warm days of the season, but the deity wasn’t paying them much attention. “…”Hovering above his cupped hands was a thin black thread, which gently supported several shattered shards of a mortal soul. It had been too broken to even drag itself to him, so he had to reel it in himself. Seeing one of Life’s handmade gifts, tempered by the world for decades to reach its final expression, rent to hapless pieces… It was just one, but you could also say it was the first. Death’s hollow gaze settled ominously on the direction he had retrieved this shattered soul from. Right, buddy, you and I are gonna have to have a talk. Who else could have done it? If it wasn’t War’s new Incarnation, then it had to be some other half-mortal they didn’t know about yet. But first… what to do with this thing?Death contemplated the severed purple shards. Even if he sent this debris to his brother for cleansing, they wouldn’t get any quality crafting materials from it, and Death wanted to spare Life the sight of her loving work broken to pieces.He held one of the shards between his fingers and peered at it closely. … About bite-sized, right? There was no ego left in this pile of waste, but it was overflowing with lingering negative energy. Death knew somewhere he could dispose of something like that. Never thought I’d willingly go and feed that thing. He shook his head and vanished from the sunny waters. Instantly, Reaper was deep, deep underwater, where no natural light had shone since the dawn of creation. The deep for most creatures was far above him, where there was prey, and the deep of the mersharks was far below, at the sea floor where scraps were meant to gather. This place was a dead zone located in between. Nothing lived here. Only, something did. Death swam around for a while until he found a thread. It was a vile, slimy, tar-black thread that stretched sinisterly through the lifeless abyss and vanished into the dark. Death automatically scowled at the sight of it, but fixed his expression and followed it to its source. He reached a wall. No, not a wall, the face of a vast black cliff stretching far in every direction, and slimy with a viscous, tar like substance. No, not that either. “Hey,” Death smiled darkly. “Been awhile.”The gargantuan mound shuddered and moved, and soon a light stirred in the abyssal depths: a dim, cyan disk, shining on Death like a spotlight. Despite being easily six feet across it was, in fact, an iris.
“What do you want, Reaper? Do you bring more demands? Come to threaten my demise again?”
The giant’s voice rumbled low and far through the stagnant depths, oozing with malice. Death’s grim smile was unflinching. “Not today, kid. I actually have a favor to ask.”The ocean shuddered, rumbling low with the titan’s incredulous laughter. “Why would I do anything for you or your ilk?”“Because it involves your only hobby,” Death shrugged, holding up the shattered purple soul for Nightmare to see. “I want you to… clean this up, so Life doesn’t have to see it.”The demigod’s spotlight eye shifted slightly, focusing on the scattered soul shards. It extended a vile black thread toward it to probe, and Death resisted flinching away. After examining what remained of the soul for a minute, the titan hummed. “Clumsy, aren’t you?”Death scowled, “Clean the tar out of your eyes, brat. Does this look like my work to you?”“It looks exactly like your work to me,” the giant chuckled darkly. His cursed thread tightened around the soul shards and pulled them closer. “It looks like you left another of your forlorn children to face this world alone, with nothing but fear and power, and now you reap the consequences.”As the creature spoke mockingly, the lingering negative emotions filling the soul shards like miasma were drunk by the vile thread. Soon, nothing was left but a faint, lingering aura of positivity—what little the original mortal who owned this soul had possessed—and the balance broke. The purple color paled to ghostly white, and the homeless positivity slipped away. The disparate shards all crumbled into dust, which was lapped up by a gargantuan, iridescent, cyan tongue. I wish it were another demigod who caused this, Death thought privately. At least if it were one of Life’s descendants, I could end them in an emergency. War would never break her new toy, nor would she restrain him. Negotiation was the only tool Death had left to deal with this, and he could only hope to Wisdom that the half-mortal could still see reason now even after he had obtained god-like powers. His worries aside, he glared at the demigod halfheartedly. “She didn’t leave you with nothing,” he corrected the titanic half-Lamia, in all its meroctopus horror.
“More the pity for all of us that she didn’t, wouldn’t you say? Since all she deigned to leave me with was an ice-cold ‘destiny’ and ill company.”
Death shook his head and turned to leave, but the giant’s mountainous tentacles barred his path. They couldn’t stop him, but they did give him pause. “What do you want, Nightmare?”“A favor for a favor,” the devil grinned beneath the oozing layers of black malice cloying like tar on his face. “I brought you a snack,” Death stated.
“And I’ve spared you my dearest grandmother’s heartbroken gaze. The two tasks are incomparable.”
Death massaged his temple and sighed. “No promises. What do you want?”The slimy black tentacles, vast like the roots of the word tree, pulled back. Death could faintly make out a malicious grin on the cursed demi-devil’s wicked face.
“Tell me how many are left. How many misbegotten lives still struggle to eke out an existence in these depths grandmother pities so. How many more I must ‘save’ before my destiny unbinds me.”
Death scowled, raised his middle finger to the abhorrent spawn, and teleported back to the bright and sunny waters, where mer monsters were chatting and laughing in the good weather. He heaved a tired sigh, lamenting that he wasn’t permitted to kill that miserable, malevolent demon.
What are you thinking, Life?
***Styles felt like he’d traded a heavy burden for a bunch of balloons. Relief flooded him like a wave once his father’s death was confirmed. He didn’t care that it was quick and easy, or that he never got the chance to let out all the vitriol he felt toward the old bastard. As long as he was dead and couldn’t hurt anyone anymore, that was plenty.Obviously, Styles didn’t feel a lick of grief, so the grim expression on his face was half acting and half worry about his brother. How would Hit react to the news?Hit laughed. After bracing against the counter and struggling to stop the world from spinning around him, he laughed. He just didn’t know what else to do. “You feeling okay, brother?” Styles asked cautiously. Dolly reached for Hit’s arm and gently pulled on him, “Yeah, hun, let’s sit you down for a sec, alright?”Hit shook his head and carefully pulled his arm away. He stood up straight, took a deep breath, and grinned. “M’fine.”Styles’ older brother walked around the bar counter and clapped his brother on the back. He asked in a ginger tone, “How you holdin’ up, Styles?”The lanky monster raised a brow and eyed his brother. “Honestly?”“Yeah, be honest,” Hit nodded. “I’m here for you, bro.”Styles shrugged off his brother’s hand and straightened his hat on his head, “I’m pissed. The old bastard died before givin’ me a single goddamn compliment.”“Styles, the hell?” Dolly gasped. He snorted and glanced at Hit’s shocked expression. “Pops has given you loads of compliments,” Hit protested. “Name one,” Styles folded his arms. “I’ll wait.”“Well…” Hit trailed off and scratched his head, searching the ceiling for answers that weren’t up there. Dolly looked at her husband, wide-eyed. “Babe, c’mon.”“I’m thinking. Gimme a minute.”Styles waited for a while and then shook his head. “How ‘bout an easier one. Name one compliment pops gave you .”Again, Hit was uncomfortably silent, all while Dolly grew increasingly incredulous. “Th-the Don was always such a nice man,” she justified weakly. “He was an emotionally abusive piece of crap,” Styles said, overcome with the urge to spit for the first time in his life. He restrained himself though. “Things’ll be a lot easier for us now that he’s gone.” Styles fixed his eyes on Hit, “ If you’re willing to give my idea a go, that is.”Hit ran a hand down his face, still utterly overwhelmed with everything that was happening. “The hell are you talking about, Styles?”“I know you never really gave a crap about pops or me.” Styles peered over at Dolly, “‘Cause I see what it looks like when you really care about someone. You pay attention . So you can drop the family act with me. Let’s make a deal instead.”“What? Styles, we do care about you!” Dolly called, sounding some mixture of hurt and offended.Hit shot her a brief, warm smile, then looked at Styles with a brow raised. “What kind of deal?”“Hit?”“Love you sugar, but do you mind?”Dolly’s jaw dropped. She threw her arms out, “Am I the only person who cared about this family?!”“You had the good fortune not to grow up in it,” Styles shrugged coldly. “And for the record, thanks for givin’ a damn. I finally get what Hit sees in you.” He turned his ever sharp gaze toward his brother, “Somebody worth breaking your back for, right?”Hit chuckled, “Well I’ll be damned. Never knew you were such an understanding guy. You could learn to smile.”“Would you believe it makes me look scarier?”Styles glared at his brother’s amused grin and shook his head. “Anyway, work with me. Learn to look past my charming face and treat me with real sincerity, and I’ll reciprocate. Sound good?”Hit shrugged, making his way back to the kitchen islet and pouring a couple of fresh glasses—with bourbon this time. “You still need to explain this deal to me, but by all means, I’m listening.”They moved to a pair of facing couches. And, although Dolly was still reeling from the death of her father-in-law and the ensuing family discord, she joined them to stay in the loop. “Short version,” Styles started, sipping his drink (which did absolutely nothing for him), “You take over as head of the family and dismantle it from the inside. You sell all our areas and businesses to rivals, people we don’t like, bad people. Keep the money for you and Dolly and the boys you let go—I don’t need it—but save all the records for me. I’ll make good use of ‘em once I’ve clawed my way into office.” Another sip. “Oh, and don’t sell off Alpha to just anyone. I could use her if you don’t need her anymore.”“Sure you can handle her?” Hit chuckled. “She can be a real peach, you know?”“Remind you of anyone?” Styles scoffed. “You, actually.”Styles smirked bitterly and nodded, “I can handle her fine.”Hit laughed, then took a slow swig of his drink, peeking at his brother curiously. He hummed, “I gotta ask, how’d you pull it off?”Styles stared at the liquid in his glass, watching it as it swirled in a relaxed circle. “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”“You killed him, didn’t you?”“Again, be more specific.” Styles sipped his drink with an unhappy look, “I’ve killed a lot of people.”Hit rolled his eyes, “Pops.”“Pretty sure they said he died of natural causes,” Styles shrugged. “… Off the record, as an olive branch of sorts—leverage, if you prefer—yeah, it was me.”“How? Poison?” Hit pressed. “The timing was too perfect, and nobody noticed a thing! Even I couldn’t pull off something this clean, and I can be in two places at once!”“Maybe I’ll tell you someday.”Practically bursting, Dolly shouted, “Would someone tell me all the dirty details already?! I just can’t bring myself to hate on a poor dead guy without knowing what the hell he did! I’m so cross with you, Hit, you let me like a man you hated enough to wanna assassinate?!”Hit smiled awkwardly and raised his arms to shield himself from Dolly’s incoming play-slaps. He chuckled.“Babe, I love ya, but your poker face is awful. I’ll tell you all about it later, alright?”“Hmph. You’d better. And I wanna eat at the crab shack tonight.”“Anything, sweetheart,” Hit combed his fingers gently through her short hair with a loving look, then he smiled a business smile in Styles’ direction. “Yeah, just add one condition and you’ve got a deal.”“Name it.”“I’ll be givin’ up a lot of influence as part of this plan. Sure I don’t really care for it, but I do care for the safety it would’ve offered, you catch my drift?”“Yeah, I do. You’ve got a deal.”“Excellent.” Both brothers stood up and shook hands to seal the agreement. Honestly, despite his verbal implications, Styles had planned on protecting both Hit’s family and Edge’s from the fallout of his actions. That was the whole reason he attached his threads to all of them in the first place. With the negotiations complete, Styles made his way out of his brother’s home. He listened in with his threads to hear their immediate reactions once he left. His older brother could be one hell of an actor, after all. “Hit, be honest with me,” Dolly started skeptically. “You stacked his schedule on purpose, didn’t you?”“‘Course I did,” the sly mobster chuckled. “Pops’ business got done like he wanted and I got to spend more time with you. Win win.”“At Styles’ expense,” she grumbled. “You should’ve seen how eager he was for pops’ approval as a kid,” Hit replied. “I swear, that man is a machine. Figured he might even appreciate the extra prestige, maybe aim to take over the business in my stead… Even better if his absence gave me an opening to finish the old man myself.”“Yeah, well, you misread him.”“… Yeah,” it sounded like Hit was smiling. “Thank the stars, right?”