Chapter Text
You sat at the edge of the tank and kicked your bare feet in the water. Little splashes broke the surface as you lazily swung your head to the rhythm of your own humming. While you sat on the metal grating comfortably barely a foot above the water, the tank below was nearly thirty feet deep.
The scratches of your graphite against the sketch paper barely echoed within the open space of the observation room. But with your focus, the noise was deafening. You held your sketchbook tightly, making sure not to drop it or the pencil you had in your other hand into the water by accident. It was shameful to admit that you had lost a few pencils and pens to the water before. However, you always managed to get them back thanks to your little friends from down below.
Calling them little is a bit ironic. Your friends were now eight- almost nine- feet long from head to tail. They used to be small. About a decade ago, they were the same length as you from your head to your toes. But they were young at that time. You grew up along with them, learning about them as they learned about you.
Growing up, you resided in an apartment just above the Fazbear Aquatic Conservatory with your parents. It was the most famous one on the east coast, housing over two hundred marine biologists and conservationists total and nearly five hundred species of deep sea creatures mostly kept unknown to the common man. Both your parents are scientists working to preserve the life of the endangered, hoping to repopulate the oceans with special species of animals - particularly mers.
Mers were a special type of fish. There were different breeds and species of mers based on their similar genus to other aquatic animals. They reminded you of mythical creatures called Mermaids, but the difference was that they were more closely related to and resembled in appearance to fish, sharks, and other deep sea creatures.
Take your friends for instance.
Bright yellow fins circled below the surface, occasionally brushing against the bottom of your feet to garner your attention. You giggled and kicked your feet harder, ensuring that bubbles mixed into the surrounding. The frills manage to dodge your attempts to tease, only to tickle you more when you miss.
“Good morning, Sunny.” You whispered, watching the bright yellow mer breach the water to give you a soft chirp in response. His waves of decorative frills droop against the side of his head, dripping water as he approached. “Is Moon awake?”
Sun shook his head and pointed back down into the water with his webbed fingers. Moon must have still been sleeping. He tends to be the late riser of the two brothers. You gave a small chuckle and reached out towards the water to scratch the side of the mer’s face. Sun leans into your touch, cooing and chirping happily. His claws gently paw at your legs. “I have breakfast ready, would you like me to serve it to you now? Or do you want to wait for Moon?”
Sun shook his head and smiled. He wanted to wait. It was the only time he had your attention all to himself. The sharp teeth that filled his mouth used to scare you when you were little, but you knew that Sun would never bite or hurt you with them. Instead, he gently leans into your hand and rubs his lips against your skin.
You rolled your eyes at the affection, you knew he was trying to coerce you into the waters to play. Sometimes it worked. But today you had to finish your work before your boss comes running to you. Due dates were coming up soon. “I’ll come to play later, I need to finish this sketch to submit with my thesis.”
Curiously, Sun tried to pull himself up the metal grated platform to see your latest drawing of him. He was always so intrigued with what you were focused on, because that meant it was additional attention taken away from him. But the water he so needed to survive always managed to ruin the paper, so he’s rarely gotten a peek. You tried to lift the sketch book above your head. “Wait! Hold on- I’ll show you when it’s done! You’re going to get it wet!”
He gives you a huff of air through his gills in frustration and submerges back into the water. Maybe he should go and wake Moon up afterall. They tend to convince you easier together.
You were so proud of their general understanding of your questions, seeming to learn how to respond with non-verbal movements based purely off observation of human researchers including yourself. Aside from the rare and infrequent chirping and grunting, neither of them had shown evidence or capability of forming words of the human language. You sometimes wonder if they had the appropriate vocal cords, would they be able to speak and respond back to you?
You took on a similar job as a researcher at the conservatory from a very young age, learning first hand from your parents and their friends, which earned you special credentials around the laboratory. While your parents had studied for years the behavior of mers as social creatures and how it differed from humans, your interests lie more in decorative but vestigial appendages of the mer - specific traits that made them so special and why they developed differently per species.
Sun and Moon became your main subjects for your studies. The way the two of them developed and matured so differently from just each other became your thesis’ main focus. They came from the same clutch of eggs that were scoured and abandoned by a pod your parents were studying offshore. Originally they were brought back to be hatched and rehabilitated before being released back to their pods. Most of their siblings returned to the open sea, but Sun and Moon refused.
They had gotten attached. Attached to the little human who would run around the laboratory without care. When they were young, they loved it when you approached them, face plastered against the glass of their tank and leaving an oily mark. They would make faces at you and you would make faces at them. You couldn’t recall how many times you got in trouble with other researchers for running around the facility trying to “chase” the mers around their tank. Having lived in the conservatory your whole life, you didn’t have very many human friends to play with, so you got attached to them as well.
You continued to sketch Sun’s most prominent features - the waves of orange fins that surrounded his face. The shape was the hardest to capture on paper as Sun’s fins tend to plaster against his face from gravity out of water. The best view was when he has them fanned out in the water for you to gaze at. You had to finish your drawing quickly because you still had your sketch of Moon to start. Sun and Moon’s appearances differed drastically, considering that they were siblings.
Sun had the bright, neon colors of tropical fish - the same kind that posed as warning colors in the animal kingdom. He sported yellow and orange gradients around his body, scales shining gold in the sun. Even in artificial white lighting, his skin was radiant. Around his head, along his arms, and down his back were long fins that waved in the water, drifting like they were flags waving in the wind. Sometimes they remind you of fire, waves of flames beneath the water. You always compared them similarly to the sight of kelp forests, seaweed dancing in the ocean above a roaring fire.
Moon was Sun’s direct opposite. While most of his skin was rough and coarse like a shark’s, a large part of his body was gray with sporadic dark spots. He only had scales at the ends of his arms and his tail. Under the white light, those scales would shine like stars in the night sky. His fins and the crest that made up the majority of his head were shades of navy blue blended with violet tints. Compared to Sun’s bright crown around his face, Moon had one long head piece. Maybe it was important for navigation or for steering. It reminded you a bit of a flag drifting in the wind, neither signaling nor warning potential prey - he was too fast for anyone to notice his dangerous killing intent before it was too late.
But in the bright early mornings, that killing intent is practically nonexistent. He typically lulled around and floated in the water, waiting for you to feed him.
Speak of the devil…
As you finish your sketch of Sun, Moon’s groggy face breaches the surface of the water and observes you for a second. He squints his eyes from the bright white lights of the laboratory ceiling. Moon swims around your legs. Seeing that you were not reacting to his presence, he lazily spits at you.
“Hey!” You lifted your papers just in time. The water barely missed and struck your upper chest, coating the hem of your shirt collar.
Sun comes up from behind Moon and maneuvers his tail to push water into your legs after missing his brother’s body. The two brothers giggle and splash water at each other, pretending that you were just an accidental hit from their games. They repeated this several times - to the point that your entire right sleeve of your T-shirt was wet. You found this game amusing, but your project was starting to get in deep jeopardy to a full soak of pool water.
You groaned as you shook your arm of excess water. Luckily you saved your notebook just in time. Quickly, you tuck it under your arms and stand up at the edge of the grating. Both Sun and Moon whine at your retreat. You lightly chuckle, “I’ll be right back, guys. I have to change now because of you two.”
The two mers stuck their forked tongues at you playfully before giggling. You responded with a flick of your own before turning and walking out the door of the main lab. The loud slam of the metal doors echoes across the empty surrounding walls.
Sun dived under the surface after Moon. The two of them swim in a circle around the center of the tank, churning bubbles as they go. They had a habit of doing so while they waited for you to change into your wetsuit, but they weren’t sure if you were coming back after their slightly naughty behavior.
While you spent all your time with Sun and Moon observing their behaviors and their appearances, they were also doing the same to you. Watching you grow up from a little toddler running around the research center to a beautiful young adult conversing while attracting them with your allure. Several times they almost slipped on their little secret, but instead they hoped to one day share this secret with you in a more… intimate setting. There is just too many other humans walking around at all times.
“Moon, do you think Starlight will come join us today?” Sun asks, itching his arms like the water temperature was irritating his skin. Nothing has changed recently… except the season.
“Hm, not sure. They’re very concentrated on their papers today.” Moon responds, grunting in disapproval. His stomach calls out to him. “And I still haven’t eaten yet.”
“I-I need them close by. Soon.” Sun whines. “I was trying, trying, trying so hard not to reach out for them. P-Pull them in closer.” Pieces of his scale begin to shed, floating through the water like a coin sinking down to the bottom of the tank. Moon watches empathetically. It wasn’t his time yet, but he knew he was going to be next to show symptoms.
“But we haven’t told Starlight. We haven’t even told her we can speak her language.” Moon reminds him quietly. He bumps the top of his head against his brother’s side as a comforting gesture. “We’ll do it soon. Maybe even later today.”
“Do you think Starlight will accept us?” Sun chirps sadly. They have been preparing for this moment for years and yet they were both still nervous and skeptical.
“We can only try.” Moon replies.
“It’s almost time, Moon. I’m not sure we can stop it again this year…” Sun reminds Moon solemnly. Their expressions fall dark.
It was only the sounds of their enclosure’s metal doors that snaps them out of their despair. You came in with your wetsuit on, holding a bucket of what looked like breakfast. You apparently had plans to fulfill your promise of joining them in the waters. Immediately all their negative thoughts flew out of the tank, along with their physical bodies nearly jumping out of the water at the sight of you. You laughed as they clawed at you playfully - unknowing to their distraught and discomfort of the upcoming days. Everything forgotten for a moment.
Soon.
Very soon.
Everything will change.