Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Okay, hurry up and blow it out. Before the sprinklers go off.”

“Dad,” Jolyne said, fixing Jotaro with an annoyed stare. “There’s only one candle. It’s fine.”

“Apparently they’re pretty sensitive,” Jotaro insisted.

He should know, considering he was the one who’d spent the last two weeks fighting with the department just to get someone to bring in a lighter for him, and it had been its own special kind of headache. Setting up Noriaki with his phone had been a leisurely stroll in the park compared to the uproar trying to light one goddamn birthday candle apparently warranted.

Jolyne huffed, but complied, blowing out the candle on top of the small cake Jotaro had brought with. Noriaki happily clapped once it was out, but his gaze still seemed fixated on the tiny plume of smoke the flame had left in its wake.

“Fire is quite amazing in person,” he remarked after another moment.

Jotaro was already busy cutting up the cake, and Jolyne responded before he even had the chance to. “I thought you said you had birthday parties before?”

“Yes, but I didn’t have a cake, so there were no candles.”

“They never brought you cake?” she asked, aghast.

“No. I wasn’t allowed to eat it,” Noriaki explained.

“This is a special cake,” Jotaro pointed out to Jolyne. “Remember?”

She’d been there the whole time he was making it, never mind that she was the one who’d put all the fruit on top—a task he’d honestly been relieved to leave to her, since she actually had an eye for that kind of artsy stuff.

“Yeah, but if Dad could make you this, then it can’t be that hard,” she protested. “Especially for your birthday.”

“That was in the nineties, though,” Jotaro said. “Used to be a lot harder to find dairy and gluten free stuff back then.”

“My friend’s gluten-free,” Jolyne said, eagerly taking the slice of cake in its paper bowl that Jotaro passed over to her. “She’s got celiac, so her mom makes a special cake for her birthday too.” After she’d taken a bite, holding the plastic spoon in her mouth while she apparently contemplated the taste, she announced, “But I think I like this one better. It’s basically just like ice cream cake.”

“Yeah, basically,” Jotaro agreed.

It was actually just a couple layers of sorbet and some vegan whipped cream substitute he’d found, covered with all the aforementioned fruit Jolyne had gone to town with. There was also a crust on the bottom, but he’d purposely separated that from Noriaki’s slice as he cut it.

“Good?” Jotaro asked after Noriaki had taken a few bites.

Noriaki nodded, a smile spreading over his features as he pulled the spoon from his mouth and went back in for another scoop.

“Wonderful,” he said, holding Jotaro’s gaze for a moment.

Jotaro quirked his lips in response, then returned his attention to actually eating his piece before it started melting too much. It had held up pretty well in the car, thanks to all the ice packs they’d crammed into the cooler, but had still needed a solid hour in the freezer once they got here for him to feel assured they wouldn’t have a giant mess on their hands in the time it took them to eat.

“It would’ve been so cool if you could’ve come to the party,” Jolyne started gushing to Noriaki a few moments later. “We were all swimming anyway, so you could’ve just hung out in the swimming pool with us, and it would’ve been a million times better than the Weeki Wachee show we’re going to this summer, because you’re real.”

“He can’t go in a pool,” Jotaro interjected dryly. “There’s chlorine.”

“A what show?” Noriaki repeated in confusion, quickly redirecting Jolyne from the face she was making at Jotaro, as she went on to explain the concept of mermaid shows and where Weeki Wachee Springs was.

While Noriaki got the whole rundown of the park and how the costumes the girls wore were apparently nothing compared to what he looked like, Jotaro packed up the half of the cake that was left over and brought it to one of the techs, so they could keep it in the freezer for next time. When he returned, the conversation was still going, giving him a chance to surreptitiously retrieve the card he’d been hiding in his coat pocket and slip it into Noriaki’s hand.

“Well, it still sounds like a lot of fun,” Noriaki said consolingly as Jolyne ended her minor diatribe.

“I guess,” she sighed. “The water’s really pretty, and there’s turtles and peacocks and stuff. But I’m gonna have to pretend I think it’s cool like everyone else, and it’s annoying. It’s all gonna look so fake now that I’ve seen the real thing.”

She slumped back in her chair, crossing her arms in frustration. It wasn’t the first outburst she’d had over this, even in the relatively short amount of time since she’d met Noriaki, and it very likely wouldn’t be the last.

In the middle of her birthday party, she’d ambushed Jotaro when he’d finally escaped the advances of the overly persistent moms and found someone normal to talk to, running up to him and hissing in a pained voice, “Emery won’t stop bragging about getting to be in that commercial and I just wanna tell her so bad!” He believed her when she said she still didn’t regret finding out, but it seemed any peace she’d made with this monumental secret he’d burdened her with disappeared as soon as she left the facility and was forced back into the real world. He just hoped it wouldn’t send her into her first crisis of faith with life as early as he’d had his own.

“Noriaki has a present for you,” Jotaro said, and thankfully, Jolyne perked up in a flash once she noticed the card.

“Your father got it, of course,” Noriaki said quietly, handing Jolyne the envelope, which she immediately started tearing open. “But I picked out the card from the pictures he showed me, and…well, I hope you enjoy the gift.”

“Ooo, pretty,” she said upon seeing the card, running her fingers over the colourful 3D appliqué on the front.

“Your father said you like butterflies,” Noriaki elaborated.

“Yeah, they’re my favourite,” Jolyne said, smiling. “Thanks. It’s really nice.”

“I believe the butterfly is some sort of patch, or a sticker? So you can take it off and put it somewhere,” Noriaki informed her.

“Really? That’s awesome,” she said, lifting one of the edges to check. Then she opened it, exclaiming, “Sweet!” as she pulled out the gift card that had been concealed inside. It was basically digital currency for one of the online game stores, as best as Jotaro understood it. “Now we can play Overcooked! And Stardew! The multiplayer’s gonna get released on consoles this year, so that’s perfect!”

“Yes. They should be fun,” Noriaki said with a small nod.

He still looked a little unsure of himself, but after Jolyne had passed the card off to Jotaro for safekeeping and leaned in for a hug, the gesture seemed to set his mind at ease, and he reciprocated quickly. Jotaro had already known it would go over well—that card had actually been his first choice when he saw it, but he definitely didn’t mind sacrificing it for this—but hopefully now that Noriaki was past the milestone of giving his first gift, he’d realize it wasn’t such a big deal, especially when it came to kids.

“When I’m here the next time, I’m gonna have to watch you play Zelda, because I got stuck when I was trying to play it at home,” Jolyne said when they were getting ready to leave. “I kept dying and it wasn’t fun anymore. But since it’s almost summer break, I’ll have lots more time to visit, so maybe I can even watch you beat it!”

“That sounds nice,” Noriaki replied. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“I’ll just be a minute,” Jotaro said, hanging back as Jolyne headed for the door. “Try and dry your shirt off a bit with one of the towels. We don’t need your mom wondering how it got wet.”

“Okay,” Jolyne said, disappearing with a grin.

Once she was gone, Jotaro knelt next to the bath where Noriaki was waiting, leaning on his elbows, eyes bright with expectance. As soon as Jotaro’s face was in reach, he took hold of it, reeling him in for a slow, appreciative kiss. If there was one area where his confidence had been on a noticeably upward trajectory…well, Jotaro could feel it, in the flick of a tongue and the hint of teeth that would’ve teased him into something more if he didn’t have to take Jolyne home.

“Bye,” Jotaro said after pulling back, his gaze drifting down to Noriaki’s lips.

Recently, he’d noticed that with a bit of pressure, they got a lot warmer, and that blue tinge started to fade, replaced by a dusting of pink. Jotaro knew that as a species, they were regionally endothermic, with retia mirabilia so evolved and intricate that the preserved specimens from the deceased ones looked like alien works of art, and Noriaki’s probably functioned the most efficiently out of all of them, from what they’d hypothesized. That meant heat could be transferred into any muscle that needed it most for particular activities, temporarily enabling things like faster swimming or better eyesight.

Jotaro wasn’t sure if that was the response he was observing, or if it was a simple exothermic reaction between their disparate body temperatures, but given the other adaptations that had already been documented, he wouldn’t be surprised if it were just another example of Noriaki’s incredibly complex body compensating for their differences yet again.

“Goodbye,” Noriaki said softly, dipping back into the water. “I’m going to go swim for a while, but I’ll check for your messages tonight.”

“Yeah,” Jotaro agreed, amusement playing at his lips.

It had taken about a week for Noriaki to consistently remember he actually had a phone at his disposal, but once it was cemented in his mind, it had become another routine Jotaro could predict to near certainty. Mornings and evenings seemed to be when he used it most, which provided a little more insight into his movements outside of their usual visiting hours. For his part, Jotaro was far from the most prolific texter, but a “Hi” in the mornings and a few pictures of what he was doing throughout the day, even if they were nothing more interesting than snapshots of his meals or the stack of papers he was grading, always got a comment or a smiley face in return. And if Jolyne was over, she made sure to photobomb whenever she could as a bonus.

Jotaro reached in one more time, cushioning the back of Noriaki’s head as he kissed his temple, right where the skin was smoothest before the decorative scales that dotted his hairline took over. The first time he’d done that on a whim, Noriaki had apparently been surprised enough to give him a little trill in response, which had led to some hilariously wide eyes and what probably would’ve been a pretty severe blush, if his circulatory system worked like that. Nothing like that had happened since, but Jotaro kept trying, just in case. Couldn’t hurt.

“Now you’re all wet,” Jolyne pointed out when Jotaro rejoined her, stealing the towel she’d been using.

“Yeah, well,” he said, wiping off his turtleneck, “it happens.”

It was in the following weeks that Jotaro found himself checking through a mental list he hadn’t even realized he’d been making at first. Unbeknownst to him, it had started with the phone. 

Well, if he wanted to be technical, it was bringing in those first containers of food that had kicked it all off, but the phone was where it had really snowballed. The phone had proved he had the power to make a lot more than superficial changes here, no matter what complaints came afterward. His attitude had been some form of ‘do first, ask forgiveness later’ from almost the very beginning, but now it was in overdrive, bolstered by his previous successes and the security being Noriaki’s chosen mate gave him. Now he couldn’t just be locked out of the wing for good, and because of that, he was basically past the whole ‘asking for forgiveness’ part too.

With the awareness that this was suddenly such a permanent thing, even if he’d been mentally preparing for that possibility to some degree the entire time, there also came a lot more urgency. Urgency to make the spaces they’d been afforded actually comfortable, enough that Jotaro could at least spend a few days at a time here without going stir-crazy, and preserve some of the intimacy he was already feeling scarily protective over, now that he’d started truly indulging in it. Being here could never be considered ideal; it was a fucking facility, after all, not a home—not something that belonged to them, or that they’d even had a say in—but if he could at least carve out an enclave amongst it all, somewhere safe and as close to private he could get, that would be enough for now.

It would be. Because it had to be.

Finally seeing that last room in the series of doors was what ended up providing a lot of inspiration. It shouldn’t have, because arguably, it was the most depressing room of them all: the equivalent of a holding or quarantine area in an aquarium.

Obviously, it wasn’t a one-to-one comparison. Like everything else, it had been adapted to a mermaid’s more specific needs, and they just called it a medical bay here. But that was still the intention, as evidenced by the shallow, clear-sided tank in the middle, nothing besides sandy substrate at the bottom. Currently, it was empty, but when it was filled, there’d be just enough water for Noriaki to submerge himself in if he were totally horizontal, and that was it. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, which were arguable necessities if he were ill or uncooperative, and needed medical care and somewhere to rest. But disturbing all the same, since Jotaro was almost sure this was where he would’ve been transported if he hadn’t intervened when they were ready to sedate him—where he’d likely been taken all the times it had happened before.

Now, it was meant to serve another purpose, and Jotaro had really despised the idea at first. Sure, the other room had plenty of faults, but at least he was used to it. With the changes he’d made so far, it wasn’t as sterile anymore, and he had some good memories in there. It was a lot more cramped, but he’d been thinking he could use that to his advantage—to shield from the unblinking eyes of the cameras by working around the angles and finding something that could act as a bit of cover. In comparison, such a wide open, almost empty room, would feel even more like they were just on display at the fucking zoo.

After calming down from his gut reaction, however, he’d realized the potential in it. All that space meant he could fit a hell of a lot more stuff in there, more than he’d already managed to cram into the room he was in right now, lying on the bed he’d set up earlier. It was just one of those wheeled cots with brakes, so it wouldn’t slide around when he was using it, but could readily be moved elsewhere the rest of the time, because it took up most of the space next to the bath. Despite that, Jotaro’s feet still hung off the edge if he didn’t bend his knees; it was meant to be portable and temporary, after all, so even the biggest one he could find still wasn’t going to be big enough. But it was a hell of a lot more comfortable than falling asleep in a chair, and now he could finally stay overnight.

The bath also necessitated the height of something like a cot for them to be able to sleep together the way they were at this very moment, with Noriaki splayed over Jotaro’s chest, his head tucked into Jotaro’s neck and his tail still mostly in the water. Even without the exhaustion of before, he slept more soundly than Jotaro had imagined, not reacting to Jotaro’s hand absently carding through his long hair, though maybe that had to do with him spending most of his life in an environment where he didn’t need to maintain some level of alertness to guard for threats, as opposed to the ocean. Jotaro probably would’ve already been asleep too—he definitely wasn’t paying attention to the movie still playing in the background, and for once, it was nearly dark in here, thanks to a persistent campaign to get the overheads turned off at night and the small, dimmable lamp he’d brought instead—were it not for the ideas still churning around in his head.

With how low the tank in the medical bay was, he figured it would be a lot easier to just use something like a futon in there. It would be best for the whole mating process: safe, without any risk of falling when they were still trying to figure out how their bodies were supposed to work together, and easy to swap out and wash. Even better, it would be perfect for fitting into some kind of tent, and once that’d occurred to Jotaro, it was like half his apprehension instantly went out the door. He’d need to bring his measuring tape in again, but he knew just from eyeballing that there was plenty of room for a tent big enough for the both of them—just how roomy it could be was the question.

He couldn’t start shopping for one until he went home tomorrow, however, which was probably the main reason he was still awake. He’d been dreaming of this moment for weeks now, of not having to stay up for the drive home that felt a little longer every time—of just being able to relax instead of leaving when he and Noriaki were most comfortable. Of doing something that felt…semi-normal. And now he couldn’t even sleep. Figured.

With a sigh, Jotaro tried to banish those ruminating thoughts, focusing back in on the things that might actually lull him to sleep. The dark and the quiet, the barely audible Japanese from the old samurai film still playing on the TV and the flickering light of the changing scenes. The rise and fall of Noriaki’s chest, soaking up and reflecting all of his own warmth. The feel of the microfibre blanket covering them. The way his toes flexed in his socks, his boots discarded in the corner. It was the first time he’d taken them off while he was here. Like he were home.

Sighing again, but much heavier, this time, Jotaro shut his eyes and turned his head into Noriaki’s in an attempt to block out the new wave of thoughts that had just stirred up. Those ones definitely needed to wait until he was back at his place tomorrow; otherwise he’d be up all night, no question.

He had no idea when he fell asleep after that. Just that he obviously did, at some point, because he suddenly found himself stirring groggily, with an outstanding lack of awareness as to where he was and why it was so dark.

“Oh. Hey,” Jotaro mumbled once he caught sight of Noriaki, his eyes a noticeable bright spot in the dim room, thanks to the light they reflected from the lamp on the counter.

“Hi. Did you sleep well?”

“Mmm…not the worst,” Jotaro replied after a momentary assessment. “Is it morning?”

“I believe so,” Noriaki answered as Jotaro tried squinting at his analog watch, eventually giving up and rummaging around for his phone instead.

“Six forty-six,” he read off the screen, punctuating it with a yawn.

“If you’re still tired, you can go back to sleep.”

“Not sure if that’s possible,” Jotaro said, his eyes drifting closed anyway. “Maybe we can just lie here a little longer.”

“Alright,” Noriaki agreed.

Despite that, Jotaro didn’t feel Noriaki’s head return to the cushion of his neck like he was expecting. He ignored it for a minute, until he couldn’t hold the words back any longer.

“You’re staring at me.”

Even in the absence of light, he could feel the holes boring through him. He wasn’t annoyed by it—he’d spent more than his fair share of time staring at Noriaki in the beginning, and even up until now—but he wasn’t going to let it go, either. Not when teasing had gotten markedly easier, and he was about to fall behind if he didn’t get his jabs in with as much speed as Noriaki had started throwing things back at him.

“Yes. I was admiring your face.”

With an amused scoff, Jotaro retorted, “You can see enough for that?” even though he already knew the answer. Noriaki wasn’t as suited to low-light environments as the others, but the data from the years of tests showed he had no problem navigating in the dark.

“Fairly well,” Noriaki replied simply. “It’s just…you look different when you sleep.”

His hand reached out, cupping Jotaro’s jaw, his thumb brushing over the arch of his cheek with a light scratch of his claw. Jotaro tilted his head up to accommodate it, still not opening his eyes.

“You look…softer.”

“It’s just puffiness,” Jotaro explained. “Happens in the mornings sometimes.” Usually when he didn’t get enough sleep. Like last night.

“Oh. I see,” Noriaki said. He almost sounded a little disappointed.

Jotaro finally cracked an eye open, trying to measure what he could see of his expression. He really had no clue as to how long ago he’d woken up, or how long Noriaki had been observing him. From how he’d explained his typical sleep schedule before, it would be pretty reasonable to expect that he’d roused at least a couple times throughout the night.

“Or maybe I was having a good dream, and I just don’t remember it,” Jotaro added.

“Maybe,” Noriaki said, the words as thoughtful as the slow stroke of his thumb on Jotaro’s cheek.

“Do you dream?” Jotaro asked, realizing he actually had no idea about that.

It wasn’t something that’d been mentioned in the files; only the ones with mates would willingly sleep around humans for any period of time, and he couldn’t remember reading any notation about their behaviours while sleeping that would indicate that. Logic dictated they would—most creatures did, especially ones as advanced as them—but he still wanted to find out for himself. The things he learned that way were what he was really growing to treasure the most.

“Quite a lot. Too much, sometimes.”

“Too much?”

“Yes. Because then I don’t want to wake up.”

Jotaro finally left in the afternoon, grateful to be making the drive back at a reasonable hour, even if there was more traffic to contend with. On top of that, he’d already showered—now that he knew there was a curtained stall in the medical room, he would be making full use of it—and eaten, so there was really nothing more for him to worry about that night other than answering emails and deciding what he’d pull out of the freezer for dinner.

That abundance of freedom was what led to him opening a new browser window as soon as he sat down at his computer and started searching for camping tents. He found some good options pretty quick, bookmarking the pages and writing down the dimensions for when he visited on Tuesday, so he could get in there with a tape measure and see what would work best. He looked at futons afterward, but couldn’t really make a decision until he knew for sure what tent he was getting, so once a few minutes had passed, he let himself move onto what he was really interested in: real estate listings.

Browsing through the plots of land available within the radius he’d selected, some completely empty and others with old houses or homesteads that were basically considered tear-downs, he had a pretty firm set of criteria in mind. First, it needed to be at least a few acres, preferably more, with plenty of privacy and separation from any neighbours. The more rural, the better, honestly, because getting this shit permitted was going to take a while, never mind if he were trying to do it in the more populous counties.

Having a lot of surrounding trees and natural barriers would also be a plus, but it couldn’t be swamp, or at too low of an elevation. Even though the plans starting to take shape in his mind were a far cry from the million-gallon tank at the Foundation—the exact opposite, really—they still involved a lot of water, so he’d need space for all those pumps and equipment. Basements were either totally impossible or not worth the trouble in most areas of the state, but since he was trying to stay around central Florida, the flood risks weren’t as bad, and there were a few actual hilly areas. Building into the side of one of those would allow for some space at least partially underground, and maybe the opportunity for more elaborate water features to boot…

After picking out some promising listings, mostly centred around Lake County, Jotaro grabbed his phone—not to text Noriaki about this, as much as he would’ve liked to, but to make a call. He wasn’t going to mention anything to Noriaki until this was more than a pipe dream, as painful as that would be at times, but at least he had a contact who could help expedite what was likely going to be a years-long process.

“Huh. And here I was starting to think I didn’t have a grandson,” was the answer Jotaro got when the call picked up on the other end.

“Sorry, Jiji, you’re not that senile yet. I’ve just been busy.”

“Too busy to call your grandparents?” Joseph guilted him, which Jotaro let him have, because it definitely wasn’t typical for him to go this long without checking in nowadays, and he wasn’t even allowed to explain why. But when he said, “Well, let me go get your grandmother,” and sounded like he was about to start the laborious process of getting up, Jotaro promptly intervened.

“Actually, I need to talk to you first, so hold off on that.”

“Yeah?” Joseph replied, obviously intrigued. “About what?”

“I’m looking at buying some land. Know someone down here who can help me out?”

“Sorry it takes so long to get everything ready,” Jotaro said, dunking the straps of his BCD into the shallow water at the ramp leading into the tank, so he could start getting his oxygen cylinder fitted.

He’d been allowed to bring in his own scuba gear for this, but he had to use the cylinders they already had on site, since it wasn’t like he could pass through the regular security with one of those, even with the level of clearance he had now. Because of that, he hadn’t been able to do any of this prep in advance, and he needed to be extra thorough with the checks since it wasn’t one of his own tanks. The risks in this environment were pretty minimal compared to being in open water, and having a mermaid as his dive partner meant rescue would only be seconds away at any time, but it still wouldn’t be very fun for either of them if he passed out down there because of some fault with the cylinder or the connections.

“That’s alright,” Noriaki said. He seemed more fascinated by the process than anything. “It’s really amazing that people have invented these kinds of things.”

“Well, that’s because humans love going where they’re not meant to,” Jotaro answered derisively, tightening the straps once the height of the cylinder in the jacket looked good. “It’s the trademark of our species, for better or worse.”

Ten more minutes, and all of Jotaro’s gear was fitted, having run the last of his checks, while Noriaki’s eagerness for him to finally join him in the water was apparent. Divers in his tank weren’t uncommon—maintenance obviously had to be carried out regularly—but he always stayed in the other room while they were in it. According to him, the last time he remembered sharing the tank with another diver was during his adolescence, and that had been for the purposes of studying his behaviour underwater. He’d never really swam with anyone just for fun, or the sake of it, and for his part, Jotaro was pretty damn excited too. His opportunities to dive had been dwindling over the last few years as desk work got in the way, and after so many months of Noriaki having to conform to his environment so they could spend time together, it felt good to be able to meet him where he was most comfortable.

Okay? Jotaro signalled to Noriaki, standing at the edge with his regulator in place.

Noriaki already knew all the dive signs, and some sign language—another thing they’d tried with him he was a kid, before he’d honed the ability of verbal speech—so Jotaro received another Okay back, accompanied by a grin. With that, he stepped off the edge, the weight of his suit dragging him down into another world in mere moments.

Thanks to the sheer size of the tank, it was hard to take everything in at first, all the motion of the swaying sea grasses and the schools of fish pulling Jotaro’s eyes to ten different places at once. Seeing it from the outside was awe-inspiring enough, but actually being in the middle of it, the scale was completely different. It was like the disparity between looking at picture of a place and seeing the real thing. Sure, this was technically nothing compared to the ocean, but with the ocean, there was no way to have seen that view looking in from below. No idea of what he’d look like to someone observing from where he’d stood so many times—to himself—and that was what was making him feel so intensely minuscule right now. The recessed bottom ran metres beyond the scope of the glass, the uncanny effect of the dark walls outside making it feel like there was no barrier there at all and it just ran on…forever…

There was a brush against Jotaro’s back, and he felt Noriaki slowly wind himself around him, until they were face to face. Okay? Noriaki asked this time, making the little circle between his finger and thumb with a more bemused expression.

Jotaro responded in kind, and as Noriaki took his hand, pulling him further down, he gradually got his bearings. Up close, everything was more familiar, not as overwhelming, and it made for a pretty neat sightseeing excursion. Watching Noriaki as he sluiced through the water was already endlessly intriguing; Jotaro would’ve been satisfied just following him around, observing every fluid, effortless motion, how each muscle worked in tandem to create such an elegant form of momentum, but there were just as many points of interest as there would’ve been on a regular dive. The amount of biodiversity was abundant, well beyond what he could appreciate from the limited view he’d had up until now, all the different kinds of kelp and coral and anemones waving from their perches on the rocks. The fish always scattered as soon as he got near—they only knew one type of predator in here, after all, and Jotaro was basically the same shape and size—but he could still appreciate the flash of their scales, how they navigated the artificial current, and Noriaki was quick to guide him to all the spots the sea stars and other echinoderms preferred. There were plenty of Astropecten, including some Leptychaster that were cool to see, and a huge red Ctenophoraster diploctenius that stuck out between all the smaller, short-arm varieties.

He worried that maybe he was spending a little too much time geeking out over them, but Noriaki’s primary intent, at least for the first part, seemed to just be taking him on a tour. He also knew Jotaro’s biggest passion was invertebrates, so he was probably gleaning just as much joy from the concentrated minutes Jotaro spent pouring over the rocks as he was from actually swimming together, judging by the way he nuzzled up against his back in the meantime, peering over his shoulder along with him. But his delight was most obviously apparent whenever he took it upon himself to maneuver Jotaro around, once he’d seemingly left him to his own devices for long enough.

Pushing might’ve been the more appropriate word for it, but it was gentler than that sounded. Definitely playful and affectionate, and maybe only slightly motivated by how much he had to slow down so Jotaro could keep up with him. If he were able to bolt around the way Noriaki could, he’d probably have a hard time purposely hampering himself too, and the environment down here was really suited for it. There was so much open space, but enough obstacles and areas of diversion to keep it more interesting than just constantly swimming in a loop. The feeling of passing through some of the arches and tunnels in the rocks was almost magical, in a way. There wasn’t the fear of getting stuck, or what would happen if Jotaro’s equipment got damaged like there would be otherwise. Having Noriaki by his side afforded a level of protection that really couldn’t be matched, enough that when Noriaki got really into this little underwater game of cat and mouse, taking hold of Jotaro and launching them under one of the rock formations with a spin that made him suddenly know exactly what it felt like to be a torpedo, he only spared a momentary thought for what might happen to his air tanks if anything caught or snagged.

Eventually, Noriaki led Jotaro over to another outcropping, one that formed a shallow cave, a depression carved out in the sand inside. One of the places he slept when he was in here, most likely, especially given how he pointed at Jotaro, then tapped two fingers to his palm, the dive sign to ask how much air he had. Once he’d received his answer, Noriaki tugged Jotaro in with him, confirming Jotaro’s suspicion with how he wrapped around him, anchoring him to the ground so he could nestle against him. At first, it wasn’t that comfortable with the tanks on his back, but the vest was pretty quick to take off, in case of emergencies, and with it pushed to the side, Jotaro could truly acknowledge how strange it was to be calmly lying here like this, twelve or so metres underwater.

It had to be strange for Noriaki too, in a way. If not from having someone else in this space he’d only occupied solitarily until now, then at least in the way Jotaro looked, his face obscured by a mask and a regulator and all the tubes coming off him, connecting to the various parts of his gear. But Noriaki still seemed utterly enthralled by him, bracing Jotaro’s cheeks with his thumbs. There was a curious tilt to his head as Jotaro breathed slowly, committing to memory the fan of his hair, suspended in the water. Just how perfect he looked in the blue cast, backlit by the bright light shining in through the cave entrance.

It was when Noriaki had leaned in, only millimetres separating them, that Jotaro relented to the feeling in his chest, pulling his regulator out for no longer than the moment it took Noriaki to register what he’d done, angling his neck so he could slot his lips into his. The feeling of it buzzed through Jotaro’s body, his head swimming as he held his breath in such an impossible instance. That first gulp of air after they’d separated and Noriaki had guided the regulator back into his mouth along with him, hand over hand, only compounded it all.

Time didn’t pass like normal after that. It was like forever was gone in seconds, every breath, every movement elongated, but over in a blink. Noriaki had draped himself over him, being the constant, the thing that kept Jotaro’s chest rising and falling at a regular pace so he didn’t eat into his air supply too fast while he watched the fluttering sea grass visible beyond the rocks. He knew that past their fronds, on the other side of the glass, a few stationary cameras had been set up to capture the dive from better vantages than the cameras above. For as long as they’d been in here, though, they must’ve been invisible to them.

And how fucking good did that feel.

When the inevitable tap came from Noriaki, alerting Jotaro to the levels on his dive computer, he acquiesced, sliding his vest back on and securing it for the ascension. It only took a few kicks and a slight adjustment to his buoyancy to make it up to the level for the perfunctory safety stop, which was normally his least favourite part of a dive. Other divers would fill the time during stops by playing games or chatting back and forth with hand signals, but that had never appealed to Jotaro. Today, though, it was an entirely different experience, and a welcome one, with Noriaki circling around him, occasionally ducking into his neck for a nip, or smacking him lightly with his tail fin. When Jotaro nudged him back, he always darted away before quickly returning with a grin. Probably daring him to catch him before he remembered that was basically impossible.

“What?” Jotaro called back over his shoulder when he noticed Noriaki watching him from out in the water as he took off his gear, eyes trained on him in a way almost as intense as the first time they’d met.

It was a long moment before he replied, finally lifting his head up fully so he could speak. “Are you coming back in?”

“Yeah. Just a ‘sec,” Jotaro said, relieving himself of the weight belt and piling it at the side with all his other gear. “Heads up!” he hollered, flinging a kick board out into the water, followed by his mask and snorkel, just in case. He’d kept his fins on, but otherwise, he was unburdened by any other gear.

Lining himself up on the ramp, he dove back in with a practiced arc, spending only a couple seconds underwater before he surfaced. Once above, he pushed his hair out of his face, finding himself instantly buoyed by Noriaki’s tail under his back.

Noriaki circled around Jotaro, nudging the kick board in front of him. Following a brief dip, he popped up on the other side, resting his crossed arms on it delicately, filling the space that was left after Jotaro had slung his own across. His pectoral fins glistened in the light, transparent where they were thinnest and gorgeously iridescent.

“You enjoyed yourself?” Noriaki asked quietly, tipping his head with a hint of a smile. Probably feeling almost assured of the answer, but with that hint of doubt he hadn’t been able to extinguish for good still playing at him.

“Yeah,” Jotaro said. “I really did. Thanks for slowing down for me.”

A wider smile, and then, “I thought you kept up quite well, actually.”

“Well…we should do it more often,” Jotaro suggested. Now that he’d lugged all his gear out, it was probably going to stay here for the foreseeable future, so the hard part was over. Looking to the side, back into the depths of the tank, he continued, “You’ve been forced to figure out how to fit into our world, and I know it’s not always the most natural for you. Would be nice to change that a little. As much as we can.”

Upon looking back at Noriaki, Jotaro was met with a puzzled stare. “I don’t think ‘natural’ exists for me anymore,” he said at last. “At least not in the way you mean…if I’ve ascertained that correctly.”

“How’d you think I meant it?” Jotaro asked, in his usual blunt manner people typically misconstrued, one way or another. Talking to Noriaki, however, he thankfully never had to worry about that—more the opposite, when he wasn’t as direct.

“You meant natural as in my nature, right? What that would’ve been if I’d never been brought here at all?”

“Sort of,” Jotaro admitted.

Whatever Noriaki might’ve been like had he grown up in his intended environment, learning how to survive from his own kind, rather than mimicking the ways of humans—he was right that whatever that person, that creature would’ve been, an actual true representation of his species, was gone. There were remnants in his general biology, in hardwired instincts, but the other aspects of behaviour, passed down through generations, were absent, save the scattered things he could’ve picked up before his memory was fully developed. When Jotaro looked at him, that expectation of what an ideal life would be like for his species was intrinsically there, even though he had no better guess for what that would entail than Noriaki did. It was the trapping he had to fight not to fall into now, the most persistent holdout of the biologist’s attitude, and it was honestly because he was more interested in the sociology of it all versus anything else. Not even his field, really, but definitely the one that glaringly lacked above all within the scope of the Foundation’s extensive research.

Still, Jotaro was getting better at pulling himself out of it. By remembering that for Noriaki, mourning that was mourning something that never was, and he needed that sentiment the least out of anything. It didn’t feel wrong to hold onto that sense of loss when Jotaro thought about the other ones, read into their notes or watched their videos, because it was clear to see. They missed the wild and their freedom; probably every day, no matter what. They’d been removed from it out of necessity, not purpose. But Noriaki wasn’t the same. He still deserved better than this, but better wasn’t a misguided effort at returning him to a state he’d already moved past long ago.

Noriaki needed something that had never been done before. Somewhere made just for him. Somewhere he could maybe find more of that purpose for himself.

“But comparing water to land…” Jotaro started. “Obviously there’s one that’s always going to be the most natural for you—comfortable, whatever you want to call it. Land, you’re constricted. In here, you’re not,” he concluded, waiting for Noriaki’s reaction with his ulterior motive forefront in his mind.

And yeah, Jotaro was pressing a bit harder than he usually would’ve, attempting to get a better idea of what Noriaki might like, what preferences he should try to prioritize when he got to the point of drawing up plans for the build, but it could be excused. Beating around the bush for that kind of information was really all he could do right now without giving anything away.

“Well…maybe it used to feel like that,” Noriaki said. “Not so much anymore.”

“No?”

“No. I don’t think there’s anything that feels more comfortable than being with you now.”

“Okay. Guess I can understand that,” Jotaro said, let the beginnings of a grin slip, and Noriaki’s lips curved upward again.

“You’re teasing me,” he pointed out, his own voice mirroring that mirth.

“Yeah. I’ve been practicing. Gotta try to keep up, right?”

“Do you really need to? I’m sure you’ll outpace me with that,” Noriaki said. He leaned in, bringing his smile a little closer, and the kick board dipped with the weight.

Jotaro wasn’t as certain of that himself, but it really didn’t matter as he ran a hand through Noriaki’s hair, the strands glossy and fascinatingly light, pouring through his fingers like so many tiny waterfalls. When his fingertips met the line of a fin, dipping behind the cartilage to find even softer skin, there was a lilting noise of approval. After that, all it took was a thumb at the corner of Noriaki’s mouth for his lips to part, and the stupid board nearly flew out from beneath them with how far Jotaro pushed it down just to achieve the purchase he needed. It wasn’t the brief contact of before, but something quietly insistent, as his grip on Noriaki’s chin tightened, holding him rapt while their mouths moved in measured tandem.

They broke quicker than Jotaro would’ve liked, but it was his doing. This wasn’t really the place for this; he didn’t possess the physiology to stay naturally buoyant like Noriaki did, and as clean and well-maintained as the tank was, doing anything further with the water still on them wasn’t hygienic. He was ready to explore something more, yeah—he’d kind of been wondering if today would be the day, with the last barrier broken to push them over the edge—but they both needed to wash themselves off if that was going to happen, and they couldn’t do that up here.

However, Noriaki was a little further gone than Jotaro had anticipated from such a relatively simple kiss; it was apparent from his eyes, the slight disconnect when Jotaro tried to meet them directly. So, softly, he said, “Hey. Noriaki,” brushing his cheek a few times to hopefully bring him out of the daze.

Typically, that worked pretty well, now that Noriaki was a lot more used to the intimacy, but maybe it was down to the water. Whether it was the advantage he had here, or the environment awakening those dormant instincts with a lot more force—or because they’d technically started this minutes earlier, where Jotaro couldn’t fully participate, and he’d been suppressing his feelings since then. Whatever the reason, Jotaro didn’t see the spark of awareness return like he expected to. It was like the hunger only deepened, Noriaki’s pupils blowing wide. In a flash, Jotaro was flailing for the board, trying to keep it at least partially beneath his arm as Noriaki surged against him, teeth clamping down on his neck in a way he’d anticipated so many times, but never felt until now.

Eyes screwing shut, Jotaro braced his other arm around Noriaki’s back as he arched in the water, struggling to stay afloat under the added weight on top of him. It was partly for support, and partly to have his hand close to those spines in case this got a little more intense than he was prepared for—but mostly, it was just to have him closer. As much as he was readying himself to activate that emergency stop, he wanted to continue, because the fucking drag on his skin, the pressure that edged it just to the point of breaking, was raising every hair on his body, making him already feel way too hot somehow, despite being in a clammy wetsuit in water just above twenty degrees celsius.

He was also uncharacteristically nervous, because this really hadn’t been in his plan for how this was supposed to happen. He didn’t have much recourse out here, but with the way he was reacting, that shock of arousal stealing the rationality that otherwise might’ve overwritten things, Jotaro had to let it play out, at least for now. He could only hope that Noriaki wasn’t intent on inflicting the kinds of bites like he’d seen in the videos just yet.

Noriaki’s teeth were deathly sharp, after all, the kind that could rend prey to shreds in mere moments. But the points were still rounded, blunt enough to allow some leeway before they actually lacerated the flesh of whatever they were biting into. It was that very liberty Noriaki was apparently relishing in now, sinking his teeth into Jotaro’s jaw hard enough that Jotaro inhaled forcefully, sucking down a sudden breath that he held in his chest for as long as he waited to see if Noriaki would break the skin. But despite the tingles, the dull pain that carved a home inside bone as the pressure intensified, the smart of layers of dermis hitting cold air was absent when Noriaki finally released. Once he did, Jotaro groaned, starting to feel a little hazy himself as Noriaki nudged into the hollow of his neck, the dig of his claws into Jotaro’s arms muted by the neoprene of the wetsuit.

There was another bite, this time without any bone in the way as resistance, only soft skin and cartilage to protect the muscles and veins within. But still, Noriaki’s teeth stopped short of tearing Jotaro open. They just held, and held, and held, pinching the flesh between them in a way that bordered on agonizing, the longer it went on. Jotaro could feel himself bruising by the second, and he dug his nails into Noriaki’s back in turn, his control slipping beyond the point he normally would’ve let it, when accidentally hurting Noriaki was a much bigger concern to him. It was just a hell of a fucking lot to endure.

Then, the pressure lifted, ushering in an abrupt wash of endorphins in its wake. Jotaro let out another quiet groan, his breathing briefly evening out in the nigh instantaneous relief. The only warning he had after that was a low growl.

Almost out of nowhere, Jotaro found himself on his back, all the breath knocked out of him, staring up at the crisscross of supports and ventilation ducts in the ceiling and Noriaki’s form leaning over him. Processing what had just happened took a second, but as he felt the metal beneath him, supporting him where the water had been just a moment ago, he realized Noriaki had propelled them through the water and up onto the ramp before he’d even had time to register it.

“Fuck,” Jotaro muttered, feeling around the back of his head to see if he’d accidentally smacked it.

But it seemed alright—he felt alright, other than being winded, and the spots where he’d been bit. The breathlessness was probably just from the initial force of it. If he’d actually hit the ramp, he would’ve been seriously hurting, so Noriaki must’ve halted the dash before any point of impact. Jotaro really had no idea what that’d been about, if he’d unintentionally done something to irritate Noriaki, until Noriaki’s weight dropped onto him, and his teeth settled back into Jotaro’s neck.

Pinning. Pinning and scenting. That’s what he was trying to do, and the water hadn’t allowed for that, so he’d followed his instincts and remedied it.

Jotaro slowly relaxed, leaning back into the grating as Noriaki continued marking him, inhaling deeply through his teeth, his tail heavy over Jotaro’s legs. Internally, Jotaro was still at war with himself over what to do here. If he wanted to kick up a fuss over what was supposedly natural or not, then letting Noriaki follow through with this, what he instinctively felt compelled to do, was only right. Jotaro didn’t know what reaction trying to break him out of it now would cause, either. But at the same time, there was no shielding themselves here from the cameras above, Jotaro couldn’t stay in this wetsuit forever, and if this went any further, he really wanted Noriaki more aware than this.

Just a little longer, was what he eventually resolved. Just a little more, to see if Noriaki could get these urges out of his system himself. If not, then Jotaro would try intervening, as gently as he could.

So for now, he surrendered himself to it, letting the sting of teeth and the low growls of contentment whisk him somewhere else entirely. A little out of his body, where the cold didn’t matter, and the only reason his skin was prickling was pleasure. Soon enough, an odd sense of satisfaction started bubbling up in his chest, this immense, all-consuming gratification in everything that was happening right now. In Noriaki. In being. Being held, and craved. Being the only two people who mattered in the world at this very moment. Being here for each other, and no one else.

Then Noriaki’s tone shifted, and Jotaro lifted his head from where he’d let it loll, subconsciously baring his nape. The sound was distinctly annoyed, enough to recognize without any ambiguity, but the reasoning totally unclear, until he felt the tug on his collar.

“Don’t pull it,” Jotaro tried scolding quietly, though whether Noriaki would actually listen in this state was debatable. Quickly, he reached for the zipper of his wetsuit, sliding it down past the collar before Noriaki could punch a bunch of holes through the neoprene in his attempts at getting the access he wanted.

As swiftly as Noriaki latched on, his nose pressed into the crook of Jotaro’s neck and his teeth fretting the divot between his nape and collarbone, Jotaro realized this couldn’t go on any longer. It was more than just a show of dominance now—more than territorial behaviour. Noriaki was actually mouthing at him, the end of his tail winding around Jotaro’s leg and squeezing tight, as he sucked a path down to the bone. The milder shocks of arousal Jotaro had been enduring until now were nothing compared to what he suddenly felt, unencumbered by pain: nerves alight with the roving suction, the gentle brush of tongue teasing every tiny receptor hidden in his skin, and the rush of blood to his groin enough to make his head spin.

Cutting off the beginnings of a moan he knew would only encourage this further, Jotaro finally pushed at Noriaki, trying to get a bit of separation. He’d thought it would be harder—that it would take at least a few rounds of assertions to snap Noriaki back into consciousness—but he barely had the chance to get out a, “Wait—” before Noriaki was gone, and he was left staring at the fading ripples in the water, utterly dumbfounded yet again.

“Shit,” Jotaro swore under his breath, anxiously waiting for Noriaki to reappear. He knew he had to be careful during these situations, whenever he was treading the fine line of something that might seem like rebuke, or rejection, but obviously he’d still managed to go about it the wrong way.

That familiar shock of red breeched the surface a few moments later, however, and Jotaro let out an audible sigh of relief. Noriaki was visibly wary again, but when Jotaro beckoned with the Come here signal, he responded instantaneously, gliding slowly through the water.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized as soon as he was in front of Jotaro, the water still dripping off him as he pulled himself up the ramp. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” Jotaro said, trying to erase all that anxiety in Noriaki’s voice, on his face, with a shake of his head. “I didn’t want to stop, but we need to get cleaned off…if we’re going to do anything more,” he said, with a pointed look downward.

“Oh,” Noriaki said, gaping at Jotaro in some kind of astonishment. Then he ducked his head away, steadfastly avoiding eye contact. “Right,” he agreed quietly.

“Do you want to? It’s okay if you don’t.”

“No, I—I would like to,” Noriaki said, managing a small nod.

Jotaro reached out, brushing his hand over Noriaki’s cheek before cupping beneath his jaw, and that was when Noriaki looked back at him. “You don’t have to worry. I have a plan.”

Noriaki’s expression grew curious after that, and Jotaro couldn’t help smiling. He brushed Noriaki’s cheek one more time before finally letting go.

“I’ll meet you down there?” he suggested.

“Okay,” Noriaki said, nodding again. Then he backed up, giving Jotaro room to stand.

He didn’t leave immediately, though, instead watching as Jotaro removed his fins and chucked them in the pile with the rest of the gear he’d have to deal with later. Taking note of where his eyes tracked, Jotaro realized they kept straying to the slice of skin now visible between the teeth of the half-open zipper. He smirked back at Noriaki, and that was what finally caused him to turn tail, diving beneath the surface with a splash.

Jotaro had grabbed an armful of towels when he passed the shelf at the foot of the stairs, but only one of them was intended for the shower. He’d deposited the rest next to the bath, the first step of his preparations, and now, standing under the stream of water, he hoped everything else he had in mind would fall into place relatively easily. It was a fairly simple idea, after all, but once again, he was banking on assumptions. Educated ones, backed by all the evidence he had at his disposal and everything he’d learned so far, but still unproven. Hypotheses he just had to have faith in. Trust that his gut was leading him in the right direction, just as it had so far.

He washed his face first, then the tender skin on his neck, which protested and complained the whole time. After that, he opened the front of his wetsuit the rest of the way, slipping the washcloth beneath the flaps of material so he could cleanse all the skin that had been exposed. When he felt like he’d done a thorough job, he shut the taps off, pushed the flimsy curtain aside, and towelled off his head before brushing his teeth at the sink next to the stall, where an extra toothbrush and paste had taken up residence weeks ago.

Jotaro walked back into the other room still shaking out his hair, towel around his neck and the floor slippery under his bare feet with all the residual moisture trailing off him, a couple of damp washcloths clutched in his hand. Noriaki was there now, in the bath, silently watching with some measure of trepidation or anticipation. Jotaro stared back for a moment, feeling a similar mix of emotions stirring within him again. Not enough to stop him, though. There wasn’t really anything that could make him back down now.

So he went over and bent down, straightening out the towels on the floor into a neater sort of matting, and setting the washcloths aside. Then he said, “Here,” holding out his arms so Noriaki could embrace him for a lift.

Arms clutched around his shoulders, Jotaro edged Noriaki out of the bath gently, letting his tail graze the ground first before he lowered him completely. Once he was settled, propping himself up on his hands, Jotaro doubled back to wheel the cot over.

“Just bear with me,” Jotaro warned. “I haven’t done this in a while.”

“Done what?” Noriaki asked slowly.

“Built a fort. Jolyne used to like doing it when she was younger, but now she’s grown out of it, so I’m out of practice too.”

“…Why are you doing that?”

“Here, just…you’ll see.”

Jotaro unfurled the large fleecy blanket they’d been using to sleep, shaking it out so it floated in the air momentarily, coming to rest over the side of the empty bath and the cot, parallel to it, when it inevitably returned to earth. Noriaki instinctively ducked, but that was all Jotaro saw before he was out of sight, covered by the makeshift tent.

Jotaro secured the last corner to the countertop, using the CD player as a weight, to give the improvised structure some extra height. Finally, he grabbed the little battery-powered lamp from the counter, setting it down just outside the entrance he barely fit through.

“There,” he said, managing to wedge himself into the nook between the counter and the bath, leaning against the wall. “Now we just have to hope we don’t knock it down.”

“It is a little cramped,” Noriaki teased. Even with the pinprick spots of the overheads filtering through the fabric of the temporary ceiling and the light outside the door, it was pretty dim inside, but the spread of a smile across his face was still plain to see.

“Yeah. Jolyne usually kept me out of hers for a reason,” Jotaro said, trying to adjust himself so his head wasn’t in danger of grazing the sloping blanket.

“I like it, though,” Noriaki said softly. “It feels…safe.”

“Thought we’d both feel better with some kind of shelter,” Jotaro explained. “I ordered something more permanent—I’m going to set it up in the other room when it gets here. But for now, I figured this would work, and no one could really stop me from doing it.”

He still wasn’t too sure how the tent was going to go over, in all honesty, but this seemed like a good way to make his stance on the matter clear: that he was going to get some damn privacy, no matter what, and if anyone tried blocking his more legitimate means, then he’d just find another way to circumvent it. Orchestrating something subtler like this, before anyone could tell what he was doing, was guaranteed to work no matter what, so long as Noriaki was in the room. Encroaching on any of the mermaids while they were with their mates was an absolute last resort for only the direst of circumstances, given how much danger it created for everyone involved.

Noriaki carefully pulled himself over, hands on either side of Jotaro as his tail slid up his legs. He didn’t stop until he was right in front of Jotaro’s face, chest flush to chest. Jotaro’s palms settled over his waist, absently caressing as much as they were there to support.

“Thank you. For thinking of that,” he said.

“Yeah,” Jotaro replied, in an echoey, touched-out voice that didn’t quite sound like his own.

Noriaki’s eyes grew hooded as he gradually closed the distance between them, and before he’d even made it halfway, Jotaro met him with all the abandon he couldn’t before. He heard a soft whine, then another, his lips moving feverishly, fingers digging into the dip of skin at Noriaki’s waist where it started shifting into scales. Noriaki looped his arms around Jotaro’s neck, tugging closer, and Jotaro could feel him shiver as his tongue skirted the inside of his mouth, testing the waters before plunging in.

With each little suck, Noriaki warmed, his lips feeling even softer and more responsive against Jotaro’s, the patch of skin touching the exposed part of Jotaro’s chest almost burning. He tasted of mint, his teeth slick and glassy, and even though he’d washed off while Jotaro had, there was still the barest hint of salt from his hair. The strands occasionally brushed against Jotaro’s cheeks, imparting the scent, and in the press and the rhythm, Jotaro lost himself without realizing it. His fingers punched into the pliant skin beneath them as his arousal built, harder and harder and harder; sinking deep as each movement, holding tight as the trapping confines of his wetsuit. The minutes dragged as long as each pull, units and increments cast aside in favour of counting strokes. Time wasn’t measured by the face of a clock, but the growing angle of their kiss, as if the sun beamed upon them and the shadow they cast was the dial they lived by.

Jotaro only regained his presence of mind when he noticed the signs that Noriaki physically couldn’t take it anymore, his breathing noticeably rapid and beginning to stutter. Quickly, Jotaro pulled back, helping Noriaki hold himself upright while he caught his breath.

For a human, it wouldn’t have been much of a concern—a few moments to recover, then back to normal. For mermaids, however, lungs were their backups. A remnant from before their ancestors had entered the water, tens of millions of years ago, and still a helpful one for them specifically. That was why they’d retained them, in some form, when non-mammalian marine life hadn’t. But they weren’t nearly as efficient as they once had been, since evolution had favoured the advanced system of their gills. It was why Noriaki preferred to bury his head in the water as much as he could. Lungs were suited for pulling the more oxygen-rich air in, but once that oxygen was in his system, maintaining respiration was much easier underwater.

Grabbing one of the washcloths, Jotaro carefully placed it over the gills on the left side of Noriaki’s neck, trying not to crush the delicate tissues in the process. “Better?” he asked, observing how Noriaki’s eyes immediately closed in relief, his head tipping back.

Noriaki nodded, still breathing deeply, and Jotaro held the cloth there for a minute before switching it to the other side. This was a temporary solution, not a permanent one, but it was fairly effective. While the gills were damp, they’d resume functioning again, in tandem with his lungs. Too dry and they were useless.

“Sorry,” Noriaki said, still a little breathless, tucking his head under Jotaro’s as he rested.

“It’s okay. I cut off your airway for that long, what else is going to happen?” Jotaro stated bluntly. Their mouth was really the only intake while on land, after all. Their noses were basically reserved for olfaction and resonance during verbal communication—the amount of air that could actually filter through them was almost negligible.

Jotaro felt Noriaki chuckle against him soundlessly, a momentary quake that soon calmed. Then, his fingers raked over Jotaro’s chest, with just a hint of claw as they made their own wordless advance. They slipped past the boundary of the wetsuit, fanning out over the muscle before finally testing a squeeze. This time, it was Jotaro’s breath that hitched, his arousal suddenly feeling a lot more urgent.

“Want me to take it off?” he asked, following Noriaki’s gaze to where it was fixated on his chest.

“Please,” Noriaki replied, in a voice that sounded just as mesmerized.

“Okay. I need some room, though,” Jotaro said. Wetsuits could be tricky to maneuver out of at the best of times, never mind being in such a tight space and trying not to bring the whole thing down on top of them.

With some deliberate movements and a bit of shimmying, he managed to peel off the top half without causing a cave-in. As for the bottom, well…it was almost where it needed to be. He definitely couldn’t take the whole thing off in here, and he wasn’t about to go back out there to do it, but there was enough room to move it down past his hips.

Once Jotaro had finished struggling against the tacky neoprene, Noriaki’s expression was almost indiscernible. He just wouldn’t—or couldn’t—stop staring, and as long as it dragged on, it was enough to make Jotaro legitimately border on self-consciousness. Like so many other things, it was a hypocritical mindset when it came to Noriaki. He was never covered, and Jotaro had been given the chance to examine him top to bottom the very first time they’d met. It was just impossible to tell if it was a positive or negative reaction, judging solely by his face, and maybe in the same vein as Noriaki having yet to fully shake his lingering doubts over certain things, how much Jotaro really wanted to be with him probably being the biggest culprit, Jotaro was still harbouring a few too.

But in contrast, Noriaki’s touch was so clearly curious, so intrigued and eager to explore, as he skimmed a hand up Jotaro’s torso. He tapped a melody over his ribs, traced a bridge up his sternum, then dropped his lips to the manubrium for the crescendo. 

“You’re so beautiful,” he finally brought to voice, spoken into the depths of Jotaro’s skin, so deep it echoed through his chest.

Jotaro’s breath left him in a heavy exhale, something close to disbelief. “You know how many times I’ve looked at you and thought that?” he murmured, clutching around Noriaki’s back like it were his anchor, fingers ghosting the frills of his spine.

Noriaki whimpered, small and soft and too fragile sounding, so much so that Jotaro had to kiss it all away. A few languid strokes against his mouth, his tongue, and then he moved to his jaw, marking his way down the line of it. He couldn’t stray much further and risk getting too close to his gills, but there was a perfect unbroken space right at the corner, where his mouth fit so naturally and his teeth could firmly take hold.

Suddenly, Noriaki was gasping and writhing over Jotaro’s lap, his claws digging into his chest, harder and harder, until Jotaro let go. He did so with a grunt, both at the pain from the scratches and the abrupt stimulation against his groin.

“Good or bad?” Jotaro forced out through his teeth.

“Good,” Noriaki answered, sounding just as pained.

Jotaro agreed with another grunt, sealing his lips over the same spot. He sucked at it first, laving over the dense skin, then bit down again. Finally, he heard that pleasured trill, reverberating through Noriaki’s throat, and felt the scrape of teeth against his own. Noriaki’s abdomen slid against him, hot where Jotaro had made it heat, just through sheer contact, and he tented his legs higher, pressing Noriaki into him with his knees, hands on the small of his back, as he relished in his first proper thrust. It left a smear of fluid on his stomach, distinctly viscous, and too much to be his own.

“Dr. Kujo,” abruptly blared from the intercom above, causing Jotaro to wince in frustration.

“Just ignore it,” he said to Noriaki under his breath, entwining their hands so he could guide Noriaki’s down to where the wetsuit was just barely covering him. Noriaki nodded into Jotaro’s neck, the sign that he was still managing to stay in control despite everything, and the impassioned drone of, “Dr. Kujo, for your own safety, this is not recommended,” faded away, inconsequential to the feeling of Noriaki’s silken palm wrapping around him.

“You’re leaking,” Noriaki marvelled quietly, feeling around the head.

“Yeah. It’s normal,” Jotaro said. Things were getting a little blurry, in all honesty, but that didn’t stop him from gliding his hand down the plane of Noriaki’s abdomen, past the dip of his belly and the start of his tail, to where it felt wet and cushiony, and there was give against the pads of his fingertips.

Noriaki made his approval known with a soft chirp, then reasoned, “So it’s not that dissimilar,” even while his breath was starting to speed again.

“No,” Jotaro assured him, spreading his fingers apart as he kneaded the area, before bringing them back together in preparation, “it’s not.”

Noriaki’s grip around his erection tightened as Jotaro carefully breached his entrance, slipping past the protective fold to a few centimetres in. Apparently, he didn’t need to go far for this. All Noriaki needed was a little direct stimulation there to actually unsheathe himself.

After all that reassurance, Jotaro did his best to mask how surprised he ultimately was: how much it caught him off guard just to feel Noriaki in his hand, incredibly slippery, thick at the bottom but tapered to a fine, flat head. His phallus—the preferred technical term from all the diagrams Jotaro had seen, but one he probably wasn’t going to keep using, at least during sex—was so flexible, it curled around Jotaro’s hand like it were trying to caress him, not the other way around. A rush of fluid had coated his palm as soon as it’d emerged, and it felt nearly impossible to keep a solid grip on it.

Noriaki shuddered, his body rolling, and before Jotaro even had a chance to ask if he was okay, his shoulder was being crushed in the piercing clutch of his jaw. Jotaro let out a hiss of pain, squeezing Noriaki’s member, which only served to strengthen Noriaki’s opposing holds on him. He’d definitely drawn blood with this bite, there was no denying it, but sensitive had to be an understatement for how it must’ve felt to be touched there for the first time. Even the air on it could’ve been enough stimulation alone.

So Jotaro endured it, again, pumping his hips through the vice Noriaki’s hand had formed around him despite the throb in his shoulder, trying to find a similar rhythm to stroke Noriaki with simultaneously. He didn’t know how well it was working—if his goal was fondling, it felt more like fumbling—but it seemed to spur Noriaki back to some kind of awareness. His bite didn’t relax, didn’t give Jotaro the slightest amount of relief, but with his hand moving again, his low rumblings against Jotaro’s scapula, all the sensory inputs began melding together into a totality of sensation. Pain wasn’t so painful anymore; pleasure was just pleasure, and the longer it went on, the more the heat of it all fired through Jotaro’s nerves.

He cupped along the length of Noriaki’s erection, at last feeling like he had a better grasp on it, and circled his thumb over the head. A stickier sort of release quickly coated the digit, and the length seized in his palm. It wrapped around Jotaro’s hand again, constricting and releasing in a sort of pulse, and Jotaro choked back a shout as Noriaki’s teeth sunk even deeper. Jotaro’s cock jerked violently, shooting against his stomach, and through the wave of his climax, the last shaky aftershocks, he could barely stay upright.

He was too dazed to realize right away when his shoulder was finally freed. His eyes were still closed, and the numbing effect that’d taken over meant the lack of pressure didn’t make that much of a difference. It took a hand on his jaw for his eyes to blink open and meet Noriaki’s staring back at him, the epitome of concern and regret.

“Jotaro, I’m so sorry,” Noriaki said through a heavy swallow. “I didn’t mean to…”

Jotaro glanced over at his shoulder. A long, dotted line of red arced over the skin, the wounds sluggishly bleeding. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel how it was mirrored on the back.

“It’s fine,” he said, shrugging it off. Really, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He’d seen ones that were a hell of a lot worse.

But Noriaki wouldn’t stop staring, clearly upset now that he’d returned to a fully rational state, so Jotaro brought his forehead down for a kiss.

“It’s fine,” he reiterated, once Noriaki had popped his head back up. “I’ll go get it taken care of, okay?”

“Okay,” Noriaki agreed quietly, while Jotaro grabbed the unused washcloth to begin the clean up process.

He ended up with half his wetsuit on, leaving the injured shoulder exposed, and quickly dismantled the crude set-up of the tent. Automatically, he reached to help Noriaki back into the bath, but then thought better of it, seeing his face again. It didn’t really feel right just abandoning him on the floor like this, but with the look he was giving him, Jotaro doubted he’d let him help until the wounds had been treated.

“I won’t be long,” Jotaro said, trying to sound convincing. All he received from Noriaki before he left was a solemn nod.

The two techs on duty had obviously been waiting for him, judging by their expressions and the array of first-aid supplies already laid out. Jotaro sat down in an empty chair, watching without comment as one of them took pictures, while the other began cleansing and disinfecting the area.

“This might hurt a little,” she warned before applying the liquid stitches.

“Yeah,” was Jotaro’s basic acknowledgment, and she started brushing the adhesive over the wounds. There were only eight deep enough to warrant it, right in the centre, and they each burned for a few seconds afterward. But it was nothing major, and the other marks left on him didn’t even call for any treatment.

“Pills, or shot?” the woman asked once she’d finished.

“Antibiotics?” Jotaro clarified. She nodded, and he replied, “Shot.”

After signing a few forms, he was released, to find that Noriaki had pulled himself up onto the lip of the bath in the meantime. Jotaro approached slowly, not liking the downcast tilt to his head. Even as Jotaro got closer, he still didn’t move.

“It’s all good,” Jotaro said, sitting down beside him. “Like I said—no big deal.”

At that, something twisted in Noriaki’s expression, but he remained quiet. Jotaro’s heart sank, struck by the sudden realization that, if he could, he’d probably be crying right now.

“Hey,” Jotaro said, placing his hand over the bend in his tail. His fluke was splayed over the ground, the trailing ends like streamers, almost too vibrant on the drab floor, and Jotaro’s feet brushed against it as he edged toward him. “I’m fine. More than fine. I’m not just saying that.”

There was a long moment—of Noriaki still not looking at him, of Jotaro holding his breath. Then, at last, his voice cracking, Noriaki said, “I worry about you. It’s…this isn’t natural for you, and I can’t make it be—”

“Hey,” Jotaro said again, jumping in as Noriaki faltered. “I’m sorry. You’re right that my body wasn’t exactly built for all of this, and that’s something we can’t change. I wish it were possible, because I don’t want you to keep worrying. That’s the last thing I want. But us being together…you were right about that too, with what you said before. Just being with you…it feels as natural as anything. No matter what we’re doing. So with the rest of it, the details—we’ll just keep figuring them out. I think we’ve done pretty well so far.”

When Noriaki lifted his head, finally looking at Jotaro again, there was a lot more emotion in his eyes than Jotaro could figure out on the spot. But at least he had a good idea of what it all meant.

“Besides,” Jotaro said, shrugging his marked-up shoulder, “this just means you really like me, right? So…that’s good. If you hadn’t bothered marking me at all, then I’d be worried that I like you a lot more than you actually like me.”

Noriaki managed a laugh then, small and rueful, as he leaned into Jotaro’s chest. Jotaro wrapped his other arm around his back, settling a hand at his waist, where he could gently stroke the top of one of his pelvic fins.

“Maybe I like you too much,” Noriaki said quietly, nuzzling against Jotaro’s collarbone.

“Oh, I definitely like you too much,” Jotaro said. “That was pretty obvious. Right from the beginning.”

For that, Jotaro received a slow, tender kiss, one he could feel the smile in. Another thing he was definitely liking too much was having a lap full of mermaid. Maybe it was just because of how much more connected they felt, but when he was sitting at home, working or absentmindedly scrolling through new articles in the various journals he was subscribed to, he just missed it. He missed it a lot, and all his thoughts inevitably turned to were how much better it would feel to have Noriaki sitting there with him.

“More home improvements?”

Jotaro resolutely ignored the remark, only bothering to glance at the department head momentarily to show his disdain before returning to what he was already in the middle of. This deluxe tent he’d bought was enough of a pain in the ass to assemble; he really didn’t need the snotty intrusions.

“Once we allowed you to have certain items delivered here, I should’ve known you’d find a way to start abusing the privilege like you have with everything else. So I suppose the onus is on myself as much as it is you,” the man said.

“Is that all you came to bitch about, or is there something else?” Jotaro wondered facetiously.

“We’ve made an incredible amount of concessions for you already, Dr. Kujo. Allowing your daughter in, all the cellphone use, and now this. But it has to stop sometime. This isn’t your personal playground, after all.”

“How about we don’t get into a fucking pissing match over me setting up a damn bed, okay?”

“It’s not just about the bed, Dr. Kujo—”

“Then turn the cameras off,” Jotaro interrupted sharply. “Turn the cameras off while we’re in here, and I wouldn’t have to do all this shit.”

“It’s a matter of safety,” the other man replied simply. “Both yours, and his.”

“I trust him, and I can take care of myself. That’s all bullshit, anyway. It’s not about safety—it’s just about the fucking research.”

“Without our research,” the department head said emphatically, his calm façade beginning to slip, “you wouldn’t have any idea of what to expect. It’s because of our dedication that you even have this sense of security, however misguided.”

“If I only had your research to go off, I wouldn’t be doing this,” Jotaro rebutted easily.

“Fine, then,” the department head conceded. “Continue doing as you wish. But the monitoring is necessary, and for that reason, we’ll continue doing our jobs as well.”

“He’s an endling, so having footage of his reproductive cycle is actually really unnecessary. The only good reason you’d need practical behavioural examples is if there were more of them. But since you’re planning to clone them eventually, I guess that’s how you’re justifying it.” Seeing the other scientist noticeably bristle at his words, Jotaro persisted: “You can redact or withhold as much of that shit as you like. It’s not hard to put together.”

“Well…wouldn’t you agree that it would be foolish for us to not prepare for all eventualities? The technology for it may not be as advanced as we desire currently, but it’s certainly on the horizon. Technically, it would be an astounding achievement.”

“It’s a vanity project. At least with him. For the other species, you have more samples, and there might still be more out there, so they’d have some sort of viable niche to fill. His kind doesn’t. But the other ones don’t really look like what people expect, do they? Noriaki’s a lot more marketable when you want to go public. Get everyone excited, pull in a whole host of new investors—more that looked like him would do that for sure.”

The other man’s expression grew more unimpressed by the minute as Jotaro went on.

“Still not a lot of genetic diversity to work with, though. But you have to have plans for gene editing. So maybe you mix their cells, try to hybridize while selecting the traits that make them look how you want. Those offspring would be sterile, in all likelihood, but who knows how technology’s going to keep evolving. Could be a way to fix that too, and then there’d be a whole boon of them to populate the world once we’ve flooded half of it, or to sell off to aquariums and private research firms. Maybe we could edit human genes with some of theirs, too. Help us adapt to a potential loss of land mass a lot quicker than we otherwise would. The possibilities are endless, right? Especially if it’s past the point the originals have already died, so you don’t have to worry about ethics. There’ll still be critics, sure, but they won’t matter when the public is clamouring for real live mermaids.”

“So you would be against those potential applications?” the other man finally posed. “Even if they were mutually beneficial for our species?”

“I don’t think they would be. They went extinct for a reason. Wasn’t all our fault, but some of it was. Bringing them back without a real plan for where they’re going to fit into an ecosystem again just to serve our needs sounds like exploitation to me.”

Knowing Noriaki as a thoughtful, articulate, conscious being, words worse than that just as immediately sprung to Jotaro’s mind. Cloning animals was one thing, but trying to make a copy of someone who fit all the criteria of a person felt nothing short of reprehensible. Humans were inevitably going to be subjected to the same fate as the technology progressed, but at least it would mostly be in demand for celebrities, who would—hopefully—consent to it. Noriaki couldn’t. He had no legal rights, no personhood, and was in an even more hopeless situation than Jotaro when it came to trying to fight these things. Where was his recourse if he didn’t want replicas of himself being moulded to the human ideal for his species from birth, a hundred or so years from now? Being domesticated, essentially, to not resist or fight, and trust that the people keeping them had their best interests at heart, when all signs indicated they wouldn’t.

“There are certainly plans, Dr. Kujo. No one is going to just…go about this willy-nilly,” the department head scoffed.

“Yeah. That’s what worries me.”

Jotaro finished setting up the tent after another twenty minutes, once he’d been left to relative peace again. At least in terms of his surroundings—not his actual thoughts. Those were twisting, and fraught. They’d been steadily devolving as the days ticked down and he started noticing small changes in Noriaki’s behaviour. Nothing that particularly stood out on its own, but a definite pattern of him being a little spacier, a little more predisposed to slipping out of awareness when they were in close contact. It was really only while Jotaro was around him, but it signalled that impending event. And for Jotaro, realizing that his DNA was technically about to get mixed up in this, when he was subject to some of those same violations Noriaki was thanks to the contracts he’d signed, only tinged his natural anxiety surrounding it with a greater undercurrent of fear.

“Did you beat him?” Jotaro asked, walking back into the other room where Noriaki and Jolyne were absorbed in another game.

“This one isn’t about beating each other,” Jolyne corrected him, her eyes still fixated on the screen. “But he has the better score right now, yeah,” she admitted a moment later.

They stayed for another couple hours, Jotaro answering emails and taking care of a few things that were still outstanding on his to-do list for the end of the year, while Noriaki and Jolyne continued playing. Jolyne lost track of time, like always, and groaned audibly when Jotaro tapped her on the shoulder, but at least she didn’t take as long to pack up now.

Back tonight, Jotaro signed to Noriaki as they were leaving. He’d started learning ASL right after Jolyne had started visiting in person, realizing just how helpful it would be.

Okay, Noriaki signed back, smiling as he spelled out the two letters.

“What are you saying?” Jolyne asked, looking between them suspiciously. “I can learn sign language too, you know. All I have to do is look up videos and practice.”

“You’re right—you could do that,” Jotaro replied simply. However, in all likelihood, she wouldn’t have the follow through. If she did actually make good on her threat, that would throw a wrench into the works, but he’d be proud of her accomplishment.

When they arrived at her mom’s, it was a pretty typical drop-off—at first.

“Have fun?” Mari asked, like she usually did.

“Yeah,” Jolyne answered, about to head into the house, until Mari stopped her.

“You should give your father an extra hug. You’re not going to see him for two weeks,” she suggested.

Jolyne stopped in her tracks, looking distinctly annoyed, then doubled back. Before all this, Jotaro would’ve assumed that look was due to being forced to have more than the bare minimum of interaction with him, and he would’ve been right. Now, it was for the exact opposite reason—a reason he knew since she’d been complaining about it constantly.

“You’ll have fun,” he tried reassuring Jolyne as she hugged him. “You always do.”

“I guess,” she responded, her expression still dour. Then she trotted into the house for good, shutting the door a little too hard.

Mari looked back with a sigh. When her attention turned to Jotaro, the scrutinizing look in her eyes let him know he was still on the hook for something.

“So? What is it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Whatever you two are hiding,” she elaborated, crossing her arms. “I think I’ve been patient enough.”

Jotaro obviously took a little too long to answer, trying to weigh his options of just outright denying it or skirting around the topic, which caused Mari to sigh again, fixing him with an even more burning glare.

“Please don’t play dumb with me, Jotaro. I know you, and I know our daughter. It’s not going to somehow escape me when she starts acting completely different all of a sudden. I’m not blind, or ignorant.”

“How’s she acting that different?” Jotaro asked. Still playing dumb, so kind of a dick move, yeah, but he’d thought Jolyne was doing a pretty good job keeping things on the down low. Hadn’t stuck out to him that much, at least.

“It’s like her entire attitude’s changed,” Mari revealed frustratedly. “You start taking her to visit this friend, and I can understand her being excited at first, but it’s as if that’s all she thinks about now. Any time I’m trying to make plans for her, it’s always, ‘But it can’t be on a day I’m visiting Noriaki!’ no matter what it is. I know she’s getting older and she doesn’t think certain things are ‘cool’ anymore, but I feel like I’ve entered another dimension when she’s on the verge of tears over the thought of going to visit her grandparents and see the springs, instead of staying here to play video games with him like she already does every waking moment she gets.”

“She got that worked up over it?” Jotaro asked cautiously.

Mari nodded, briefly closing her eyes while she seemingly recalled however fraught that conversation had been. “It’s just obvious that there’s something you’re not telling me. Whenever I try to ask her more about him, or what you do there, she completely clams up on me. She’s never done that before. Not to me.”

“It’s because she’s under the non-disclosure too,” Jotaro fessed up. “I had to get an addendum for it just to get her in the building. So she’s just doing what she’s supposed to. So we don’t get in trouble.”

“That scares me, Jotaro,” Mari said emphatically.

“I know. But she wants to tell you, and we’re going to. As soon as we can. I promise. It’s just a delicate situation.”

“But what on earth is it to need all this secrecy? That’s what I just don’t understand. Unless you’re going to tell me that he’s actually some incredibly advanced robot they’ve made, or something just as ridiculous, having an NDA to the degree that she can’t even tell me where he’s from, or anything about his life, or his family, doesn’t make any sense.”

“He’s not a robot, or some crazy AI they’re training. I can tell you that for sure. But…even if I told you the truth now, you still wouldn’t believe me. You won’t believe us until you can go there in person.”

“And how long is that going to be? Because right now, I’m feeling very uncomfortable with this arrangement. I don’t know how much longer I can let it go on unless I get some proper answers.”

“Soon,” Jotaro guaranteed. “Before she’s back in school, okay? Just another two months, tops. Then we can tell you everything, and you’ll understand. But trust me, it’s safe. They really are just playing video games together.”

Mari studied him for another moment, then finally seemed to give in, saying, “Alright. But I’ll be holding you to that.”

“Yeah. I know.”

Back at the Foundation, Jotaro donned the spare wetsuit he’d left there, then headed up to the top of the tank. All he had to do was dip his feet in the water, and Noriaki appeared within seconds.

“Hey. Feel like a swim?” he asked. At Noriaki’s grin, he waded in, and was quickly dragged under. Just for a moment, though, and it wasn’t a moment longer until he saw Noriaki’s smiling face again.

“Just a pinch,” Jotaro said, on the precipice of puncturing the vein. Not like Noriaki really needed the warning—he’d probably had this done hundreds of times in his life—but Jotaro was still relatively new to this, and therefore more liable to not be as precise and actually cause it to hurt.

However, it went about as smoothly as all the other times since he’d learned how to do it. He filled two vials of blood quickly, capping them and passing them off to the waiting technician with the cart, who Noriaki was discouraging from coming any closer by showing off his frills. Once she’d left with that and all the used supplies, Noriaki relaxed, leaning against Jotaro while Jotaro kept pressure on the cotton ball shrouding the insertion site.

Getting a crash course in phlebotomy had been a daunting suggestion at the outset, even if Jotaro wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with needles thanks to some of his research in his actual field. Mentally, there was a big difference between collecting samples from invertebrates and someone he considered his partner, at this point. But it was out of necessity: Noriaki’s tolerance for others invading his personal space had drastically decreased since Jotaro had become his mate, and it was only getting more pronounced as his cycle progressed. And once Jotaro’s initial hesitation was gone, and the medical techs had guided him through the process a few times before he actually attempted it for real, he’d realized he didn’t really want anyone else doing it anyway.

It was that protectiveness rearing up again, almost matching the defensiveness Noriaki exhibited around him with anyone besides Jolyne—maybe even outmatching it, in some aspects. They just had so little control here, that anything Jotaro could take charge of, anything he could assume responsibility for, he felt an innate need to sink his teeth into and not let go of, like the psychological reflection of how Noriaki had already laid claim to him.

After the perfunctory few minutes required for Noriaki’s arm to rest, Jotaro stood with him in his arms, disposing of the cotton ball in the trash on the way into the other room. There, he kneeled down outside the tent, letting Noriaki drop to the mattress first, then shucked his shoes and coat before securing the door flap and joining him.

Jolyne being at her grandparents for two weeks was a decided boon, because Jotaro would’ve had to put a pause on her visiting during this interim anyway. They were maybe a week out from Noriaki’s hormones peaking—testing the levels had been the whole purpose of the blood draw—and he’d grown notably less talkative and more tactile already. He was clingy, wanting to guard Jotaro at all times, and over the last couple days, Jotaro had just given up and moved into the wing temporarily. Wasn’t like there was anything he really needed to be at home for right now, with Jolyne hours away and classes out. He could attend to everything that still needed attending to with his laptop, so with a small bag packed with the essentials, he was pretty much set. They had a great cafeteria on site here, and gym facilities, necessary perks to recruit people who were already in high demand, so with some occasional breaks to exercise and get a bit of sunlight, it wasn’t like he was going to suffer. The only real provision he’d needed to make was asking one of his neighbours to feed his fish.

Jotaro settled back onto the pillows, cracking open the book he’d left there earlier, the security of the tent surrounding them making for a much cozier ambience than he’d felt here so far. Since Noriaki wasn’t as interested in watching things at the moment, and he finally had a break from work, it was a good opportunity to catch up on some reading. He’d finished two novels already, so at this pace, buying a few new ebooks seemed like a good possibility.

Noriaki snuggled up beside Jotaro, nuzzling against his jaw and providing the only real distraction to hamper his reading stride. It wasn’t too bad: the gentle, aimless marking could provide a comfortable background to the story most of the time. It was just when Noriaki bit a little harder, hitting the right nerves, or combination of nerves, that it jolted him from his focus.

“That tickles,” Jotaro complained toothlessly when Noriaki managed to do exactly that a couple chapters later. He felt Noriaki pull back, and shifted his gaze, watching how he blinked, slowly regaining the words he needed.

“Sorry,” Noriaki said quietly, still appearing a little unsure of himself, as if he didn’t know if he’d made the right sounds.

“It’s okay,” Jotaro said, carding a hand through his hair before cupping the back of his head, bringing their temples together. There was no embarrassed reaction to accompany the trill that followed the kiss; more the opposite, really, as Noriaki slotted himself against Jotaro’s neck with renewed fervour.

It was a space Jotaro could’ve occupied longer, in a world where time didn’t just feel like it stopped here, but actually did. It all kept moving, however, day by day. And it had to. It was real life, after all. As much as as it would’ve looked like a dream from the outside. As much as Jotaro still could’ve been convinced otherwise, in the right circumstance.

Of course, the inevitable product of the passing days was the one when it all came to a head. When Jotaro could tell it was starting, and he wasn’t going to get any additional rest, even if he tried to. Noriaki was just so damn insistent, the love bites losing their playfulness, becoming something primal and hungry. Soon, Jotaro found himself pinned again, feeling the vibrations of Noriaki’s possessive rumblings down in his chest, in his core, and knew that whenever he was allowed up, he’d have to bring this to its conclusion.

Only problem was that as the minutes ticked by, he began to wonder if the time he could move again would ever come at all. He didn’t want to shock Noriaki like he had before, but they also had more confidence in each other now. And with Noriaki solidly in this state until the mating was complete, maybe his baser self was expecting a bit of push back. Maybe that’s what he was waiting for.

So Jotaro grappled Noriaki and pushed him over, in one fell swoop, reversing their positions. Almost surprised at himself, Jotaro stared down at Noriaki, straddling his tail, and Noriaki stared back up, with eyes that connected with a recognition Jotaro hadn’t seen yet while he was like this. Then Noriaki took hold of Jotaro’s neck and pulled him back in, fretting just under his chin, where the skin was exposed, and Jotaro scoffed fondly, trying to strip off his turtleneck while still locked in his grasp.

Eventually, Jotaro got away again, with enough separation to finally take off his pants. Since the first time they’d done this, they’d spent a few other nights messing around, but it hadn’t been anything particularly serious compared to that. Pretty drawn out, actually, with Noriaki intent on exploring every minuscule part of him and cataloguing all the differences, which basically just led to Jotaro’s nipples and navel being teased for an excruciatingly long time, before Noriaki even made it to tormenting his dick with all his noncommittal ministrations. On Jotaro’s end, he’d been more concerned with helping Noriaki adjust to the feeling of something inside him, and figuring out how that worked for himself.

With something blocking it, Noriaki’s erection wouldn’t protrude, though Jotaro could still feel the tip of it when he delved deeper, occasionally toying with his fingers. It was an odd sensation at first, but an intensely pleasurable one for Noriaki, so that was encouraging. More often than not in nature, at least one of the participants suffered, and the other mermaids, the ones with the more in-depth research Jotaro had been navigating this by, were more dominant. They’d all…simulated this a different way, so there was nothing to indicate if the opposite was also enjoyable.

Finally undressed, Jotaro repositioned himself, swinging his leg back over Noriaki’s tail and leaning down. Noriaki welcomed him in, with claws that dented his hips and teeth that scraped over the healing scars on his shoulder. Already nursing a pleading erection from the prolonged build-up to this moment, Jotaro slid against Noriaki without any resistance, his tail still wet from Jotaro cleaning and hydrating it earlier,  the trail of fluid slowly leaking down only adding to it. The crown of his cock bumped against Noriaki’s entrance, catching just beneath the fold of skin, and as Noriaki let out a small whine, Jotaro’s breath stopped. No going back now. This was entirely unexplored territory, and he was going to be the first, and only one, to map it.

Carefully, painstakingly, Jotaro nudged inside, one of his thumbs braced next to the decorative fins on the boundary, helping to spread Noriaki a little wider. Noriaki clutched at Jotaro tighter, arms winding their way up his back, and Jotaro dipped his head down, his breaths coming heavy. He was only halfway ensheathed, but already overwhelmed.

His expectation before he’d really started understanding the intricacies of Noriaki’s body in practice, not theory, would’ve been that it would be cold—cold and alien and uncomfortable. Something that wasn’t meant for him, that made him feel like an intruder. But that wasn’t the case at all, and now he almost wished it was, because maybe that would’ve been more bearable. Instead, it felt like all the blood in Noriaki’s body had been redirected to the soft tissues inside, and it was so numbingly hot. Hot, and plush, and blissfully wet, and Jotaro could hardly hold it together like this.

Jotaro hiked one of his knees up higher, searching for a position that felt the most natural, the easiest to move in, and tried a few shallow thrusts. Noriaki keened, his grip drawing Jotaro in almost flush, and Jotaro slid into him further, his cock bumping Noriaki’s own member. He felt it rub against him, the same kind of probing movements like he’d experienced with his hand before. Then, it curled around the head, softly stroking, and Jotaro bottomed out through no conscious will of his own.

“Fuck,” he grit through his teeth, thrusting again in some kind of misguided effort to escape it, because that was way too much stimulation, just on its own. But it held on, stretching with the movement, then continued winding around him once he’d stilled.

Holding himself there, he realized that he’d just have to get on with it, and stop trying to fight. Really, it didn’t matter how long he lasted, anyway. Noriaki didn’t care about that, and it wasn’t going to impress him either way. All that mattered to him was Jotaro being with him, and doing this. As long as Jotaro saw it through to completion, he’d have fulfilled his duty as a mate.

So Jotaro pumped his hips a few times in quick succession, now tethered to Noriaki from the inside. It didn’t restrict his movement for the few centimetres he needed to be able to lift his pelvis to thrust, but if he’d wanted to get away, he would’ve had to actually fight. It made sense now, why they were naturally so aggressive to each other as a species. If one of them were cornered into mating, rather than seeking it out, it could easily result in death.

Jotaro really had no idea how it was supposed to feel when it was two of their own kind together, but for him, it felt pretty fucking good. Still a little weird, but the arousal was quickly drowning any last scraps of self-consciousness. He was a type of animal too, after all—a very evolved one, in terms of intelligence, but one with instincts all the same. And when something felt good, when he was so obviously making someone else feel good, receiving so much feedback from Noriaki in the form of whimpers and moans and his cunt trying to squeeze the damn life out of him, inevitably, he was going to succumb to it.

Another plunge, and Jotaro could feel how close he was. Propped over Noriaki, panting against his neck and into the pillows, his muscles were so incredibly tense, ready to give at any moment. He felt heated to the core, the arousal beyond a steady simmer, now about to boil over, as he rocked against skin and scales, all the slick under him just encouraging him to go deeper. Noriaki’s cock pulsed around him, wound all the way up to the base of his own, close as it could get to enveloping him fully. Suddenly, it began to constrict, no longer just holding Jotaro in place and providing extra stimulation, but tightening, tightening so much that it wrenched his orgasm from him in seconds, and he saw white.

Jotaro groaned as he collapsed against Noriaki, simultaneously coping with his climax and Noriaki’s jaw clamped onto him and the literal vice screwed around his cock. All the sensations at once brought him to his breaking point, but as he released into Noriaki, the squeeze of Noriaki’s member coaxing out every last drop, the still rational part of him reasoned that it was over. His orgasm would fade, Noriaki would relax, and he’d be able to come down from this.

Except only one of those things happened. Jotaro’s orgasm ebbed, but just like Noriaki’s teeth stayed glued to his shoulder, though thankfully not as forcefully as the previous time, his cock remained anchored to Jotaro’s. Not only that, but something was clearly going on, and Jotaro had no idea what. He’d been told that if he could do it this way, it would probably be easier than the alternatives, but he was still the guinea pig. No one knew for sure what would happen, and now, terrifyingly, he was about to find out.

“Shit,” Jotaro moaned, his dick utterly confined within the stricture. It seemed to be trying to milk even more from him, despite him having nothing left to give, and the pulse had morphed into an all-consuming throb.

His face screwed into a grimace, and just when he thought he was about to get seriously hurt and leave with a bruised dick, or no fucking dick at all, there was an abrupt burst of fluid. Noriaki’s breath hitched with a sharp, high-pitched noise, his body rippling, and all the pressure dissolved in an instant, replaced by a soothing cool. Jotaro thanked the fucking stars, every goddamn constellation, as he melted into Noriaki, grateful for his embrace. His dick was the one with its own pulse now, but it was still a vastly better outcome.

He was able to slip out when he rolled onto his side, pulling Noriaki along with him, and surveyed the damage from above. It looked pretty red, but checking in periodically, it returned to a normal colour over the span of a few minutes, probably the best sign that nothing was seriously wrong. He let out a heavy sigh, grabbing another towel to mop up the rest of the fluid that was already seeping into the towels below them.

Afterward, he took hold of Noriaki’s face instead, fixing it in his grip while he studied his eyes, trying to discern if he was back to normal or not. Didn’t seem like it, but he was obviously satisfied, and totally unrepentant.

“You’re not actually getting any babies out of me,” Jotaro told him sternly, “so you don’t need to do all that.”

Noriaki chirped at him, his expression all kinds of pleased. Despite the warning, it didn’t stop the exact same thing from happening the next time, once he’d made it clear they weren’t finished, or the two additional times after that, until Jotaro reached his actual, physical limit, resorting to using the spine trick to compel Noriaki to sleep.

It was a gradual return to normalcy when it finally ended. Noriaki needed a couple days for the excess hormones to work out of his system, during which he was obviously tired, and not very responsive. It was nerve-wracking, enough to keep Jotaro up for hours, regardless of how tired he was himself, because if his levels didn’t go down, that meant this first part had been unsuccessful. Noriaki would deteriorate over the next weeks, eventually slipping into unconsciousness, and he just wouldn’t wake up after that. So when Jotaro felt him nuzzling at him, or watched him dip into the shallow tank after he’d carried him over for a quick swim to wet his gills and rehydrate his scales, clearly still under the influence of the hormonal storm, it was with an inescapable dread.

“Jotaro?”

Jotaro woke with a start, his whole body jolting. Then he saw Noriaki leaning over him, concern briefly flickering across his face at how startled his reaction was, and such sheer relief flooded him that he felt almost like he was floating.

“Hey,” Jotaro said, a smile upturning his lips.

“Are you alright?” Noriaki asked softly.

“Yeah, I’m great. How about you?”

“Yes, I’m…”

Jotaro watched the smile start slowly, like Noriaki was surprised by it. Like he was surprised by what he’d just realized.

“I’m feeling good. Very good,” he finished.

“Good,” Jotaro replied, reeling him in for a kiss.

“See, this was when we went kayaking,” Jolyne said, scrolling through the pictures on her phone, Noriaki nodding along attentively as he studied each one. “We saw some turtles, and a snake, but it was really hot and busy, so there weren’t as many animals. But those are the peacocks,” she added, flicking over to the next picture. “There’re lots of peacocks. They just walk all over. And then we went and saw the mermaid show.”

She showed Noriaki a few more pictures before switching to a tinny video Jotaro could just barely hear. When she cranked the volume up, it was a little clearer, but still pretty hard to make out, since the original audio was already distorted from playing over speakers.

“See, look at how boring their tails are. They’re just fabric, and you can totally tell unless you’re like, five years old. And they can’t even swim around that much. They have to use their arms a lot, unless they’re doing the floaty thing, but you never use them, and you don’t have to keep breathing out of the tubes either. They’re so distracting.”

“I’m surprised they can perform like that,” Noriaki said, watching the video in fascination. “It must be incredibly hard for them to move in that way.”

“Well, they have to be really good swimmers and practice a lot, obviously,” Jolyne briefly relented. It was short-lived, however, as she picked back up with, “But it’s like, why even bother? It’s never going to look like how you swim.”

“But I’m sure for all the people who haven’t been able to see me, it’s quite fun,” Noriaki reminded her gently.

“Why didn’t you just stick to swimming if it was going to annoy you that much?” Jotaro asked. They’d gone there as a family a couple times when she was younger and he and her mom were still together, and had made the trip to visit her parents. He’d sat the mermaid shows out, choosing to wait in line for the food instead—he just didn’t have the patience for that kind of stuff to begin with—but he knew that even back then, she would’ve gone down the water slides all day if they’d let her.

“Mom made me,” she admitted bitterly. “Nana and Pops still think I like all that stuff, so they wanted to see it with me.”

“Technically you do like all that stuff,” Jotaro pointed out. Where they were sitting at this very moment proved it.

“Yeah, when it’s real,” she reiterated.

“Did you get a picture with the mermaid girl in the throne?”

“Yeah,” Jolyne admitted, sighing. When Noriaki asked to see it, she passed her phone over, telling him, “At least her tail was nicer because it wasn’t one of the ones for swimming.” Then she suddenly brightened, suggesting, “We should take another selfie right now!”

“Still has to be on my phone,” Jotaro said, retrieving the device from his pocket. She stuck her tongue out at him—she’d obviously been trying to skirt the rules and hoping he wouldn’t clue in—but acquiesced, taking his phone instead without further complaint.

Noriaki readily joined her in making little peace signs, the whole ‘art’ of taking a Jolyne-approved selfie being the thing he’d probably adapted to the quickest, and then Jotaro got his phone back, with one more photo to move right into his private drive before otherwise erasing its presence.

The next week after Jolyne’s return proved to be a near constant back and forth to the Foundation. She usually spent a week just with him during the summer, and after being taken away against her will, as she’d deemed it in her mind, she’d been insistent that immediately afterward was when she’d stay at his place. It was nice that she was so enthusiastic this year compared to the past, when it’d been apparent that she really wasn’t looking forward to it, and even though it didn’t allow for any quality time between him and Noriaki, they’d had plenty of that already. Having Jolyne there just lifted the atmosphere a lot; there was definitely something to be said for her energy, and how much of a distraction it could provide from the drab surroundings.

They did do a few other things that week, namely a birthday party she couldn’t miss, and attending some of the dive lessons together, which she was doing good at—she was always good at stuff when the motivation behind it was actually important to her. Otherwise, it was hours of her playing games with Noriaki, including some board games they brought in so Jotaro could finally participate, and introducing Noriaki to her favourite shows and videos and the weird pictures (memes, apparently) she and her friends sent each other. She’d really wanted to swim with Noriaki for the first time, too, and Jotaro would’ve let her had it not been for one thing—the thing he almost forgot about, given all the distractions, and the fact that he really didn’t see Noriaki’s torso above the water while she visited. Thankfully, he managed to postpone that by saying that she should wait until her mom could come, so she could watch. By then, this would be resolved, and things would be back to the more normal kind of abnormal Jotaro’s life had turned into in just under a year’s time.

When Jotaro was finally able to visit on his own again, the sight after he’d lifted Noriaki from the bath was a little arresting. He wrangled him into his arms, a towel underneath keeping most of the water off, and the bump in Noriaki’s abdomen, extending just to the transition of his tail, was plainly visible. It was still relatively small, but compared to how flat Noriaki’s stomach normally was, it stuck out a lot.

“Do you know what this is called?” Jotaro asked, choosing to ignore the development momentarily. He hefted Noriaki’s tail, draped over his other arm, up a little higher to make it apparent what he was referring to.

Noriaki shook his head, obviously intrigued as he clung to Jotaro’s neck.

“Bridal carry,” Jotaro elaborated. “Or a cradle carry. If you don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“Oh. Like in the movies,” Noriaki replied. “I didn’t know there was a special name for it.” Jotaro nodded, and Noriaki was quiet for a moment, until he asked, “Is that what you’d call it?”

“Well, I just took you through a threshold there, didn’t I?” Jotaro said, chucking his head toward the door behind him.

It was Noriaki’s turn to nod, fighting a creeping smile, while Jotaro settled him onto the mattress, even more carefully than he normally would’ve.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Jotaro asked a few minutes later, lying on his side next to Noriaki. He’d been slowly running his hand over the bump, still trying to wrap his mind around it. It was just…so incredibly strange to see it appear so suddenly, and even stranger to know what it looked like, to be transported back to how he’d felt before Jolyne was born, while also reminding himself that nothing was going to come of it.

It was just another one of those things he’d thought he’d gotten a handle on while reading words on a page, but was still bewildering to experience for himself. Ten days was all it had taken for Noriaki’s stomach to look like this, but there was good reason for that. Obviously, there were already significant differences in reproduction between their species, but it was also because he just wasn’t…growing anything. All that was inside there was an empty clutch, the ova swelling with fluid before they prepared to release in another two to three weeks.

“No,” Noriaki said, looking down at it, slightly propped on his elbows. “It’s certainly…different, but it’s not uncomfortable. At least, not yet.”

“Mmm,” Jotaro responded, his hand still occupied with trying to catalogue the feeling.

He knew some discomfort was inevitable, but hopefully it would be as minimal as possible. There were serious complications that could arise, too—if one of the eggs became stuck on its way out, that was especially dangerous—but at least there were medical interventions that could deal with it. This was the product of making it past the most crucial part, the part that science on its own couldn’t fix, so even being here now, he was grateful for it, and he could tell Noriaki was too. It was like a cloud he hadn’t even realized was there had lifted, and those overcast expressions, the ones that hinted at something darker within, hadn’t made a reappearance since.

“Should I bring the TV in here?” Jotaro suggested after another minute.

“That would be nice,” Noriaki agreed.

So they watched a movie together, like so many times before. Noriaki fell asleep on him first, Jotaro not long after, cradling his stomach from muscle memory, just because he’d done it before and it felt like the right thing to do again. And with a blink, before he could stop it, another day came to an end, and another one began.

Then another, and another. Jolyne still wormed her way into visiting every opportunity she had, while in the private moments, Jotaro watched Noriaki’s stomach slowly grow, bit by bit. It got harder for him to maneuver his way through the tunnel, as putting pressure on his abdomen became too uncomfortable, forcing him to switch to his back. Quickly, Jotaro started lifting him out himself, or just circumventing the process entirely by meeting him at the top of the tank and carrying him down from there. It was still easy enough to hide, but inevitably, the day came when Jotaro had to enforce a break for Jolyne. He didn’t know the exact day everything would drop, but going off the estimates from the others, it was nearly here, and the effects on Noriaki had become more apparent. He was a little tired, a little winded, and trying to conform his body to more human postures that required a lot of bending, like leaning over the bath fully upright when he was playing video games with Jolyne, just aggravated the pressure he was already feeling.

Luckily, Jolyne was mostly okay with it, once Jotaro had emphasized that Noriaki actually wasn’t feeling well, and it wasn’t just a trick like before. They played a game for a couple hours online one day, but that was all Noriaki was really up for. He mainly wanted to nap, and relax, spending most of the day curled in a circle, whether in the small recovery tank or the tent, a protective posture Jotaro hadn’t seen from him before, while they got through the nights with warm compresses under his stomach, as Jotaro tried massaging the soreness away.

Then the real pain started, and Jotaro called in the sub he’d had on standby for his one summer course.

Aside from the few minutes it took for the blood draws, Jotaro hadn’t worn gloves with Noriaki since his initial visits, so it was a little odd to find out how much it took him back, feeling his tail through that sterile barrier again. Back to the time when, if he’d been asked to do something like this, it would’ve been in the most clinical sense. He would’ve had no attachment, no real stake in the game other than finishing the task and helping a marine creature in need the way a biologist would. He would’ve been quietly amazed by the process, by yet another example of the countless ways nature worked, as he always was, but that would’ve been the extent of the emotion involved.

Now, in the present, it was the polar opposite. There was stress, and concern, and everything he was doing was in an attempt to make it better. Instead of marvelling at nature, he was kind of pissed off at it, actually, for putting Noriaki through this. Not just now, but every year for years to come, possibly an entire decade. Evolution had bestowed him with so many incredible functions, many of which surpassed the abilities of any other species on record, but one thing evolution tended to consider last was preventing pain.

“Still hurts?” Jotaro asked, watching Noriaki’s expression contort through another push. Pretty obvious, but he was beginning to run out of ideas here. Noriaki nodded weakly, already worn out from hours of cramping, so Jotaro said, “Okay. Just take a break. Give it a little longer,” switching to rubbing his stomach, instead of the targeted presses.

He’d been trying to help manipulate the first egg into position, going by what he could feel under the skin, which was exactly what he was supposed to be doing, according to the literature. Nothing had mentioned it taking this long with the other types, however—for them, apparently it hadn’t taken more than two to three hours the first time, and even quicker after that. But maybe that was another reason why their populations had seemingly been slightly more successful at maintaining numbers, while Noriaki’s was almost undoubtedly extinct.

“We could try another dose, Dr. Kujo,” echoed over the intercom, in answer to Jotaro’s unspoken thoughts.

“Another hour,” Jotaro said, staring back at the technician’s station, even though he couldn’t see them through the wall. “Tell me when it’s been an hour, then we’ll try it.”

Not that he was against the idea of pain relief. The first shot of painkillers he’d administered a couple hours ago had definitely made this more tolerable for Noriaki, but the possibility of numbing him too much worried him. Because he was also trying to push the eggs out externally, without any feedback of pain on his side, Noriaki was the last line of defence. If something were blocked and he could no longer feel it, there wouldn’t be any warning for Jotaro to stop what he was doing, and that might lead to something really bad. Surgery bad, though he was already beginning to wonder if that was on the table no matter what.

Sighing, Jotaro eased them out of the water again and onto the chair sitting by the recovery tank, giving his own body a chance to warm up. Of course the wetsuit he was wearing helped, and the water wasn’t as cold as in the main tank, but it still didn’t feel that warm when he’d been in and out of it for hours. The fatigue was beginning to really hit him now too. If human births took this much effort from the other party, there’d probably be a lot less men out there eager to have kids.

The fresh bucket of hot water a tech had replaced the old one with was now at a comfortable temperature, so Jotaro dunked two towels in it: one for Noriaki’s stomach, and one for his legs. Even with Noriaki clinging onto him, reliant on him for support, Jotaro was tired enough that when he tipped his head back and closed his eyes, he started to drift, catching himself moments later and snapping upright again. He kept his eyes open after that, as he wracked his brain for a solution he hadn’t tried yet. Since the plan provided to him by the so-called ‘experts’ in mermaid biology obviously wasn’t working, he ran through everything he remembered from when Mari had been pregnant with Jolyne. He knew most of it wouldn’t be applicable, but there was at least some overlap. It was recalling all the home remedies for inducing labour that finally gave him a possible course of action.

“Do you mind?” Jotaro asked, carefully nudging his fingers inside Noriaki again. He’d already tried some manual dilation earlier, but maybe heavier stimulation would be more beneficial. At the very least, the endorphins would provide a bit of natural pain relief.

“N-no,” Noriaki stuttered. He managed to get out a, “What are you do—” before a gasp in response to the stroke of Jotaro’s fingers cut off the end.

“Making it feel better,” Jotaro said, starting a slow pace of thrusting. “Hopefully.”

Noriaki just clutched around his shoulders, actually starting to move against him in response, which seemed like a good sign. Better than the passive listlessness, definitely, and giving Jotaro the first spark of something other than frustration or fear he’d felt since this started. His one regret was putting Noriaki on display like this, but with his stomach facing Jotaro and his tail blocking his hand, at least the cameras couldn’t see too much, compared to what they’d already filmed throughout the day.

Jotaro tucked his head against Noriaki’s jaw and bit, hard enough to make him gasp again. That always seemed to get him, just as much as Jotaro’s fingers patiently fucking him, and spurred on by the squeeze around his hand, Jotaro moved faster, bumping Noriaki’s rounded stomach against his as he pulled him in flush. This was maybe the strangest hard-on he’d contended with so far, but with Noriaki writhing over his lap and his fingers buried inside him, undeniably wet, it didn’t feel wrong.

Then something collided with Jotaro’s fingers, something soft and much rounder than the tip of the phallus, which was supposed to stay totally retracted during all this, to keep the passage clear. Jotaro quickly withdrew, maybe too quickly, as Noriaki juddered, and the egg popped into Jotaro’s hand before he even had time to think, accompanied by a low moan.

He stared at it for the briefest moment, stunned that it was even there, transparent and gooey and filling maybe half his palm at most. Then, he dropped it into the water like he’d been shocked, because one thing that’d been hammered into his head was how they weren’t supposed to leave the water. Structurally, they were too delicate to hold up in the air. They’d begin deflating almost immediately, collapsing under the pronounced gravity, and would dry out in a matter of minutes. And as much as Jotaro didn’t want the Foundation to have any viable samples from Noriaki on record for their future de-extinction project, he was trying to stay in everyone’s good graces at the moment, given that he was about to ask for more concessions after this.

Thankfully, it was just one of them, and even if that fleeting exposure to air had proved too much for it, about a dozen more were still to come. Really, that he’d managed to get it out at all was deserving of their gratitude, Jotaro thought as he rubbed Noriaki’s back.

“Okay?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes,” Noriaki said, nodding into his shoulder.

“Should be easier now?”

“I—I think.”

Jotaro stood up, lowering Noriaki into the water first before he joined him, settling him between his knees. Noriaki still tensed when he prodded at his stomach, finding the next one that seemed to be in the right position, but as he gingerly encouraged it to move, urging it downward, the whole process was suddenly textbook. After a concentrated push, Jotaro saw the disturbance in the water as it emerged, settling somewhere on the bottom among the substrate. That was all he really had to go off: ripples, because they were otherwise invisible. But with that and Noriaki’s small whimper of confirmation each time, the number slowly ticked down. There were thirteen in total, according to what they’d seen on an ultrasound a few days ago, trying to ensure none were missed.

The last couple still weren’t anywhere near the ordeal of the first one, but they were definitely finicky. It seemed like they were both on the bigger side, and Noriaki’s breathing started to labour again as Jotaro pushed them through. But when the last one finally burst forth, it was with another gasp from Noriaki—one of relief, this time. He collapsed against Jotaro, utterly boneless, and Jotaro held him there for minutes. He almost started falling asleep again, all the adrenaline now drained from his body too, when he was surprised by Noriaki’s sudden movement.

Noriaki dove into the water, as much as he could in this tiny pool, and the water turned murky as a load of silt was kicked up. Jotaro watched his shadow while he scrabbled around the bottom, until he emerged when he was seemingly satisfied.

“No good?” Jotaro asked. In response, Noriaki tilted his head at him, the haze in his eyes gradually fading.

“Oh, yes,” he said, keying into awareness again. “You can take them now.”

Jotaro nodded, getting out and grabbing the sample container he’d been provided with. Noriaki had piled all the rejected eggs against the walls, the distortion in the water from them being clustered together slightly more visible, so Jotaro was able to scoop them into the container without too much hassle. Then, he injected a small amount of dye into the water, so he could count them properly. After verifying they were all there, he delivered it to the technicians, who seemed decidedly eager for the opportunity to be the first to analyze the most unique samples the program had collected to date.

As for Jotaro, he was eager to shower, and fucking sleep. So that was what he did, soaking the chill out of his bones and changing into some normal clothes, then gathering Noriaki up into a pile of towels, because he could only handle getting slightly damp again after all that. And did it ever feel fucking good to hit the mattress and pull that stupidly soft blanket over them, the canopy of the tent blocking out most of the light above.

It seemed like someone else was actually watching out for them today, too, because despite it still being the afternoon, they were plunged into complete darkness a minute later when the overheads switched off.

“You’re gonna go crazy,” Jolyne said for the hundredth time in under an hour, leaning forward into the centre console so she could punctuate the point to her mom. “Seriously.”

“Back,” Jotaro said, warding her off with his elbow.

“I’m sure I will,” Mari said, obviously still not believing the extent of what Jolyne was trying to convey in the limited words she had, forced to talk around the subject.

They arrived at the Foundation right when Jotaro was about to put a ban on the words “crazy” and “insane”. Mari had to sign the NDA in front of the lawyers before anything else, which Jotaro knew would take a solid thirty to forty minutes, so to prevent Jolyne from jumping off the fucking walls while they waited, they went to see Noriaki first, meeting him at the top of the tank.

Sure you’re okay? he signed to Noriaki, his eyebrows raised to indicate the question. Out of all the possible introductions, this one definitely worried Jotaro the most. Jolyne’s relation to him as his daughter had worked to his benefit, but this might be the opposite effect. Rather than readily accepting Jolyne as another part of the family unit, Noriaki could instinctively interpret Mari as a threat, despite rationally knowing that she wasn’t competition.

“Hey, I saw that!” Jolyne exclaimed. “You said ‘you’ and ‘okay’!”

“Why’d you have to go and be so smart,” Jotaro commented dryly, to which Jolyne returned a rude gesture he hadn’t expected to see from her, given its uncommonness over here. “Did your Uncle Pol teach you that?” he asked once he’d collected himself from the surprise.

“Yeah, on FaceTime. Except he didn’t teach me it—I just saw him do it and asked what it was and he told me I shouldn’t do it. So don’t get mad at him, okay,” she explained quickly.

“Well, don’t get cocky and go doing that at school just because you think no one else knows. Some of the teachers might,” he warned her. Then he turned back to Noriaki, with a, “Sorry,” for the interruption.

“It’s alright. I’m fine,” Noriaki explained calmly, a serene smile on his face. All Jotaro could do was trust him, so he nodded, and watched as Jolyne asked, very politely for him, if he could do a few jumps while they waited.

When Jotaro met back up with Mari outside the wing to let her in, she was visibly confused at his sudden change of attire.

“What’s that for?” she asked, eyeing his wetsuit dubiously.

“You’ll see,” he said, ushering her through the doors, to where Jolyne was poised in front of the tank.

“Ta-da!” she proudly announced, using her hands to frame Noriaki as he swam by. “Isn’t this a million times better than those fake mermaids?”

Mari stopped dead in her tracks, looking back to Jotaro with evident dismay at what she’d just been confronted by. “You can’t be serious,” she said.

Fortunately, Jotaro didn’t have to bother thinking up a response before Jolyne was pulling her over, desperate to finally tell her everything.

“You have to make sure you keep it on me the whole time,” Jolyne insisted, now clad in the blue and green swimsuit she’d been wearing under her clothes in preparation. “The whole time.”

“I know how to use a camera,” her mother rebutted, holding the phone up in front of her. “I’m not as out of touch as you think I am.”

“Okay!” Jolyne said excitedly, fixing her snorkel and goggles over her nose. Then she grabbed one of the kick boards Jotaro was storing up there permanently, bounding into the water with Noriaki quickly turning to follow after her.

“Isn’t it a little deep?” Mari asked under her breath, glancing at Jotaro out of the corner of her eye.

“If she starts struggling at all, he’ll be on her in a second,” Jotaro said, watching as Jolyne stuck her head into the water so she could see whatever tricks Noriaki was doing for her below. “There’s this thing called a lateral line—basically it’s a bunch of mechanoreceptors he has that allow him to sense all the movements in the water. It’s ridiculously sensitive, so don’t worry. He won’t let anything happen to her.”

“Alright,” Mari replied, returning her attention to filming.

Jolyne was still focused on scoping out everything she could see underwater, but eventually, Noriaki swam up beside her, and she clung onto his back for a ride, shrieking a little the first time he dipped her underwater along with him and she wasn’t expecting it. Jotaro let her have the space to just experience it all herself for a while, enjoying her unrestrained glee from a distance until he finally swam out and joined them. When he did, Noriaki quickly welcomed him, gliding over his back and resting there while Jolyne caught her breath from being dunked repeatedly. It wasn’t long before she begged for another trip underwater, however, one that Jotaro was able to watch this time, submerging himself with his snorkel reaching just above the surface.

They were probably in there for another hour until Jolyne tired out enough to relent to the calls of her mother to return. She slid onto the ramp with a delighted cross between a scream and a laugh, propelled to dry land by a push from Noriaki.

“Did you get everything?” she asked her mom, scrambling to her feet.

“Most of it,” Mari informed her, holding a towel open for Jolyne to wrap herself in. “You were in there so long, my arms got sore, so I had to take some breaks.”

“Booo,” Jolyne lamented, making her mom roll her eyes.

“Don’t you have something to say?” Mari prompted her.

“Yeah!” Jolyne exclaimed, turning to Noriaki. “Thank you so, so much,” she gushed. “That was actually the best thing ever.”

“You’re welcome,” Noriaki said. He’d propped himself up on the top of the ramp, his tail still mostly in the water, while Jotaro dried off beside him. “I’m glad you had fun.”

“When I can dive all the way down, it’s gonna be crazy,” Jolyne said, turning back to her mom, who humoured her with a hum in response. Then she looked up at Jotaro, a spark in her eyes. “Can you show Mom the thing?” she asked hopefully.

“Well, we’re still practicing it,” Jotaro said. “It might not work.”

“But can you just try it, please?” she pleaded.

Looking at her expression, Jotaro caved. “Alright,” he said. “But stand back, just in case.”

“What’s happening?” Mari asked, surprised when Jolyne started pushing her toward the stairs.

“Just watch,” Jolyne shushed her.

“You ready?” Jotaro asked Noriaki, lining himself up at the end of the ramp, where there was a wall with a railing he could grab onto if this failed. So far, they had about a fifty-fifty success rate, but it was starting to improve.

Noriaki nodded, flipping back into the water, and Jotaro ensured his legs were braced in position, staggered apart, as he tracked Noriaki’s shadow into the far reaches of the tank, until it briefly disappeared from sight. When it returned, racing toward him at an incredible pace, Jotaro steeled himself, his arms at the ready. Following the incline of the ramp, Noriaki burst out of the water with a magnificent splash, leaping into the air, and just before he could go any higher, Jotaro caught him.

His tensed abdominals absorbed the force of it, preventing his legs from shifting more than a few centimetres from the impact as he suddenly bore all of Noriaki’s weight, arms clutching tightly around his back. Noriaki’s hands landed on his shoulders, and Jotaro looked up at him, finding him sporting a grin that mirrored his own. Jotaro held his gaze a moment longer, and as he did, Noriaki’s expression softened, turning into something undeniably tender.

Then Jolyne whistled through her fingers, her version of applause, reminding Jotaro that they weren’t alone right now. He let Noriaki drop into his arms, his tail curling around his back for support like it usually did when he carried him like this.

“Wasn’t that so frickin’ awesome?” Jolyne said enthusiastically, looking back at her mom for her approval.

“It was mildly terrifying, actually,” Mari said, and Jolyne’s face immediately dropped.

“Come on, it’s fun,” she tried persuading her.

“Well, I’m sorry that I don’t think that potentially having to rush your father to the hospital is very fun.”

“The worst that’s happened were a couple of bruises when I fell the one time,” Jotaro said in an effort to be reassuring. “Besides, this place is full of doctors. Good ones.”

Mari gave him a beleaguered look, so Jotaro just shrugged it off and left the protestations to Jolyne as they went downstairs, Noriaki and him bringing up the rear of the procession. He deposited Noriaki in the bath while they waited for Jolyne to shower and change in the stall in the other room, Mari taking the opportunity to ask Noriaki some of the questions she hadn’t been able to get in before with Jolyne’s interference. Then, it was Jotaro’s turn to rinse off, and once he was clean and in dry clothes, he returned to Jolyne screaming encouragement at Noriaki while he fought some robot-looking monster in this new game they’d been playing.

It was about fifteen minutes into their gaming session that Mari tapped Jotaro’s shoulder, indicating that they should go outside with a pointed look toward the door.

“Yeah,” Jotaro agreed, fine with taking advantage of the distraction for whatever conversation she wanted to have. “Don’t get too crazy,” he told Jolyne before they left.

It was really hard to tell what Mari was thinking once they were alone, her face shaded by the dim lighting and the contrasting glow of the tank. Her reaction to all this so far had definitely been interesting. She hadn’t tried to refute the revelation like Jolyne had, already aware that Jotaro would never pull a stunt like this, but she’d been a little freaked out, or nervous, at least. She’d masked it pretty well, accepting Noriaki’s offer of a handshake and patiently listening while Jolyne detailed all the facts about him that were important to her, but Jotaro could tell she was still unsettled. A pretty normal reaction, really, given how much this was to process at once.

“Are you mad?” Jotaro finally asked, breaking the silence.

“About what?” Mari responded, looking up with some confusion, like he’d interrupted her while she was still lost in thought.

“For hiding all this,” he clarified. “That we didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Well, you weren’t allowed to,” she reasoned, “so no, I’m not mad. Really…I think this is the first time you’ve hidden something that I can understand why. And…just look at her,” she said, gesturing toward the other room where Jolyne was. “You made her dreams come true. How could I ever be mad about that?”

Jotaro acknowledged her with a light, “Mmm,” trying to figure out what the issue was then. There was clearly something still eating at her, but he’d never been good at decoding the exact cause.

“You really just had to go and make sure no one could ever impress her again,” Mari quipped, to which Jotaro laughed. “My poor parents never stood a chance.”

“I know,” Jotaro said, biting back a smile. “I wish I could’ve warned them.”

“So how did you actually become involved in this?”

“I was recruited, basically.”

“And when did the…whatever’s going on between you two start? I guess I don’t really know what to call it. Is it just an emotional connection, or…something else?”

Jotaro just stared at her, trying to figure out if the insinuation he was getting from that was what she meant—but it had to be what she meant, what else could she be talking about—and at a total loss for what to say. What to admit, when he hadn’t been planning to discuss that at all. Not for years, at least.

“I’m not wrong, am I?” Mari persisted, peering at him with a weird sort of sympathy. “With the way you look at each other, it seems fairly obvious—unless I’ve completely lost it, which part of me really wants to believe for even considering this. But it’s you, and the amount of times I’ve heard ‘that man is really just in love with his work’…if I could’ve seen this back then, I would’ve laughed at how right they were.”

“It’s not work,” Jotaro said after a long moment and a deep breath. “I’m not getting paid to be here, or volunteering. It’s…”

He paused to collect himself before meeting her eyes again. He’d known trying to explain this would be uncomfortable, especially when he didn’t like discussing relationships under normal circumstances. But at least he was getting it out of the way sooner than later. Putting it off might’ve made it even harder.

“They need a mate,” he said, finding his voice again. “They can’t make it through their adulthood without one, and they’re functionally extinct, far as we know, so we’re the best option they have. But…I made the choice to do it. Because I like him. So, you can call it a relationship. It’s not work. That’s what it is.”

“How long?” Mari asked again softly.

“Since March. Remember when I was acting really weird around my birthday?” She nodded, and Jotaro continued, “Yeah, that was right before. I was definitely losing it then. I couldn’t figure out if I could make this work or not, and I was driving myself crazy going back and forth, even though I knew what I wanted. It was just a lot to get my head around.”

“I’m sure. But you’re happy?”

“Yeah. With us, at least. I’m already sick of being here. Needing someone else’s authorization to visit when he’s essentially my partner doesn’t feel right, and most of the people here don’t really have his best interests in mind. It’s all about the research before anything else,” Jotaro said, sighing heavily. “Just…it’s conflicting to have some of my best memories in a place I kind of hate.”

“Honestly, that’s what I’m worried about,” Mari admitted. “This doesn’t seem healthy for you. Not in the long-term.”

“Yeah, I know. But he doesn’t have anywhere else to go right now, and he still needs access to the medical services they have here. I’m working on figuring something else out, though.”

“Okay. Just…be careful, alright? Don’t overextend yourself like you always want to. I know Jolyne’s over the moon about this, but she still needs a father who’s present for all the normal parts of her life too. If you wear yourself down to nothing from the stress of taking on more than one person can humanly handle, then you won’t be any good to anyone.”

“Yeah. Thanks,” Jotaro said, nodding.

She nodded back, her arms crossed tightly as they walked into the other room. Probably not the most convinced Jotaro was going to take her words to heart, like he’d failed to in the past, but it was an important reminder, and he really was going to try to this time.

“Mom, come look at the fish people in this game!” Jolyne said happily upon their entrance. “Don’t they kind of look like him?”

Dutifully, Mari walked over, showing a lot more interest in looking at all the tiny characters on the screen than Jotaro could muster, and they stayed until the afternoon began dwindling.

“It was very nice to meet you,” Noriaki told Mari while they were packing up. He was definitely warier around her than Jolyne, but it wasn’t anything serious. It wasn’t like she’d be there as often as Jolyne anyway.

“You too,” Mari said. “Thanks for entertaining her so much.” She pulled Jolyne into a hug from behind, Jolyne trying to playfully force her way out of her arms as she said, “It used to be a challenge keeping her as constantly busy as she wants to be during the summer. This year, I hardly had to do anything.”

“That’s ‘cuz I just plan things with my friends on my own now,” Jolyne refuted.

“Yes, but now you’re not so bored when you’re not seeing them.”

“Yeah, true,” Jolyne agreed. “Anyway, bye, Nori!” she said with a wave. “Thanks again for letting me swim with you. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“Goodbye,” Noriaki said, waving as they walked through the door. At Jotaro’s sign of, Back later, he smiled, agreeing with his standard, Okay.

“Think all Jolyne’s going to be doing now is talking her mom’s ear off about you,” Jotaro informed Noriaki that night. He’d just gotten the new projector set up, and could finally rejoin him on the bed, remote in hand. “At least until school starts again and she has some other stuff to distract her.”

“That’s in three more weeks, correct?” Noriaki asked, snapping another carrot stick in half.

“No, two for her. The little kids start about a week earlier than most of the universities. It’s probably going to be extra hard getting her to transition this year. She doesn’t want to go back to only visiting once a week or so.”

“Oh, well… I hope it’s not too difficult, but that’s very flattering,” Noriaki said carefully. “I’m glad she enjoys it that much.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Jotaro joked. “She’s obsessed. But any kid would be, really.”

“Are kids not as easily scared nowadays?”

It took a moment for Jotaro to discern the meaning of that. “You mean compared to back then?” he asked, thinking about what Noriaki had told him of his childhood.

There were videos of that too—when the team member’s kids had come to see him—but Jotaro had never watched them. Couldn’t bring himself to, and it didn’t feel right.

Noriaki nodded, and Jotaro said, “No. Kids are exposed to way more stuff outside their bubble now, with the internet and everything. But…the main difference probably was that those kids were told to be scared of you, or picked up on it from their parents. They were just primed to not think of you as a person like they were, so they didn’t feel like they had to treat you as one. Some kids still act like that now, because they learn from example really easily. But it’s definitely better—or getting better. Kids in general love mermaids, anyway. Ninety-nine percent of them wouldn’t act like that if they weren’t warned in advance that they should be afraid. It would be the opposite. You’d be fending them off if they saw you—probably wishing they were scared of you just so you could get a break.”

“Did you tell Jolyne not to be scared of me before she came here?” Noriaki asked quietly.

“No,” Jotaro replied, shaking his head. “Didn’t have to. She’s just a good kid.”

Noriaki smiled, and they turned on the movie after that. It was another one of the old, grainy black and white ones from Noriaki’s collection, which Jotaro had already had a hell of a time converting from VHS so they were safely digitized for the future, just in case anything happened to the tapes, and he could actually play them on the projector he’d bought for the very purpose.

“How many jidaigeki was this guy in, anyway?” Jotaro asked as the movie’s title filled the screen, accompanied by a blaring cacophony of drums.

“Quite a lot,” Noriaki replied, already glued to the film. “It was one of his specialities. But this one’s unique, because it’s also a horror.”

“Oh. Good,” Jotaro said dryly. He was learning more and more that it wasn’t exactly his favourite genre, but at least the ones Noriaki liked usually had stuff going on besides hacking and slashing.

As for this one, it seemed to have a kind of cheesy B-movie vibe, which set the atmosphere pretty well, being camped out in a tent and watching it via a huge projection on the wall. Like their own version of a drive-in. Technically they’d had plenty of dates, or date equivalents, so far, but this night felt staggeringly grounded, standing in direct contrast to the surreal dreaminess that so often overcame Jotaro while he was here. This really felt like it could be taking place anywhere in the world at large. In any home, any living room, or camp-out in the yard—as long as it was their own.

Jotaro’s attention shifted from the movie to Noriaki, and, in the midst of brushing his bangs away from his face, it almost slipped out: “You’re coming home with me.”

Almost, but not quite, as Jotaro caught himself, fortunate Noriaki was totally fixated on the film, so he didn’t have to explain himself. It was still too far away, too distant on the horizon, and he couldn’t get Noriaki’s hopes up without something concrete in place. He’d done that once already, and had probably used up all his luck in how well it’d eventually worked out. This time, he needed a solid, well-thought, airtight plan before any promises were made, because there were just too many variables threatening to bring it to a screeching halt.

For now, this was his home. Despite everything it was, and wasn’t; regardless of whether they’d had a say in it or not, they’d still made this their home. Just by being together.

Above him, Jotaro could see everything. The entire span of the water, light pouring through the surface, casting artificially golden rays. Bright turquoise flooded his vision, only broken by flashes of silver, and directly over him, a good ten or so metres higher, there was a swirling vortex of red and green and blue as Noriaki towed Jolyne along.

Sitting on the—in this case, simulated—sea floor was such a novelty for him in diving. It wasn’t something he’d risk out in the ocean, and normally, his dives had a goal. Whether it was research or sightseeing, he was down there for a specific reason, while simultaneously having to keep a watchful eye on his air supply and dive partners. The one priority above all else was that they made it back to the surface.

Today, there was no goal whatsoever. Jotaro’s only purpose was watching out for Jolyne, but in this environment, Noriaki did that better than he ever could. So, using all his ballast, he’d sunk down to the bottom, to make his own seat in the coolest theatre he’d ever been in. And now that he was down here, surrounded by this massive auditorium of life, a strange feeling of longing panging in his chest at the vastness even this comparatively, absolutely minuscule, cross-section of ocean could provide, he was starting to wonder if he’d ever come back up again.

Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe—maybe he’d just stay down here forever.

In his office, hours later, Jotaro was in the middle of flicking through the photos he’d taken with Jolyne and Noriaki right after they’d gotten out of the water, still wet and clad in swimsuits, when a call from his realtor suddenly commandeered the screen.

“So I finally managed to get in touch with the owners of that plot—the twelve acres with the nice little slope and private ski lake?” she said once he picked up.

“Oh yeah?” Jotaro replied, leaning back in his chair.

“They just got back from vacation, but they said they’d be available tomorrow afternoon. Sounds like they’re getting tired of trying to sell privately, and they’re ready to just be done with it. Good time to make a move,” she suggested, not-so subtly.

“Yeah, I can do tomorrow,” Jotaro said, flicking through his desk calendar. “What time?”

“Between two and three,” she answered quickly.

“Okay. I’ll meet you down there, then.”

“Great! I’ve got a good feeling about this—I think it’s the one.”

“Yeah. Me too.”