One-shot: Traces of salt
Title: Traces of salt
Pairing/Group: Ryo/Shige, appearances by other members of NEWS and Arashi
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some people believe in mermaids. 9372 words, AU
Notes: For natsudive, written for je_holiday 2010, originally posted here. Includes an omake that didn´t make it into the original post because it is so out there, so feel free to skip it.
Summary: Ryo is forced to follow his colleague who insists on the existence of mermaids to a marine reserve way too far away from Tokyo. Shige thinks Ryo should just go back where he came from. Life in the marine reserve, however, goes on, quirky marine scientists not so easily disturbed by the arrival of two strangers.
Beta by tokeruyouna. THANK YOU!
“Ohno-kun, is something wrong?” Shige asks as he passes the pier leading out into the ocean.
“Fish are strangely quiet today,” Ohno answers, not taking his eyes off the horizon, the paper on his easel strangely empty.
Shige only laughs. Ohno sounds as if that was a bad omen, but what could fish know? If they actually talked, that is.
- - -
“The air is too fresh,” Nishikido Ryo says and lights a cigarette the moment he and his companion get off the train.
“I can smell mermaids in the air,” Nino answers.
Ryo thinks it is funny how hard Nino tries not to skip. He also thinks he is a bit too far away from Tokyo. He cannot see the ocean yet, but he can already smell the fish. It stinks.
- - -
“I’m Ninomiya Kazunari, and this is my junior colleague Nishikido Ryo,” Nino says, looking the awkward boy with a mop standing in front of them up and down, “and we are looking for your boss.”
“He is out at sea,” the boy says, and Ryo notices the boy, no, he is more a young man, giving him a look.
“Well then, just show us the mermaids,” Nino says happily, handing his bags to the guy, who drops them when the words register.
“Excuse me?”
Ryo sighs. “Who is in charge of this place when the boss is not present?” He asks. Junior colleague his ass, he is a babysitter. That was the word Yoko had used. He throws his cigarette butt into the water, and the boy glares then pulls a net out of the bucket he had been carrying and hurriedly reaches for the trash, dropping it onto Ryo’s shoes once he has fished it out.
“Turtles would not appreciate that,” he says coldly. “Look for Aiba Masaki, if you want to,” he grits out, turns on his heel and leaves.
“Hey bad hair maintenance guy, what is your name?” Ryo calls after him. Shige does not turn around.
- - -
“How is it going, Oh-chan?” Aiba asks, sitting cross-legged on the pier and poking a fish with a knife.
“How is your experiment?” Ohno asks in reply.
“It blows. Literally.” Aiba shrugs.
On hearing that, Shige drops everything and runs towards the laboratories. He finds two assistants with fire extinguishers, but they seem to have things under control. Then he sees those two from before-the Ninomiya guy poking at things with mild interest, the Nishikido one holding a bucket of water. Shige hopes there were no fish in it.
“What the fuck is this place?” Nishikido swears, his glare made ineffective by a huge black smudge on his equally big nose.
“And who the hell are you?” Shige asks in return, picking up a fallen microscope.
“We are marine scientists from Tokyo Marine Institute,” Nino murmurs, poking a dead frog, “and we came here to conduct research on-”
“-on unusual saltwater species,” Ryo finishes Nino’s sentence that he had interrupted with a hard nudge to Nino’s side. “We sent you a memo,” he adds.
Now that Shige thinks about it, there was something. Not that it is his business. The Ninomiya guy is suspicious and the Nishikido guy is an asshole, in his opinion anyway.
“Follow me,” he sighs and leads the way to the pier. He hears Nishikido muttering something about fish smell everywhere. Ninomiya seems to ignore him. He is singing some song under his breath that sounds a lot like the theme from The Little Mermaid.
Shige stops by the main pier. “See those two at the end of the pier? They are Aiba Masaki and Ohno Satoshi, currently the most experienced staff of this marine reserve. When you’re done talking, come find Kato Shigeaki,” he says, bows and heads back to the lab.
“Shige,” he hears Nishikido call after him, and when he turns to face him, the man is giving him a fake, wide smile and waving his hand like a five year old.
- - -
”So who exactly are you?” Ryo asks Shige and watches him pick up Nino’s heavy bags. Shige winces and glares at Nino, and Ryo thinks he is cute and just a little stuck up. “Because if you secretly run this place and just like to wander around looking like a janitor, then I need to know so I can actually be nice to you. Being on good terms with important people is useful.”
“He just wants a room that is as far away from the fish as possible,” Nino informs Shige and leads the way. Shige does not bother shouting after him when he turns into the wrong alley. Ryo likes him a little more for that. As much as you can use the word like with regards to someone with bad hair and a constant frown who never looks at you properly.
“Oi Shige,” Ryo says again and grabs one of the bags from him. “I am a guest, behave.”
“This is your cabin. Ninomiya has the big one over there, and you can keep the keys to it for now. Once security issues your access cards and initial passwords, you will have access to all the facilities. I hope your research goes well.” Shige is gone before Ryo can tell him at least one other thing he finds wrong about him. Maybe, he thinks, he should come up with a compliment to shout at him next time. Just in case. Ryo is starting to think he really does run this place. He seems to be the only one who knows what is going on anyway.
- - -
“So Oh-chan, tell me about the mermaids,” Shige hears Nino saying. He is sitting next to Ohno, legs dangling off the pier, and is offering Ohno some sweets.
“Do you like them?” Ohno pauses in his drawing and stares at nothing. “I like them,” he adds.
“I've never met them,” Nino says, and Shige could swear he can hear him sulking.
“Hmmmm,” is all Ohno says back and pats Nino's hair.
“I work with lunatics. I was hoping it would be a bit better down here,” Ryo appears next to Shige. “I must be catching the stupid from them if I thought so.”
“I think you fit in pretty well as you are,” Shige notes mockingly, but his mouth twitches upwards when Ryo only rolls his eyes and places his burnt out cigarette into a portable ashtray.
“For the turtles,” Ryo mutters. “So Shige, where can I get spectacularly drunk and even more spectacularly laid around here?” He asks after a minute and flashes Shige a cheesy smile.
Shige resists the urge to push him into the water. But. He cannot stand fish. He might not be able to swim either. He writes down the address of a small ramen place that his friend runs. It has good sake and a nice wooden bar too. When he finds himself opening the front door of that shop later that evening, he has to question his own sanity.
- - -
Ryo wakes up in the morning not knowing what happened last night or where he is for that matter. He is sure it is not that hole of a cabin of his, but it most certainly is not a penthouse either. In all honesty, from where he lies on the bed, seeing the small kitchen table and the counter behind it, it looks even smaller than his temporary living arrangements. He stirs, and when he hears nothing but the ocean, he slowly gets up.
He moves slowly not only because of the headache but because he still has no clue about where he is or who brought him here. He stumbles into the bathroom where he finds a clean towel and a toothbrush still in the store packaging. He raises an eyebrow but essentially is happy to clean up. Once he is done, he finds a note and keys on the kitchen table along with some fruit and a water bottle.
Lock up on your way out. Leave the key in the mail box.
No signature. No sign of anyone. Ryo huffs but figures it might be a bit easier this way. He gives the place one last look and cannot help but notice a few photographs in simple frames, mostly of nature and fish and other sea creatures, and a pencil sketch of a mermaid. Fucking mermaids. Who believes in fairytales anyway?
Ryo’s head hurts a bit more when he shuts the door behind him not so carefully. He clearly got spectacularly drunk last night, even if at first he swore to be extra mean to Shige when he found himself in a ramen shop of all things, staring at the overly soft, smiling face of a lanky guy behind the bar. He now wonders if he also got spectacularly laid. He wiggles his ass a little and figures that if he did, he was the one doing the laying. He smirks. Maybe things would not be so bad around here. He has been rather willing to open his legs lately, and it was getting a bit out of hand. This could be a good brand new start. And this apartment is in an awesome location. There is a fresh breeze, the ocean and the beach right across a small pathway, and it is apparently close to the reserve. Maybe later on he could stop by to find out who he went home with last night.
When he gets to the marine reserve, Nino is nowhere to be found, but Ryo’s access cards are done, so he figures he can at least do some work. He sees Shige a few times as he moves around, exploring everything that is available around here on his own, and the guy always gives him this half smirk, half nervous smile. It is puzzling. But Ryo is now convinced that if Shige does not run this place, then no one does. Maybe that is it, actually. He ends up in a laboratory, surprisingly clean and functioning after the fire from the previous day, and settles behind one of the lab stations. He does not believe in mermaids, but he is perfectly happy to kick ass at his own research while he is here. He never did promise to keep an eye on Nino. Yoko had just assumed.
- - -
That is how Shige finds Ryo, leaning over a microscope, hair in his face making Shige wonder how he can actually see anything, expression focused though little lost in the way all the scientists around here get lost in their work. Shige is genuinely surprised. Yet again. He fumbles a little, and the door hits his back as it closes. Ryo looks up.
“I thought you hated fish,” Shige settles on after a moment of silent staring.
“Fish smell. I am fine with octopuses. Or just anything but fish, really,” Ryo says, still a little distracted.
“That makes no sense,” Shige argues. All ocean wildlife has that salty, slightly piercing smell in his opinion.
“What do you know?” And Ryo is scribbling something down onto a sheet of paper and looking back into the microscope. Shige forgets why he came here and only watches him. It is intriguing to see this side of Nishikido Ryo.
“Ohno took Ninomiya-kun fishing with him,” he says, startled, when he realizes he has been staring for a while.
No answer.
“I don’t know why you came down here, but there are no mermaids in this reserve or anywhere close by. So please do not fool around and leave if you just came to cause a ruckus.” Shige does not know why he is saying that, but Ohno had looked so excited that morning and had mentioned that Ninomiya guy and had been beaming while he ate his breakfast. And Shige does not like it.
Ryo looks up at that. “Of course there are no mermaids here. They do not exist,” he says sternly. “And believe me, I would be on the next train back to Tokyo, were it up to me.”
End of discussion, Shige dismissed. He sighs and picks up the last case of broken glass from yesterday, leaving Ryo to his research. He is almost out the door when Ryo shouts after him.
“Takoyaki. I like that. You should show me where they have good takoyaki around here.”
Shige looks back, and Ryo is already working again, biting his lip. He sighs.
“Okay, but no drinks this time,” he says, and Ryo bangs his head on the microscope. Shige is suddenly in a much better mood and hums under his breath as he leaves for real this time.
- - -
Ryo does not want to know why Shige is making comments about how wasted he got yesterday. Not really. Only he keeps wondering why and how, and he cannot concentrate on his work, and his headache returns with a vengeance. What does it matter? Besides, Shige was the one who gave him the address; he had probably come by that night, seen him hanging off someone else’s shoulder or something and assumed things. But Ryo does not feel like returning to the small flat with a very nice porch facing the ocean anymore. Suddenly he does not want to find out who it belongs to. He is such a terrible drunk too. All mushy and clingy and other things.
After another hour of pointless staring at miniature things moving in strange, fast patterns, Ryo gives up and decides to go to the small dock the reserve has with the intention of waiting for Nino and scolding him for seducing a random marine scientist with ulterior motives of seeing his mermaids. He sits on one of the decks, getting sunburned and thinking of things that are most certainly not Shige, a man who he had met just yesterday and possibly managed to already have a one night stand with. Though why that is wrong he cannot tell. Shige looks acceptable for a quickie, and it is not like there are any work-related ethics issues or morals involved.
Ryo has plenty of time to think it through as Nino returns only ten hours later, when it is already dark and after Ryo has had several fits of rage and freak outs, attempted to call lifeguards and the water police and shouted at everyone, including Shige, because you do not go fishing and stay out for that long, not when you are Ninomiya Kazunari and like your comfort, and something needs to be done, because oh my god Nino went crazy, and they are dead somewhere on the bottom of the ocean where Nino dragged Ohno, persuading him that was where the mermaids were.
But Shige only looks at him calmly at first, a little amused later on, and ends up shaking him while trying to say all will be just fine. Ryo blushes as Shige’s fingers brush his arms when he lets his own fall from Ryo’s shoulders, so he shuts up. Nino arrives at last, and that bastard laughs at him, hand loosely around Ohno’s shoulders, and then whispers something to Ohno about Ryo-chan being a softie. Ohno just smiles and looks at Shige.
“Shige knows I go out to sea for days at time,” he says calmly. “And I said we’d come back tonight.”
Ryo stomps off and decides this is a good excuse to cancel the takoyaki da-meet up. Only he is hungry, so his stomach rumbles louder than he does, and Shige laughs and brings some fried rice from somewhere to his cabin. They eat it outside on the steps in silence that is fucking awkward, but Ryo does not know what to say, and Shige seems to be content just giggling under his breath from time to time, and Ryo is tired so whatever. It is food and company and the end of a fucking long and stupid day, and when he slumps back against the upper step and watches Shige’s back, he can only breathe deeply as the atmosphere slowly calms him down, and that is fine too.
- - -
Shige would be stupid if he gave up the upper hand that Ryo had unwittingly handed over by clearly not remembering a thing from the first night he spent here. He has had his share of fun in the past month. He enjoys the fact Ryo is much meeker at times when he allows himself to wonder about it and drops his tough act. He would be much more surprised by Ryo’s worries for Nino had he not gone to Koyama’s ramen store that night. But as it is, he now knows that Ryo somehow cares in his twisted way and is much more harmless than he lets on. He is also slightly quirky, interesting, quick to argue and banter with Shige or help him clean when Aiba blows something up, and he is the new element that Shige needed so much in this forgotten place. And he surfs, looking damn great riding out waves, Shige thinks as he watches him catch another one. The white foam on their ridges makes Ryo look kind of surreal. Damn it. Of course Shige has to get all poetic and cannot keep his emotions at bay and has to screw everything up because of feelings.
“That night, at Koyama’s, you were so drunk I would not be surprised if you did not remember a thing,” Shige says when Ryo slumps onto the sand next to him thirty minutes later, eyes closed, chest heaving from the effort, muscles straining under his tanned skin, water glistening on his skin, leaving small, salty marks.
Ryo’s eyebrow twitches, but he only grunts. Of course he does not admit it. Shige knows better than to expect that.
“I mean after we left, you could barely walk, so I still have no clue how you managed to throw me out of my own bed, get undressed and fall asleep in record time, even before I pulled out my spare futon.”
Shige is watching Ryo for his reaction, but today the other is able to hide behind the wet fringe and still closed eyelids. “You kept talking dirty about how you wanted to fuck me, but it was so funny because really you could barely lift a finger. I don’t think you could have possibly gotten anything else-”
“Why would I want to fuck you of all people?” Ryo finally speaks up, his eyes opening abruptly, piercing Shige. They are laughing a little though.
“True. I’m just a maintenance guy with bad hair and an old mop,” Shige nods.
Ryo leans over him, pokes him in the ribs and shakes the water out of his hair all over Shige.
“Exactly,” he says nonchalantly in the end and goes to pick up his board. “And I could have gotten it up, had I wanted to,” he murmurs mostly to himself, but Shige hears him anyway.
Right, Shige thinks, even though he knows Ryo was mostly joking. So much for his upper hand. But that is fine too. It was fun while it lasted.
- - -
Relief is the only word in Ryo’s mind as he sits on his step that night, watching Ohno and Nino on the porch of Nino’s cabin. He can see a deck of cards and sake. Magic tricks. He snorts. He does not know why Shige caved and admitted nothing happened today, not that he had been hinting before that something had happened, it probably was just Ryo’s wild imagination, but maybe it is a sign that he finally trusts Ryo a little. He did not for the longest time. After Ryo had calmed down after his outburst about mermaids, Shige had started watching him, watching them, even more. He had asked subtle questions at first, but in the end, he had taken Ryo to Koyama’s again and told Ryo he would get him so drunk he would not remember his name if that was what it took for Ryo to speak.
So Ryo had told him how Nino had seen Ohno’s pictures that are going to be exhibited in Tokyo as part of a huge environmental project the Japanese marine association is preparing, how he believes in mermaids and dreams of being the one to prove they exist, and how it is all ridiculous and how he had been forced to come down with him because Nino would not shut up after seeing those pictures and their boss got annoyed. He really hates it here because it is calm and small and smells like fish, and the water is pretty, and the sea life is beautiful, and it all makes him mad somehow. And mermaids do not exist.
“But Nino is harmless. I promise he will not hurt Ohno,” is what Ryo had told Shige, and then he had told Nino to be damn careful and not do stupid things, and Nino had just smirked, and that was it.
They had had lunch after that, all of them together, where Shige had made Aiba swear there were no mermaids, and he had said the same, over and over again. Ohno had sat there, munching on his food contently, smiling when Nino kept stroking his thigh under the table not so subtly, and humming noncommittally in response to the conversation. And Nino had not believed a word they said. But Shige had seemed to relax a bit.
- - -
“What is it, Oh-chan?” Shige asks when Ohno comes to find him by the seal pool and takes the fish he has been feeding them from him. It is not even Shige’s task, let alone Ohno’s, but it seems Shige is not the only one with things on his mind. Or people. From Tokyo. Who are smartasses and annoying and maybe just a little great. He has seen Nino’s doings, the guy having played pranks of most of the employees of the marine reserve by now, Ohno included. Shige wonders if they have some special criteria for employees of the Tokyo Marine Institute.
“Nino is sad,” Ohno sighs and throws another fish.
“I’m sure he’ll get over it.” That manipulative creeper. Shige’s fish flies all the way over to the deck on the other side of the pool. Shige sighs, and Ohno giggles a little.
“You want to cheer him up?” Shige asks, happy he has managed to do the same for Ohno with his natural ability to fail at a task as simple as feeding the seals.
“Can I do that?” Ohno tilts his head, weighing a fish in his hand, and Shige wonders if he is talking about throwing a fish all the way across the pool or about cheering Nino up.
“I’ll ask Ryo,” Shige mutters. Ohno grins.
At least this way Shige has another excuse to seek Ryo out. Maybe they can finally go and eat that takoyaki he promised to take him to what now feels like ages ago. They see each other much less lately. Shige is generally busy running around, and once Ryo had settled in and gotten used to the idea that he was going to spend some time here, he had gotten serious about his research. Shige sees him stuck in the labs sometimes from early morning to late at night, and at those times, he does not want to disturb him. Other times, Ryo goes out to the sea to dive deep into the water, always coming back with something interesting in his net or pictures. Never fish though. Shige chuckles thinking about it.
Sometimes Ryo takes Shige with him, to cover his back, watch his depth, his air, and stuff. Shige spends those days looking at the vast expanse of blue and has a bit too much time to think in general, out there, where everything seems slow and quiet except the seagulls hovering over their heads and water crashing into their speedboat. It makes Shige more restless, more discontent. Maybe that is why he has been pretending to be too busy to go with Ryo lately, though always making sure someone goes instead of him. Someone who is not Aiba. Someone responsible.
“Hey,” Shige says and hands Ryo a beer. Ryo is sitting on the stairs of his cabin and is looking into the night.
“And I thought you didn’t like me anymore,” Ryo fake pouts, voice light and only a little accusing.
“I have a favor to ask,” Shige says and sits next to Ryo.
“Of course,” Ryo sighs. “I hate being stuck here. I want to go back to Tokyo where I have real friends and where I can run away from fish and where I don’t need to be doing favors for janitors who think they run this place . . .” Ryo trails off. Shige fidgets, wonders what got Ryo into such a foul mood all of a sudden.
“I’ll tell you what. I will take you out to eat the best takoyaki you have ever had so that maybe you’ll like this place a little more for it. We can try to plot some way to get you out of here soon-ish. And in return you will hear me out.”
“Is that supposed to be a date, Shige? Do you suddenly miss me?” Ryo perks up, probably at the mention of food and octopuses. Shige bumps their shoulders together, deciding he may as well indulge Ryo for a bit.
“If you want it to be. But you know, I am still just some stupid janitor guy who needs a favor.” Shige does not wait for the answer. He gets up and then turns around one more time. “Tomorrow at eight, meet me at the main pier.”
- - -
Shige is already sitting on the pier, legs dangling close to the water, when Ryo arrives the next day. He is clutching a camera and following a seagull with it.
“Are we taking couple pictures today?” Ryo asks, suddenly in a much better mood. “Shige, I didn’t know you were this sentimental,” he continues cheerily. “Here, I’ll pose for you.”
He strikes a pose, a smile and a peace sign, head cocked to the side. Shige laughs and looks into the camera. Ryo does not hear the shutter go off though.
“Nah, that’s no good, Ryo-chan,” Shige says and hides the camera away too quickly for Ryo to do anything about it. It was quite a fancy one, now that Ryo thinks about it. He is a little disappointed though and even forgets to be offended by Shige calling him the same thing Nino does yet again. Why does that always happen anyway?
“You must be really popular among girls with an attitude like that,” Ryo says and taps his foot so that Shige moves.
“I honestly do not care about being popular with girls,” Shige mutters and finally gets up and looks Ryo straight in the eye. “I thought you’d know that by now.”
And Ryo probably does, but Shige did not have to say it like that. Ryo looks down, stuffs his hands into his pockets.
“Let’s go,” he says and actually leads the way away from the ocean.
“I’m sorry you miss home so much. It must be hard to be away for so long,” Shige says later in the evening. They are sitting on the bar stools of some takoyaki stand, deep in the town, cramped street smelling of food and too many people passing by.
Ryo huffs around his cigarette; he had not been that serious about hating it here, but Shige only continues, poking his food and not looking at him.
“I mean, I cannot imagine just picking up and leaving, going somewhere where I don’t know anyone, where I have never been before.”
“So that’s why you are spending your time here, mopping floors?” Ryo does not know where the anger is coming from, but he stabs his food with a vengeance, “because you are too afraid to leave? What kind of life is that, Shige? Are you stupid?”
Shige looks at him sharply, but then he goes back to his food.
“Is that how you see me? As a useless guy who cleans the mess up after you wonderful scientists?” Ryo hears bitterness in Shige’s voice and wonders who exactly thinks that. And why is this turning out to be such a depressing night.
“I just meant. Tokyo wasn’t always my home. I made it that. It was hard work, but now I like it there. You could do that too, you know.”
“So the Osaka accent is real,” Shige muses, and suddenly Ryo catches a slight trace of the same in Shige’s voice.
“No way.”
“No, not really,” Shige laughs. “I was small when I moved here.”
They stay quiet after that, drinking and watching the owner making food for the passers-by. Ryo finds himself a little tipsy when he orders some more takoyaki and realizes he still does not know why Shige had called him out tonight.
“About the favor,” he starts, turns to Shige only to find him already facing him.
“Ah yeah. Ohno says Nino is sad. So I was hoping.”
“You can’t be serious!” Ryo wants to leave.
“I was thinking actually,” Shige says and reaches for Ryo’s elbow to make him sit back. His fingers stay there, clutching onto Ryo afterwards, and Ryo decides not to point it out. “He is probably just sulking because there are no mermaids, right? So this is your chance. I do want to help Oh-chan, but if Nino is down, maybe you should try and suggest you go back. And when all is ready, we’ll think of something. Maybe Ohno could give him one of his drawings to cheer him up, or we could dress Ohno as mermaid for him, I think Ohno would do it, and I could . . . take a picture. But you’d still leave, and everything would go back to normal.” Shige is rambling. And he apparently wants Ryo to leave. Ryo kicks his chair to stop him from talking.
“I don’t think Nino is going to give up that easily. And it is a real relief to know how much you want me gone,” Ryo finishes. Shige’s fingers finally fall from his elbow.
“You hate it here,” is all he says.
Ryo turns back to face the stand. “One more round of food and drinks,” he orders. “And master, your takoyaki is the best I’ve ever had,” he adds and stuffs his face then proceeds to stuff Shige’s mouth until he cannot fit anymore into it. That should shut him up.
They are still sitting there when the master wants to close the shop a bit before dawn. Ryo’s head slumped against Shige’s shoulder, Shige’s hand clutching his drink and his eyes hard, looking into the dark.
- - -
Shige does not manage to refuse when Ryo asks him to go out to sea the next time to come up with something genius to cheer Nino up. Ryo can be pretty damn forceful when he really wants to.
“Just because Ohno with droopy eyes is disgusting,” Ryo says when Shige asks why Ryo is helping him.
Once out on the ocean, Ryo still goes under the water near one of the coral reefs, and Shige is left to entertain himself once again. His mind wanders to their last serious talk, and he does not like how Ryo sees right through him. How he says exactly what Shige thinks. How a few months to save some money and plan things had turned into a few years after Shige finished high school. He could not afford college at the time and was not sure if that was what he wanted anyway. He had a part-time job at the marine reserve and liked the people there. When he had said he would like to stay, the boss had cheered and said he finally had a responsible employee and could sometimes go out to sea himself and had given him a slight raise, and Shige had been happy. Just for a little longer, he kept telling himself. It has been too long by now. He does not feel the sign to pull Ryo out by the rope that he always brings down with him, so Shige is startled when Ryo suddenly splashes water all over him and grins up from the water.
“I got a great idea,” he says, pulling his mask off.
“You came up without help?” Shige raises an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t too deep,” Ryo holds out a hand and Shige pulls him up.
“Hey, that is that camera again,” Ryo points to the black shiny gadget that Shige barely protected from all the water. “No wait, this one is a different one. Shige, how many of these do you have and why?”
Shige shrugs. “Janitors have hobbies too.” It earns him a smack over head.
“Is this what you always do when I’m down there? I want to see.” Ryo makes grabby hands at the camera, and Shige has to push him in order to protect it from further damage.
“It’s nothing,” Shige mutters and puts the camera back into his bag. “Now what is this idea of yours?” he asks, annoyed.
“Oh, I know what will cheer Nino up,” Ryo pulls off his wet suit, and Shige quickly starts the boat up, concentrating on maneuvering away from the coral to prevent himself from staring (too much).
“So how good are your craft skills anyway?” Ryo appears next to him with a towel around his shoulders a moment later. He runs his hand through Shige’s longish hair, fingers brushing against Shige’s skull, and hums in approval. Shige suppresses a shiver and pulls away.
“Oh come on, Shige,” Ryo laughs, but it is a strained laughter for some reason. “Maybe it’s good you did not cut your hair,” he says as an explanation of his action. “You’ll make a pretty mermaid. Koyama’s sister should lend you bikini. Shige jolts, and to prevent an accident, he stops the boat before turning to Ryo and screaming “WHAT?!”
Ryo just grins. “We are cosplaying mermaids.”
Shige has another urge to drown Ryo. It has been some time since he had one.
- - -
“You are one hard to find guy,” Ryo says and blows his hair out of his eyes when he finally manages to open the right door in the office building at the reserve. He realizes he has not been here that much.
Shige scratches his nose as he glances up at him from behind tons of papers and goes right back to whatever he had been doing before Ryo came in. It would be a little cute if it did not mean Ryo was being ignored.
“Hey, nice office. For a maintenance guy anyway.” Ryo looks around and sees a spacious desk, bookshelves, pictures of damn mermaids everywhere, some certificates awarded to a person that most likely is not Shige, though he looks right at home behind the desk.
The fax machine beeps then, and Shige reaches to accept the incoming fax. He sighs and looks up at Ryo, who is getting kind of mad. What is this disinterest?
“Everything is ready,” he says quickly when he finally has Shige’s attention again.
“What?!”
“Why do you look surprised? We’ve been at this for two weeks.” Ryo is getting genuinely angry. Shige wanted his help after all. “The costumes are ready, and they look almost exactly like the patterns Ohno drew for us. Aiba promised to come by with a boat so that we are visible in the light. I’ll take care of the air tank so that we don’t actually drown faking mermaids. All you have to do is get Ohno to bring Nino out on a nice evening walk. I’m sure Nino won’t protest.”
Shige looks at him blankly. “I guess I just thought that common sense would kick in at some point and you would give up.”
“Shige!” Ryo stomps his foot then bites his lip on seeing Shige jerk and knock over a pile of paperwork. “Come on, it will be fun, and pranking Nino, even if he’ll never know, is my life goal.”
No answer, more papers shuffling.
“Shige, what the hell are you doing anyway?”
“Oh, you know, sorting the mail and stuff, checking on anything that can’t wait, taking care of electricity bills . . .” Shige gets distracted by the fax that had arrived earlier, and skimming over the address quickly, he hands it to Ryo the next second.
“Tokyo Marine Institute. I believe that one is for you.”
Ryo grabs the paper and reads it hastily. Yoko. Impatient, hasty, pissed off. “Tonight at eleven, by the main pier. And you better be there. Tell Ohno to come around midnight. It will be magical or something like that,” Ryo stomps away, clutching the fax in his hand. He needs to find Nino. They are going home. Finally. He should be happy. He should be packing his bags, not cosplaying mermaids. Somehow, it makes him mad.
- - -
“If I survive this, I’m never speaking to you again,” Shige grits his teeth, looking at the two huge tails spread on the pier. It distracts him even from looking at Ryo in only shorts.
“Well that’s okay because you won’t really have to,” Ryo says, and it is somehow angry.
“What, are you planning to transform and stay living under the water or something?” Shige cannot help but ask with irony. “Is that why we are doing this at midnight and during the full moon?”
“Just forget it,” Ryo hisses and points at one of the tails. “That one is yours. I’ll take the longer one.”
Shige finally cracks and bursts out laughing. This is hilarious and kind of insane, and he will sink to the bottom of the ocean trying to swim with that thing instead of his legs, even if it has swimming fins at the end. And now Ryo wants the longer tail.
“What are you compensating for exactly, Ryo-chan?” he asks between the fits of giggles, and Ryo glares, though he seems to relax a bit.
“I don’t know what you are on about,” he says and throws a weird shiny armband at Shige. Ohno and the costume maker had gone a bit overboard.
Shige cannot stop laughing and starts to reach for the longer tail. “It’s heavier; you don’t have legs long enough to swing it properly. I’m taking that.”
“No, you are not,” Ryo pulls at the fin. “I said longer is mine!”
“You know, I think your shortcomings won’t matter to Nino as long as you have fins and pretty nipples,” Shige doubles over laughing again. He regrets not bringing a camera, but he would not have any place to hide it.
“Shut up,” Ryo pushes him a little and lets go of the tail. “Now get ready. I need to show you where the air tank is.”
Shige starts breathing slowly and finally calms down. He runs his hand over the strange surface of the tail and sits on the edge, hoping this will be over soon enough and Nino will not kill them and present them to the sharks when he finds out.
“How is this supposed to cheer him up? Besides if he actually somehow believes we are mermen, he will want to stay here longer, you know. And you want to go home,” Shige protests while struggling to slip into the tail. Ryo flips onto his back next to him, already in gear, and stays lying down, looking at the sky, silent.
“He won’t. He said it would be okay to just see at least one. So that he can keep on believing. Besides we can’t stay here forever,” Ryo says eventually, and Shige wonders if he is channeling Nino’s sadness because he sounds somehow down. He crawls next to Ryo and collapses, chest heaving. He thinks they are already like fish on the dry land, flopping around helplessly.
“Now what?”
“Now we wait for Aiba to come with the underwater light boat so we can try this. Then he will leave and come back only after Nino and Ohno arrive.”
“What did he say when you told him about this?” Shige is giggling again.
“He said it was a fascinating experiment, and he wants to know what the costumes are made from.”
Shige has to calm down after that yet again. When he is done laughing, he does not know what to say, so he just stays silent, shivers from time to time as the night breeze sweeps across the pier and lets himself be soothed by the slow breathing of Ryo next to him, their shoulders brushing.
“Hey my little mermen,” Aiba suddenly appears above them, right in their vision. “Ohno says they are not coming.”
Ryo swears. Shige feels a little relieved. “Something about Nino leaving soon and them wanting to go night fishing for the last time and about cheering Nino up in different ways,” Aiba finishes.
“Leaving?” Shige asks, but Ryo just swears one more time and starts to struggle out of his tail.
Aiba watches them for a while. “You are very pretty mermen. Especially Shige with his long hair. Ueda would like it,” he says and picks up the tails when they get out of them, Shige blushing, Ryo confused. Aiba hands them their clothes that he had brought with him and turns to leave.
“Interesting. And pretty and shiny. Nice handy work,” they hear him mumbling.
“Ueda?” Ryo asks. Shige forgets about leaving. Aiba had managed to blurt out things once again.
“Our boss, Ueda Tatsuya.”
“What does your boss have to do with mermaids?” Ryo eyes him suspiciously, and Shige quickly dresses, not liking the scrutiny.
“He and Ohno always talk for long hours after Ueda returns from the sea. About mermaids. Ohno draws them how Ueda . . . describes them.” Shige looks at Ryo with a bit of fear. They had agreed to keep this from the Tokyo scientists when they had arrived. Some things are better off staying under the water. Whether Ueda is telling the truth or not.
“Just another crazy lunatic,” Ryo says, and Shige feels relieved. “Hey, why do you look so stressed? And what is with all the secrets anyway? First you taking pictures, now your crazy boss, why do you keep things from me like that?”
Ryo shoves Shige playfully. It seems as if he is more teasing than accusing, but Shige is still a little startled, and he loses his balance and falls into the water.
Now it is Ryo who is laughing. So Shige reaches out, and when Ryo goes to help him, he pulls him in with him. He had wanted to see him falling into the water ever since Ryo had arrived. Ryo kicks him underwater, and Shige splashes water into his face, and they gasp and mock fight and get out a while later, sprinting to the bay cabin for towels. Lying on the pier wrapped in them and mumbling about each other being idiots and evil and useless and total misfortunes is too comfortable. Shige’s heart does not want to calm down, and he senses every move of Ryo’s next to him that much more, wants to lean over, or reach for his hand, but of course he will not because this is Ryo and that is not what they are. Not at all.
“I’m leaving next week. Nino and I both are. The fax today,” Shige does not hear more because suddenly the ocean roars in his ears a bit too loudly.
Then Ryo is hovering over him, saying Shige, but Shige only sees his lips moving, his eyes dark, half hidden by his hair, and Ryo smells like ocean and something else, something Shige cannot have.
“Well it was about time,” Shige gets out, stands up and practically runs all the way to his apartment.
- - -
Ryo needs to wrap up his research, pack his bag, say goodbye to the turtles and eat octopuses all in a period of four days. He also needs to deal with one janitor/guy for everything/shadow boss/maybe photographer/kind of crush of his that has been nowhere to be found. Which is easy to achieve since the reserve is vast, Shige is busy and running around even when he is not actively avoiding Ryo, and Ryo has enough on his own plate. Like Ohno coming with them for the ride.
“I’m going to show him around Tokyo, and his exhibition is starting soon,” Nino had explained, and Ohno had grinned, dropping a huge duffle bag onto a pile of things they were taking back. Did they really have so much on their way here?
A shiver runs down Ryo’s spine as he imagines those two keeping this whole act up, stealing long glances and touching and giggling (and in Nino’s case snickering) like five year olds all the way to Tokyo. Maybe Ryo should take an earlier train or walk back home. Walking is good, it clears people’s minds, cures stupid crushes, tires the body, numbs feelings, creates blisters; all of it sounds mostly good to Ryo.
Of course, Ryo knows he is overreacting and it is just Shige, Shige who does not look him in the eye and still only staggers around, messes with his own life and reels in Ryo’s head and is stuck in a marine reserve in the middle of nowhere and damn far away from Tokyo at that, and Ryo cannot stand it. Or the fact that he cares. Even if Shige seems to have his head firmly on his shoulders and seems to have more brains than the rest of this town combined and is smart and sometimes even cool and totally capable and probably even kind of awesome if you look enough he is still stalling. It is still Ohno who is going to Tokyo with them, not Shige. Not that Ryo would ever ask Shige to go with him, and he knows he cannot order Shige around or tell him to finally do something other than mop the floors or mope around because it is not his place.
It does not change anything about the fact that Ryo wants to stuff Shige into one of the duffle bags and show him around Tokyo, show him what life is or could be about or keep him locked in his apartment so he could be the only one with the right to see that Shige may possibly be kind of great and perfect. For Ryo. All in all, everything is peachy, life has never been better, and Ryo’s problems are nothing compared to world climatic changes, financial crises and other hitches of modern civilization. So Ryo does not look for Shige in places where he knows he could find him. Still, the last day he finds himself feeding the seals anyway.
“Ryo-chan, Shige forgot to buy me a new set of brushes,” Ohno says, appearing out of nowhere, and Ryo almost ends up in the water one more time. “Fish are strangely quiet,” Ohno adds, suddenly looking over at the ocean, as if that explains everything.
Really, whatever, if they do not stop stinking, Ryo does not care. He drops the bucket, goes to take a long shower, and on his way out, Ryo shuts the door of his cabin way too loudly, not caring and only hoping some store will still be open so he can stock up on some beer. Lots of it.
It is awkward when Ryo sits down on the steps to Shige’s apartment, contemplating if he wants to ring the bell or not. It is even more awkward when Shige shows up, looks at him for three seconds and then opens his apartment door, waiting for Ryo to follow him. He goes off to wash himself up, and Ryo stands around until he catches sight of a big pile of photographs thrown on the table. Nature, nature, random people, more nature in all kinds of shapes and sizes, colorful or black and white or sepia, a few pictures of Koyama’s shop and Koyama and his girlfriend and his sister and more nature and Ryo flashing a peace sign and more really good breathtaking pictures of nature and Ryo flashing a peace sign?
“You took all these,” Ryo points down at the pile when Shige emerges.
“Yeah,” Shige says quietly and slides open the door to his porch. Ryo inhales the smell of salt and water and old wood and hopes it will be the same back in Tokyo.
“You are good,” Ryo says sternly. “You should . . .” he trails off.
“Stop mopping the decks of a marine reserve and do something with my life,” Shige finishes, stepping outside and opening one of the beers that Ryo had brought in. Ryo drops the pictures back to the table and follows, leaving behind the thoughts of possibly giving an impression of looking down on Shige because he really does not. Shige apparently uses a silent shutter, but that does not seem important anymore.
“I haven’t really seen you around with a mop in hand that much,” Ryo says and sits down on a rattan sofa that Shige has on his porch. Ryo wants to know where Shige got it; it is perfect but does not seem to be an item easily obtained.
Ryo is not a person that knows how to say goodbye. He lacks finesse when it comes to human relationships, when it comes to Shige. So he sits there, clutching the beer that slowly gets warm, and listens to the waves washing away sand grains from the shore.
“What time do you leave tomorrow?” Shige asks much later when all they see are the faint lights of small street lamps and a fishing boat’s light swinging in the waves.
“One train earlier than Nino and Ohno,” Ryo says, and Shige laughs silently next to him. Ryo finally lets his shoulders relax.
Which is a mistake because Shige catches him off guard with his fingers digging into Ryo’s thigh right above his knee and his other hand stealing Ryo’s beer and then sliding up his arm and around to the back of his neck, pulling him closer and then fucking hesitating, right there, when they are millimeters away. Ryo’s eyes were about to flutter closed, but now they are wide open and staring into equally wide and confused eyes, and Ryo is frozen. No finesse whatsoever.
Shige’s nails still dig into Ryo’s leg a few seconds later, only now it is getting painful, and Ryo thinks that maybe he should say something because he is the older one, surely the more experienced one, he is the one who came here tonight. Ryo does not realize he has been licking his own lower lip, until it is Shige who suddenly moves forward to catch the tip of Ryo’s tongue between his lips. Then there are teeth and tongues and more nails and hair being pulled and Ryo’s hands flying to Shige’s hair, combing through it over and over again, and his body leaning forward more and more, head tilting, eyes finally closing. He hears harsh breathing, and a seagull cries out, and Ryo pushes his tongue deeper, and Shige groans, and Ryo swallows the sound and tries to get even closer, lets Shige slide deeper too. Only to suddenly be left cold and shivering and completely on his own. Shige stands up and leans over the railing, back turned to Ryo.
All there is to do is breathe deeply and let the scenery, the sounds of water and Shige’s breathing, as Ryo watches his back, calm him down. It does not work as perfectly as a few months back, and Ryo stands up, runs his hand down Shige’s spine, and when the other only jerks at the touch and does not look back, Ryo knows his cue. He leaves, sliding the door to the porch closed behind himself, and takes the same train Nino does the next day because that way he can follow those two being all disgusting together and is not left alone with his stupid unresolved crush. He can still taste it on the tip of his tongue. Maybe he needs a new toothbrush.
- - -
Ueda has a lot to say about one of his coworkers being off in Tokyo with a mermaid lover and another one giving him notice the first thing the morning after he comes back from the sea. He calms down and comes to sit next to Shige on the pier where Ohno usually sits with his easel later that day. They talk about mermaids and ocean and life and living it for a while. Ueda gives Shige the address of some lady he had stayed with when he studied in Tokyo and tells him that he better come back a very successful man or crawling, begging to be taken back, and that there is nothing in between. Shige packs his cameras and one duffle bag and leaves a month later, not really hoping for miracles.
Two months later, he is working part time for a photographer, taking some art classes in a dodgy art center and craving takoyaki. He also needs a second job and figures the aquarium is his best shot given he has pretty damn good references. Even if all he does is mop floors, it will be water and fish again, and he misses the ocean even if it is supposedly somewhere in Tokyo. He feels like it is far away, and he can hardly trace its scent in the air.
He knocks on the door of the guy he was told to go to, is told to enter, does so and then almost falls back out the door when he sees two men talking in the office. The slightly prissy man sitting behind the desk with a name tag saying Matsumoto Jun raises a manicured eyebrow, and the other turns around at that.
“Mermaids do not exist,” Ryo says in what seems to be the conclusion of his previous speech, and Shige wants to laugh despite his stomach making one summersault after another.
“But I hear you make a pretty one yourself,” he says. Ryo falls off the edge of the table on which he is sitting.
“You are hired,” Matsumoto Jun says. Ryo glares. Shige really laughs this time. Suddenly he can smell fish in the air, clearly breaking through the clean smell of this aquarium.
“You still have bad hair,” Ryo says when he finally gets up and makes it to Shige in two quick steps. He runs his hand through Shige’s short hair freely, with no care in the world, and grins at him.
Shige blushes and Ryo pushes him out the door. “He’ll come sign the contract some other day,” he shouts back at-what Shige hopes is-his friend. “And you should stop by the Institute sometime.” Shige is already hardly breathing, and the stress of making a completely wrong first impression on his new boss is only a small part of the reason for that. He prepares himself for a barrage of questions, for teasing about working the mop again, for reproof because he has not contacted Ryo, for anything but . . .
“I’ll show you where they keep turtles around here,” before Ryo drags and pushes him around a few corners, into the part where there is water behind glass panes everywhere, down two corridors and into a corner where there are most certainly no turtles. Shige is slammed against the glass, the collar of his shirt almost tearing from the way Ryo clutches and pulls at it to make Shige lean down. Then there are teeth and tongues and nails digging into skin right away and water roaring in Shige’s ears. He wonders if he ever left home.
omake
“I call this one Tegoshi. He is friendly but has a really piercing voice, so be careful,” Ueda says quietly, the light of the boat reflecting off the small glittering scales that shape an impressive tail.
Ohno smiles and leans a little closer to the edge. “Thank you for taking me with you, Ueda-kun.”
Ueda hums and pushes the play button, a Gackt song resounding into the vast nothing. Tegoshi makes a sharp turn under the water, swims all the way to the surface and flips his tail with strength, splashing water all over Ueda and Ohno.
“Oh, maybe something more cheerful then,” Ueda notes and hurries off to change the music.
end
A/N: I really am not one for supernatural creatures, but I did have fun writing this, trying to avoid them I guess. Unfortunately then I had to edit it and had it beta read, and it seems I had too much fun writing it, which resulted in it being not so readable and me being bitter about a result of lots of thinking and writing? IDEK I did my best, so I hope natsudive found it at least a bit to her liking. And I can say good bye to the mermaids now.
Pairing/Group: Ryo/Shige, appearances by other members of NEWS and Arashi
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some people believe in mermaids. 9372 words, AU
Notes: For natsudive, written for je_holiday 2010, originally posted here. Includes an omake that didn´t make it into the original post because it is so out there, so feel free to skip it.
Summary: Ryo is forced to follow his colleague who insists on the existence of mermaids to a marine reserve way too far away from Tokyo. Shige thinks Ryo should just go back where he came from. Life in the marine reserve, however, goes on, quirky marine scientists not so easily disturbed by the arrival of two strangers.
Beta by tokeruyouna. THANK YOU!
“Ohno-kun, is something wrong?” Shige asks as he passes the pier leading out into the ocean.
“Fish are strangely quiet today,” Ohno answers, not taking his eyes off the horizon, the paper on his easel strangely empty.
Shige only laughs. Ohno sounds as if that was a bad omen, but what could fish know? If they actually talked, that is.
- - -
“The air is too fresh,” Nishikido Ryo says and lights a cigarette the moment he and his companion get off the train.
“I can smell mermaids in the air,” Nino answers.
Ryo thinks it is funny how hard Nino tries not to skip. He also thinks he is a bit too far away from Tokyo. He cannot see the ocean yet, but he can already smell the fish. It stinks.
- - -
“I’m Ninomiya Kazunari, and this is my junior colleague Nishikido Ryo,” Nino says, looking the awkward boy with a mop standing in front of them up and down, “and we are looking for your boss.”
“He is out at sea,” the boy says, and Ryo notices the boy, no, he is more a young man, giving him a look.
“Well then, just show us the mermaids,” Nino says happily, handing his bags to the guy, who drops them when the words register.
“Excuse me?”
Ryo sighs. “Who is in charge of this place when the boss is not present?” He asks. Junior colleague his ass, he is a babysitter. That was the word Yoko had used. He throws his cigarette butt into the water, and the boy glares then pulls a net out of the bucket he had been carrying and hurriedly reaches for the trash, dropping it onto Ryo’s shoes once he has fished it out.
“Turtles would not appreciate that,” he says coldly. “Look for Aiba Masaki, if you want to,” he grits out, turns on his heel and leaves.
“Hey bad hair maintenance guy, what is your name?” Ryo calls after him. Shige does not turn around.
- - -
“How is it going, Oh-chan?” Aiba asks, sitting cross-legged on the pier and poking a fish with a knife.
“How is your experiment?” Ohno asks in reply.
“It blows. Literally.” Aiba shrugs.
On hearing that, Shige drops everything and runs towards the laboratories. He finds two assistants with fire extinguishers, but they seem to have things under control. Then he sees those two from before-the Ninomiya guy poking at things with mild interest, the Nishikido one holding a bucket of water. Shige hopes there were no fish in it.
“What the fuck is this place?” Nishikido swears, his glare made ineffective by a huge black smudge on his equally big nose.
“And who the hell are you?” Shige asks in return, picking up a fallen microscope.
“We are marine scientists from Tokyo Marine Institute,” Nino murmurs, poking a dead frog, “and we came here to conduct research on-”
“-on unusual saltwater species,” Ryo finishes Nino’s sentence that he had interrupted with a hard nudge to Nino’s side. “We sent you a memo,” he adds.
Now that Shige thinks about it, there was something. Not that it is his business. The Ninomiya guy is suspicious and the Nishikido guy is an asshole, in his opinion anyway.
“Follow me,” he sighs and leads the way to the pier. He hears Nishikido muttering something about fish smell everywhere. Ninomiya seems to ignore him. He is singing some song under his breath that sounds a lot like the theme from The Little Mermaid.
Shige stops by the main pier. “See those two at the end of the pier? They are Aiba Masaki and Ohno Satoshi, currently the most experienced staff of this marine reserve. When you’re done talking, come find Kato Shigeaki,” he says, bows and heads back to the lab.
“Shige,” he hears Nishikido call after him, and when he turns to face him, the man is giving him a fake, wide smile and waving his hand like a five year old.
- - -
”So who exactly are you?” Ryo asks Shige and watches him pick up Nino’s heavy bags. Shige winces and glares at Nino, and Ryo thinks he is cute and just a little stuck up. “Because if you secretly run this place and just like to wander around looking like a janitor, then I need to know so I can actually be nice to you. Being on good terms with important people is useful.”
“He just wants a room that is as far away from the fish as possible,” Nino informs Shige and leads the way. Shige does not bother shouting after him when he turns into the wrong alley. Ryo likes him a little more for that. As much as you can use the word like with regards to someone with bad hair and a constant frown who never looks at you properly.
“Oi Shige,” Ryo says again and grabs one of the bags from him. “I am a guest, behave.”
“This is your cabin. Ninomiya has the big one over there, and you can keep the keys to it for now. Once security issues your access cards and initial passwords, you will have access to all the facilities. I hope your research goes well.” Shige is gone before Ryo can tell him at least one other thing he finds wrong about him. Maybe, he thinks, he should come up with a compliment to shout at him next time. Just in case. Ryo is starting to think he really does run this place. He seems to be the only one who knows what is going on anyway.
- - -
“So Oh-chan, tell me about the mermaids,” Shige hears Nino saying. He is sitting next to Ohno, legs dangling off the pier, and is offering Ohno some sweets.
“Do you like them?” Ohno pauses in his drawing and stares at nothing. “I like them,” he adds.
“I've never met them,” Nino says, and Shige could swear he can hear him sulking.
“Hmmmm,” is all Ohno says back and pats Nino's hair.
“I work with lunatics. I was hoping it would be a bit better down here,” Ryo appears next to Shige. “I must be catching the stupid from them if I thought so.”
“I think you fit in pretty well as you are,” Shige notes mockingly, but his mouth twitches upwards when Ryo only rolls his eyes and places his burnt out cigarette into a portable ashtray.
“For the turtles,” Ryo mutters. “So Shige, where can I get spectacularly drunk and even more spectacularly laid around here?” He asks after a minute and flashes Shige a cheesy smile.
Shige resists the urge to push him into the water. But. He cannot stand fish. He might not be able to swim either. He writes down the address of a small ramen place that his friend runs. It has good sake and a nice wooden bar too. When he finds himself opening the front door of that shop later that evening, he has to question his own sanity.
- - -
Ryo wakes up in the morning not knowing what happened last night or where he is for that matter. He is sure it is not that hole of a cabin of his, but it most certainly is not a penthouse either. In all honesty, from where he lies on the bed, seeing the small kitchen table and the counter behind it, it looks even smaller than his temporary living arrangements. He stirs, and when he hears nothing but the ocean, he slowly gets up.
He moves slowly not only because of the headache but because he still has no clue about where he is or who brought him here. He stumbles into the bathroom where he finds a clean towel and a toothbrush still in the store packaging. He raises an eyebrow but essentially is happy to clean up. Once he is done, he finds a note and keys on the kitchen table along with some fruit and a water bottle.
Lock up on your way out. Leave the key in the mail box.
No signature. No sign of anyone. Ryo huffs but figures it might be a bit easier this way. He gives the place one last look and cannot help but notice a few photographs in simple frames, mostly of nature and fish and other sea creatures, and a pencil sketch of a mermaid. Fucking mermaids. Who believes in fairytales anyway?
Ryo’s head hurts a bit more when he shuts the door behind him not so carefully. He clearly got spectacularly drunk last night, even if at first he swore to be extra mean to Shige when he found himself in a ramen shop of all things, staring at the overly soft, smiling face of a lanky guy behind the bar. He now wonders if he also got spectacularly laid. He wiggles his ass a little and figures that if he did, he was the one doing the laying. He smirks. Maybe things would not be so bad around here. He has been rather willing to open his legs lately, and it was getting a bit out of hand. This could be a good brand new start. And this apartment is in an awesome location. There is a fresh breeze, the ocean and the beach right across a small pathway, and it is apparently close to the reserve. Maybe later on he could stop by to find out who he went home with last night.
When he gets to the marine reserve, Nino is nowhere to be found, but Ryo’s access cards are done, so he figures he can at least do some work. He sees Shige a few times as he moves around, exploring everything that is available around here on his own, and the guy always gives him this half smirk, half nervous smile. It is puzzling. But Ryo is now convinced that if Shige does not run this place, then no one does. Maybe that is it, actually. He ends up in a laboratory, surprisingly clean and functioning after the fire from the previous day, and settles behind one of the lab stations. He does not believe in mermaids, but he is perfectly happy to kick ass at his own research while he is here. He never did promise to keep an eye on Nino. Yoko had just assumed.
- - -
That is how Shige finds Ryo, leaning over a microscope, hair in his face making Shige wonder how he can actually see anything, expression focused though little lost in the way all the scientists around here get lost in their work. Shige is genuinely surprised. Yet again. He fumbles a little, and the door hits his back as it closes. Ryo looks up.
“I thought you hated fish,” Shige settles on after a moment of silent staring.
“Fish smell. I am fine with octopuses. Or just anything but fish, really,” Ryo says, still a little distracted.
“That makes no sense,” Shige argues. All ocean wildlife has that salty, slightly piercing smell in his opinion.
“What do you know?” And Ryo is scribbling something down onto a sheet of paper and looking back into the microscope. Shige forgets why he came here and only watches him. It is intriguing to see this side of Nishikido Ryo.
“Ohno took Ninomiya-kun fishing with him,” he says, startled, when he realizes he has been staring for a while.
No answer.
“I don’t know why you came down here, but there are no mermaids in this reserve or anywhere close by. So please do not fool around and leave if you just came to cause a ruckus.” Shige does not know why he is saying that, but Ohno had looked so excited that morning and had mentioned that Ninomiya guy and had been beaming while he ate his breakfast. And Shige does not like it.
Ryo looks up at that. “Of course there are no mermaids here. They do not exist,” he says sternly. “And believe me, I would be on the next train back to Tokyo, were it up to me.”
End of discussion, Shige dismissed. He sighs and picks up the last case of broken glass from yesterday, leaving Ryo to his research. He is almost out the door when Ryo shouts after him.
“Takoyaki. I like that. You should show me where they have good takoyaki around here.”
Shige looks back, and Ryo is already working again, biting his lip. He sighs.
“Okay, but no drinks this time,” he says, and Ryo bangs his head on the microscope. Shige is suddenly in a much better mood and hums under his breath as he leaves for real this time.
- - -
Ryo does not want to know why Shige is making comments about how wasted he got yesterday. Not really. Only he keeps wondering why and how, and he cannot concentrate on his work, and his headache returns with a vengeance. What does it matter? Besides, Shige was the one who gave him the address; he had probably come by that night, seen him hanging off someone else’s shoulder or something and assumed things. But Ryo does not feel like returning to the small flat with a very nice porch facing the ocean anymore. Suddenly he does not want to find out who it belongs to. He is such a terrible drunk too. All mushy and clingy and other things.
After another hour of pointless staring at miniature things moving in strange, fast patterns, Ryo gives up and decides to go to the small dock the reserve has with the intention of waiting for Nino and scolding him for seducing a random marine scientist with ulterior motives of seeing his mermaids. He sits on one of the decks, getting sunburned and thinking of things that are most certainly not Shige, a man who he had met just yesterday and possibly managed to already have a one night stand with. Though why that is wrong he cannot tell. Shige looks acceptable for a quickie, and it is not like there are any work-related ethics issues or morals involved.
Ryo has plenty of time to think it through as Nino returns only ten hours later, when it is already dark and after Ryo has had several fits of rage and freak outs, attempted to call lifeguards and the water police and shouted at everyone, including Shige, because you do not go fishing and stay out for that long, not when you are Ninomiya Kazunari and like your comfort, and something needs to be done, because oh my god Nino went crazy, and they are dead somewhere on the bottom of the ocean where Nino dragged Ohno, persuading him that was where the mermaids were.
But Shige only looks at him calmly at first, a little amused later on, and ends up shaking him while trying to say all will be just fine. Ryo blushes as Shige’s fingers brush his arms when he lets his own fall from Ryo’s shoulders, so he shuts up. Nino arrives at last, and that bastard laughs at him, hand loosely around Ohno’s shoulders, and then whispers something to Ohno about Ryo-chan being a softie. Ohno just smiles and looks at Shige.
“Shige knows I go out to sea for days at time,” he says calmly. “And I said we’d come back tonight.”
Ryo stomps off and decides this is a good excuse to cancel the takoyaki da-meet up. Only he is hungry, so his stomach rumbles louder than he does, and Shige laughs and brings some fried rice from somewhere to his cabin. They eat it outside on the steps in silence that is fucking awkward, but Ryo does not know what to say, and Shige seems to be content just giggling under his breath from time to time, and Ryo is tired so whatever. It is food and company and the end of a fucking long and stupid day, and when he slumps back against the upper step and watches Shige’s back, he can only breathe deeply as the atmosphere slowly calms him down, and that is fine too.
- - -
Shige would be stupid if he gave up the upper hand that Ryo had unwittingly handed over by clearly not remembering a thing from the first night he spent here. He has had his share of fun in the past month. He enjoys the fact Ryo is much meeker at times when he allows himself to wonder about it and drops his tough act. He would be much more surprised by Ryo’s worries for Nino had he not gone to Koyama’s ramen store that night. But as it is, he now knows that Ryo somehow cares in his twisted way and is much more harmless than he lets on. He is also slightly quirky, interesting, quick to argue and banter with Shige or help him clean when Aiba blows something up, and he is the new element that Shige needed so much in this forgotten place. And he surfs, looking damn great riding out waves, Shige thinks as he watches him catch another one. The white foam on their ridges makes Ryo look kind of surreal. Damn it. Of course Shige has to get all poetic and cannot keep his emotions at bay and has to screw everything up because of feelings.
“That night, at Koyama’s, you were so drunk I would not be surprised if you did not remember a thing,” Shige says when Ryo slumps onto the sand next to him thirty minutes later, eyes closed, chest heaving from the effort, muscles straining under his tanned skin, water glistening on his skin, leaving small, salty marks.
Ryo’s eyebrow twitches, but he only grunts. Of course he does not admit it. Shige knows better than to expect that.
“I mean after we left, you could barely walk, so I still have no clue how you managed to throw me out of my own bed, get undressed and fall asleep in record time, even before I pulled out my spare futon.”
Shige is watching Ryo for his reaction, but today the other is able to hide behind the wet fringe and still closed eyelids. “You kept talking dirty about how you wanted to fuck me, but it was so funny because really you could barely lift a finger. I don’t think you could have possibly gotten anything else-”
“Why would I want to fuck you of all people?” Ryo finally speaks up, his eyes opening abruptly, piercing Shige. They are laughing a little though.
“True. I’m just a maintenance guy with bad hair and an old mop,” Shige nods.
Ryo leans over him, pokes him in the ribs and shakes the water out of his hair all over Shige.
“Exactly,” he says nonchalantly in the end and goes to pick up his board. “And I could have gotten it up, had I wanted to,” he murmurs mostly to himself, but Shige hears him anyway.
Right, Shige thinks, even though he knows Ryo was mostly joking. So much for his upper hand. But that is fine too. It was fun while it lasted.
- - -
Relief is the only word in Ryo’s mind as he sits on his step that night, watching Ohno and Nino on the porch of Nino’s cabin. He can see a deck of cards and sake. Magic tricks. He snorts. He does not know why Shige caved and admitted nothing happened today, not that he had been hinting before that something had happened, it probably was just Ryo’s wild imagination, but maybe it is a sign that he finally trusts Ryo a little. He did not for the longest time. After Ryo had calmed down after his outburst about mermaids, Shige had started watching him, watching them, even more. He had asked subtle questions at first, but in the end, he had taken Ryo to Koyama’s again and told Ryo he would get him so drunk he would not remember his name if that was what it took for Ryo to speak.
So Ryo had told him how Nino had seen Ohno’s pictures that are going to be exhibited in Tokyo as part of a huge environmental project the Japanese marine association is preparing, how he believes in mermaids and dreams of being the one to prove they exist, and how it is all ridiculous and how he had been forced to come down with him because Nino would not shut up after seeing those pictures and their boss got annoyed. He really hates it here because it is calm and small and smells like fish, and the water is pretty, and the sea life is beautiful, and it all makes him mad somehow. And mermaids do not exist.
“But Nino is harmless. I promise he will not hurt Ohno,” is what Ryo had told Shige, and then he had told Nino to be damn careful and not do stupid things, and Nino had just smirked, and that was it.
They had had lunch after that, all of them together, where Shige had made Aiba swear there were no mermaids, and he had said the same, over and over again. Ohno had sat there, munching on his food contently, smiling when Nino kept stroking his thigh under the table not so subtly, and humming noncommittally in response to the conversation. And Nino had not believed a word they said. But Shige had seemed to relax a bit.
- - -
“What is it, Oh-chan?” Shige asks when Ohno comes to find him by the seal pool and takes the fish he has been feeding them from him. It is not even Shige’s task, let alone Ohno’s, but it seems Shige is not the only one with things on his mind. Or people. From Tokyo. Who are smartasses and annoying and maybe just a little great. He has seen Nino’s doings, the guy having played pranks of most of the employees of the marine reserve by now, Ohno included. Shige wonders if they have some special criteria for employees of the Tokyo Marine Institute.
“Nino is sad,” Ohno sighs and throws another fish.
“I’m sure he’ll get over it.” That manipulative creeper. Shige’s fish flies all the way over to the deck on the other side of the pool. Shige sighs, and Ohno giggles a little.
“You want to cheer him up?” Shige asks, happy he has managed to do the same for Ohno with his natural ability to fail at a task as simple as feeding the seals.
“Can I do that?” Ohno tilts his head, weighing a fish in his hand, and Shige wonders if he is talking about throwing a fish all the way across the pool or about cheering Nino up.
“I’ll ask Ryo,” Shige mutters. Ohno grins.
At least this way Shige has another excuse to seek Ryo out. Maybe they can finally go and eat that takoyaki he promised to take him to what now feels like ages ago. They see each other much less lately. Shige is generally busy running around, and once Ryo had settled in and gotten used to the idea that he was going to spend some time here, he had gotten serious about his research. Shige sees him stuck in the labs sometimes from early morning to late at night, and at those times, he does not want to disturb him. Other times, Ryo goes out to the sea to dive deep into the water, always coming back with something interesting in his net or pictures. Never fish though. Shige chuckles thinking about it.
Sometimes Ryo takes Shige with him, to cover his back, watch his depth, his air, and stuff. Shige spends those days looking at the vast expanse of blue and has a bit too much time to think in general, out there, where everything seems slow and quiet except the seagulls hovering over their heads and water crashing into their speedboat. It makes Shige more restless, more discontent. Maybe that is why he has been pretending to be too busy to go with Ryo lately, though always making sure someone goes instead of him. Someone who is not Aiba. Someone responsible.
“Hey,” Shige says and hands Ryo a beer. Ryo is sitting on the stairs of his cabin and is looking into the night.
“And I thought you didn’t like me anymore,” Ryo fake pouts, voice light and only a little accusing.
“I have a favor to ask,” Shige says and sits next to Ryo.
“Of course,” Ryo sighs. “I hate being stuck here. I want to go back to Tokyo where I have real friends and where I can run away from fish and where I don’t need to be doing favors for janitors who think they run this place . . .” Ryo trails off. Shige fidgets, wonders what got Ryo into such a foul mood all of a sudden.
“I’ll tell you what. I will take you out to eat the best takoyaki you have ever had so that maybe you’ll like this place a little more for it. We can try to plot some way to get you out of here soon-ish. And in return you will hear me out.”
“Is that supposed to be a date, Shige? Do you suddenly miss me?” Ryo perks up, probably at the mention of food and octopuses. Shige bumps their shoulders together, deciding he may as well indulge Ryo for a bit.
“If you want it to be. But you know, I am still just some stupid janitor guy who needs a favor.” Shige does not wait for the answer. He gets up and then turns around one more time. “Tomorrow at eight, meet me at the main pier.”
- - -
Shige is already sitting on the pier, legs dangling close to the water, when Ryo arrives the next day. He is clutching a camera and following a seagull with it.
“Are we taking couple pictures today?” Ryo asks, suddenly in a much better mood. “Shige, I didn’t know you were this sentimental,” he continues cheerily. “Here, I’ll pose for you.”
He strikes a pose, a smile and a peace sign, head cocked to the side. Shige laughs and looks into the camera. Ryo does not hear the shutter go off though.
“Nah, that’s no good, Ryo-chan,” Shige says and hides the camera away too quickly for Ryo to do anything about it. It was quite a fancy one, now that Ryo thinks about it. He is a little disappointed though and even forgets to be offended by Shige calling him the same thing Nino does yet again. Why does that always happen anyway?
“You must be really popular among girls with an attitude like that,” Ryo says and taps his foot so that Shige moves.
“I honestly do not care about being popular with girls,” Shige mutters and finally gets up and looks Ryo straight in the eye. “I thought you’d know that by now.”
And Ryo probably does, but Shige did not have to say it like that. Ryo looks down, stuffs his hands into his pockets.
“Let’s go,” he says and actually leads the way away from the ocean.
“I’m sorry you miss home so much. It must be hard to be away for so long,” Shige says later in the evening. They are sitting on the bar stools of some takoyaki stand, deep in the town, cramped street smelling of food and too many people passing by.
Ryo huffs around his cigarette; he had not been that serious about hating it here, but Shige only continues, poking his food and not looking at him.
“I mean, I cannot imagine just picking up and leaving, going somewhere where I don’t know anyone, where I have never been before.”
“So that’s why you are spending your time here, mopping floors?” Ryo does not know where the anger is coming from, but he stabs his food with a vengeance, “because you are too afraid to leave? What kind of life is that, Shige? Are you stupid?”
Shige looks at him sharply, but then he goes back to his food.
“Is that how you see me? As a useless guy who cleans the mess up after you wonderful scientists?” Ryo hears bitterness in Shige’s voice and wonders who exactly thinks that. And why is this turning out to be such a depressing night.
“I just meant. Tokyo wasn’t always my home. I made it that. It was hard work, but now I like it there. You could do that too, you know.”
“So the Osaka accent is real,” Shige muses, and suddenly Ryo catches a slight trace of the same in Shige’s voice.
“No way.”
“No, not really,” Shige laughs. “I was small when I moved here.”
They stay quiet after that, drinking and watching the owner making food for the passers-by. Ryo finds himself a little tipsy when he orders some more takoyaki and realizes he still does not know why Shige had called him out tonight.
“About the favor,” he starts, turns to Shige only to find him already facing him.
“Ah yeah. Ohno says Nino is sad. So I was hoping.”
“You can’t be serious!” Ryo wants to leave.
“I was thinking actually,” Shige says and reaches for Ryo’s elbow to make him sit back. His fingers stay there, clutching onto Ryo afterwards, and Ryo decides not to point it out. “He is probably just sulking because there are no mermaids, right? So this is your chance. I do want to help Oh-chan, but if Nino is down, maybe you should try and suggest you go back. And when all is ready, we’ll think of something. Maybe Ohno could give him one of his drawings to cheer him up, or we could dress Ohno as mermaid for him, I think Ohno would do it, and I could . . . take a picture. But you’d still leave, and everything would go back to normal.” Shige is rambling. And he apparently wants Ryo to leave. Ryo kicks his chair to stop him from talking.
“I don’t think Nino is going to give up that easily. And it is a real relief to know how much you want me gone,” Ryo finishes. Shige’s fingers finally fall from his elbow.
“You hate it here,” is all he says.
Ryo turns back to face the stand. “One more round of food and drinks,” he orders. “And master, your takoyaki is the best I’ve ever had,” he adds and stuffs his face then proceeds to stuff Shige’s mouth until he cannot fit anymore into it. That should shut him up.
They are still sitting there when the master wants to close the shop a bit before dawn. Ryo’s head slumped against Shige’s shoulder, Shige’s hand clutching his drink and his eyes hard, looking into the dark.
- - -
Shige does not manage to refuse when Ryo asks him to go out to sea the next time to come up with something genius to cheer Nino up. Ryo can be pretty damn forceful when he really wants to.
“Just because Ohno with droopy eyes is disgusting,” Ryo says when Shige asks why Ryo is helping him.
Once out on the ocean, Ryo still goes under the water near one of the coral reefs, and Shige is left to entertain himself once again. His mind wanders to their last serious talk, and he does not like how Ryo sees right through him. How he says exactly what Shige thinks. How a few months to save some money and plan things had turned into a few years after Shige finished high school. He could not afford college at the time and was not sure if that was what he wanted anyway. He had a part-time job at the marine reserve and liked the people there. When he had said he would like to stay, the boss had cheered and said he finally had a responsible employee and could sometimes go out to sea himself and had given him a slight raise, and Shige had been happy. Just for a little longer, he kept telling himself. It has been too long by now. He does not feel the sign to pull Ryo out by the rope that he always brings down with him, so Shige is startled when Ryo suddenly splashes water all over him and grins up from the water.
“I got a great idea,” he says, pulling his mask off.
“You came up without help?” Shige raises an eyebrow.
“I wasn’t too deep,” Ryo holds out a hand and Shige pulls him up.
“Hey, that is that camera again,” Ryo points to the black shiny gadget that Shige barely protected from all the water. “No wait, this one is a different one. Shige, how many of these do you have and why?”
Shige shrugs. “Janitors have hobbies too.” It earns him a smack over head.
“Is this what you always do when I’m down there? I want to see.” Ryo makes grabby hands at the camera, and Shige has to push him in order to protect it from further damage.
“It’s nothing,” Shige mutters and puts the camera back into his bag. “Now what is this idea of yours?” he asks, annoyed.
“Oh, I know what will cheer Nino up,” Ryo pulls off his wet suit, and Shige quickly starts the boat up, concentrating on maneuvering away from the coral to prevent himself from staring (too much).
“So how good are your craft skills anyway?” Ryo appears next to him with a towel around his shoulders a moment later. He runs his hand through Shige’s longish hair, fingers brushing against Shige’s skull, and hums in approval. Shige suppresses a shiver and pulls away.
“Oh come on, Shige,” Ryo laughs, but it is a strained laughter for some reason. “Maybe it’s good you did not cut your hair,” he says as an explanation of his action. “You’ll make a pretty mermaid. Koyama’s sister should lend you bikini. Shige jolts, and to prevent an accident, he stops the boat before turning to Ryo and screaming “WHAT?!”
Ryo just grins. “We are cosplaying mermaids.”
Shige has another urge to drown Ryo. It has been some time since he had one.
- - -
“You are one hard to find guy,” Ryo says and blows his hair out of his eyes when he finally manages to open the right door in the office building at the reserve. He realizes he has not been here that much.
Shige scratches his nose as he glances up at him from behind tons of papers and goes right back to whatever he had been doing before Ryo came in. It would be a little cute if it did not mean Ryo was being ignored.
“Hey, nice office. For a maintenance guy anyway.” Ryo looks around and sees a spacious desk, bookshelves, pictures of damn mermaids everywhere, some certificates awarded to a person that most likely is not Shige, though he looks right at home behind the desk.
The fax machine beeps then, and Shige reaches to accept the incoming fax. He sighs and looks up at Ryo, who is getting kind of mad. What is this disinterest?
“Everything is ready,” he says quickly when he finally has Shige’s attention again.
“What?!”
“Why do you look surprised? We’ve been at this for two weeks.” Ryo is getting genuinely angry. Shige wanted his help after all. “The costumes are ready, and they look almost exactly like the patterns Ohno drew for us. Aiba promised to come by with a boat so that we are visible in the light. I’ll take care of the air tank so that we don’t actually drown faking mermaids. All you have to do is get Ohno to bring Nino out on a nice evening walk. I’m sure Nino won’t protest.”
Shige looks at him blankly. “I guess I just thought that common sense would kick in at some point and you would give up.”
“Shige!” Ryo stomps his foot then bites his lip on seeing Shige jerk and knock over a pile of paperwork. “Come on, it will be fun, and pranking Nino, even if he’ll never know, is my life goal.”
No answer, more papers shuffling.
“Shige, what the hell are you doing anyway?”
“Oh, you know, sorting the mail and stuff, checking on anything that can’t wait, taking care of electricity bills . . .” Shige gets distracted by the fax that had arrived earlier, and skimming over the address quickly, he hands it to Ryo the next second.
“Tokyo Marine Institute. I believe that one is for you.”
Ryo grabs the paper and reads it hastily. Yoko. Impatient, hasty, pissed off. “Tonight at eleven, by the main pier. And you better be there. Tell Ohno to come around midnight. It will be magical or something like that,” Ryo stomps away, clutching the fax in his hand. He needs to find Nino. They are going home. Finally. He should be happy. He should be packing his bags, not cosplaying mermaids. Somehow, it makes him mad.
- - -
“If I survive this, I’m never speaking to you again,” Shige grits his teeth, looking at the two huge tails spread on the pier. It distracts him even from looking at Ryo in only shorts.
“Well that’s okay because you won’t really have to,” Ryo says, and it is somehow angry.
“What, are you planning to transform and stay living under the water or something?” Shige cannot help but ask with irony. “Is that why we are doing this at midnight and during the full moon?”
“Just forget it,” Ryo hisses and points at one of the tails. “That one is yours. I’ll take the longer one.”
Shige finally cracks and bursts out laughing. This is hilarious and kind of insane, and he will sink to the bottom of the ocean trying to swim with that thing instead of his legs, even if it has swimming fins at the end. And now Ryo wants the longer tail.
“What are you compensating for exactly, Ryo-chan?” he asks between the fits of giggles, and Ryo glares, though he seems to relax a bit.
“I don’t know what you are on about,” he says and throws a weird shiny armband at Shige. Ohno and the costume maker had gone a bit overboard.
Shige cannot stop laughing and starts to reach for the longer tail. “It’s heavier; you don’t have legs long enough to swing it properly. I’m taking that.”
“No, you are not,” Ryo pulls at the fin. “I said longer is mine!”
“You know, I think your shortcomings won’t matter to Nino as long as you have fins and pretty nipples,” Shige doubles over laughing again. He regrets not bringing a camera, but he would not have any place to hide it.
“Shut up,” Ryo pushes him a little and lets go of the tail. “Now get ready. I need to show you where the air tank is.”
Shige starts breathing slowly and finally calms down. He runs his hand over the strange surface of the tail and sits on the edge, hoping this will be over soon enough and Nino will not kill them and present them to the sharks when he finds out.
“How is this supposed to cheer him up? Besides if he actually somehow believes we are mermen, he will want to stay here longer, you know. And you want to go home,” Shige protests while struggling to slip into the tail. Ryo flips onto his back next to him, already in gear, and stays lying down, looking at the sky, silent.
“He won’t. He said it would be okay to just see at least one. So that he can keep on believing. Besides we can’t stay here forever,” Ryo says eventually, and Shige wonders if he is channeling Nino’s sadness because he sounds somehow down. He crawls next to Ryo and collapses, chest heaving. He thinks they are already like fish on the dry land, flopping around helplessly.
“Now what?”
“Now we wait for Aiba to come with the underwater light boat so we can try this. Then he will leave and come back only after Nino and Ohno arrive.”
“What did he say when you told him about this?” Shige is giggling again.
“He said it was a fascinating experiment, and he wants to know what the costumes are made from.”
Shige has to calm down after that yet again. When he is done laughing, he does not know what to say, so he just stays silent, shivers from time to time as the night breeze sweeps across the pier and lets himself be soothed by the slow breathing of Ryo next to him, their shoulders brushing.
“Hey my little mermen,” Aiba suddenly appears above them, right in their vision. “Ohno says they are not coming.”
Ryo swears. Shige feels a little relieved. “Something about Nino leaving soon and them wanting to go night fishing for the last time and about cheering Nino up in different ways,” Aiba finishes.
“Leaving?” Shige asks, but Ryo just swears one more time and starts to struggle out of his tail.
Aiba watches them for a while. “You are very pretty mermen. Especially Shige with his long hair. Ueda would like it,” he says and picks up the tails when they get out of them, Shige blushing, Ryo confused. Aiba hands them their clothes that he had brought with him and turns to leave.
“Interesting. And pretty and shiny. Nice handy work,” they hear him mumbling.
“Ueda?” Ryo asks. Shige forgets about leaving. Aiba had managed to blurt out things once again.
“Our boss, Ueda Tatsuya.”
“What does your boss have to do with mermaids?” Ryo eyes him suspiciously, and Shige quickly dresses, not liking the scrutiny.
“He and Ohno always talk for long hours after Ueda returns from the sea. About mermaids. Ohno draws them how Ueda . . . describes them.” Shige looks at Ryo with a bit of fear. They had agreed to keep this from the Tokyo scientists when they had arrived. Some things are better off staying under the water. Whether Ueda is telling the truth or not.
“Just another crazy lunatic,” Ryo says, and Shige feels relieved. “Hey, why do you look so stressed? And what is with all the secrets anyway? First you taking pictures, now your crazy boss, why do you keep things from me like that?”
Ryo shoves Shige playfully. It seems as if he is more teasing than accusing, but Shige is still a little startled, and he loses his balance and falls into the water.
Now it is Ryo who is laughing. So Shige reaches out, and when Ryo goes to help him, he pulls him in with him. He had wanted to see him falling into the water ever since Ryo had arrived. Ryo kicks him underwater, and Shige splashes water into his face, and they gasp and mock fight and get out a while later, sprinting to the bay cabin for towels. Lying on the pier wrapped in them and mumbling about each other being idiots and evil and useless and total misfortunes is too comfortable. Shige’s heart does not want to calm down, and he senses every move of Ryo’s next to him that much more, wants to lean over, or reach for his hand, but of course he will not because this is Ryo and that is not what they are. Not at all.
“I’m leaving next week. Nino and I both are. The fax today,” Shige does not hear more because suddenly the ocean roars in his ears a bit too loudly.
Then Ryo is hovering over him, saying Shige, but Shige only sees his lips moving, his eyes dark, half hidden by his hair, and Ryo smells like ocean and something else, something Shige cannot have.
“Well it was about time,” Shige gets out, stands up and practically runs all the way to his apartment.
- - -
Ryo needs to wrap up his research, pack his bag, say goodbye to the turtles and eat octopuses all in a period of four days. He also needs to deal with one janitor/guy for everything/shadow boss/maybe photographer/kind of crush of his that has been nowhere to be found. Which is easy to achieve since the reserve is vast, Shige is busy and running around even when he is not actively avoiding Ryo, and Ryo has enough on his own plate. Like Ohno coming with them for the ride.
“I’m going to show him around Tokyo, and his exhibition is starting soon,” Nino had explained, and Ohno had grinned, dropping a huge duffle bag onto a pile of things they were taking back. Did they really have so much on their way here?
A shiver runs down Ryo’s spine as he imagines those two keeping this whole act up, stealing long glances and touching and giggling (and in Nino’s case snickering) like five year olds all the way to Tokyo. Maybe Ryo should take an earlier train or walk back home. Walking is good, it clears people’s minds, cures stupid crushes, tires the body, numbs feelings, creates blisters; all of it sounds mostly good to Ryo.
Of course, Ryo knows he is overreacting and it is just Shige, Shige who does not look him in the eye and still only staggers around, messes with his own life and reels in Ryo’s head and is stuck in a marine reserve in the middle of nowhere and damn far away from Tokyo at that, and Ryo cannot stand it. Or the fact that he cares. Even if Shige seems to have his head firmly on his shoulders and seems to have more brains than the rest of this town combined and is smart and sometimes even cool and totally capable and probably even kind of awesome if you look enough he is still stalling. It is still Ohno who is going to Tokyo with them, not Shige. Not that Ryo would ever ask Shige to go with him, and he knows he cannot order Shige around or tell him to finally do something other than mop the floors or mope around because it is not his place.
It does not change anything about the fact that Ryo wants to stuff Shige into one of the duffle bags and show him around Tokyo, show him what life is or could be about or keep him locked in his apartment so he could be the only one with the right to see that Shige may possibly be kind of great and perfect. For Ryo. All in all, everything is peachy, life has never been better, and Ryo’s problems are nothing compared to world climatic changes, financial crises and other hitches of modern civilization. So Ryo does not look for Shige in places where he knows he could find him. Still, the last day he finds himself feeding the seals anyway.
“Ryo-chan, Shige forgot to buy me a new set of brushes,” Ohno says, appearing out of nowhere, and Ryo almost ends up in the water one more time. “Fish are strangely quiet,” Ohno adds, suddenly looking over at the ocean, as if that explains everything.
Really, whatever, if they do not stop stinking, Ryo does not care. He drops the bucket, goes to take a long shower, and on his way out, Ryo shuts the door of his cabin way too loudly, not caring and only hoping some store will still be open so he can stock up on some beer. Lots of it.
It is awkward when Ryo sits down on the steps to Shige’s apartment, contemplating if he wants to ring the bell or not. It is even more awkward when Shige shows up, looks at him for three seconds and then opens his apartment door, waiting for Ryo to follow him. He goes off to wash himself up, and Ryo stands around until he catches sight of a big pile of photographs thrown on the table. Nature, nature, random people, more nature in all kinds of shapes and sizes, colorful or black and white or sepia, a few pictures of Koyama’s shop and Koyama and his girlfriend and his sister and more nature and Ryo flashing a peace sign and more really good breathtaking pictures of nature and Ryo flashing a peace sign?
“You took all these,” Ryo points down at the pile when Shige emerges.
“Yeah,” Shige says quietly and slides open the door to his porch. Ryo inhales the smell of salt and water and old wood and hopes it will be the same back in Tokyo.
“You are good,” Ryo says sternly. “You should . . .” he trails off.
“Stop mopping the decks of a marine reserve and do something with my life,” Shige finishes, stepping outside and opening one of the beers that Ryo had brought in. Ryo drops the pictures back to the table and follows, leaving behind the thoughts of possibly giving an impression of looking down on Shige because he really does not. Shige apparently uses a silent shutter, but that does not seem important anymore.
“I haven’t really seen you around with a mop in hand that much,” Ryo says and sits down on a rattan sofa that Shige has on his porch. Ryo wants to know where Shige got it; it is perfect but does not seem to be an item easily obtained.
Ryo is not a person that knows how to say goodbye. He lacks finesse when it comes to human relationships, when it comes to Shige. So he sits there, clutching the beer that slowly gets warm, and listens to the waves washing away sand grains from the shore.
“What time do you leave tomorrow?” Shige asks much later when all they see are the faint lights of small street lamps and a fishing boat’s light swinging in the waves.
“One train earlier than Nino and Ohno,” Ryo says, and Shige laughs silently next to him. Ryo finally lets his shoulders relax.
Which is a mistake because Shige catches him off guard with his fingers digging into Ryo’s thigh right above his knee and his other hand stealing Ryo’s beer and then sliding up his arm and around to the back of his neck, pulling him closer and then fucking hesitating, right there, when they are millimeters away. Ryo’s eyes were about to flutter closed, but now they are wide open and staring into equally wide and confused eyes, and Ryo is frozen. No finesse whatsoever.
Shige’s nails still dig into Ryo’s leg a few seconds later, only now it is getting painful, and Ryo thinks that maybe he should say something because he is the older one, surely the more experienced one, he is the one who came here tonight. Ryo does not realize he has been licking his own lower lip, until it is Shige who suddenly moves forward to catch the tip of Ryo’s tongue between his lips. Then there are teeth and tongues and more nails and hair being pulled and Ryo’s hands flying to Shige’s hair, combing through it over and over again, and his body leaning forward more and more, head tilting, eyes finally closing. He hears harsh breathing, and a seagull cries out, and Ryo pushes his tongue deeper, and Shige groans, and Ryo swallows the sound and tries to get even closer, lets Shige slide deeper too. Only to suddenly be left cold and shivering and completely on his own. Shige stands up and leans over the railing, back turned to Ryo.
All there is to do is breathe deeply and let the scenery, the sounds of water and Shige’s breathing, as Ryo watches his back, calm him down. It does not work as perfectly as a few months back, and Ryo stands up, runs his hand down Shige’s spine, and when the other only jerks at the touch and does not look back, Ryo knows his cue. He leaves, sliding the door to the porch closed behind himself, and takes the same train Nino does the next day because that way he can follow those two being all disgusting together and is not left alone with his stupid unresolved crush. He can still taste it on the tip of his tongue. Maybe he needs a new toothbrush.
- - -
Ueda has a lot to say about one of his coworkers being off in Tokyo with a mermaid lover and another one giving him notice the first thing the morning after he comes back from the sea. He calms down and comes to sit next to Shige on the pier where Ohno usually sits with his easel later that day. They talk about mermaids and ocean and life and living it for a while. Ueda gives Shige the address of some lady he had stayed with when he studied in Tokyo and tells him that he better come back a very successful man or crawling, begging to be taken back, and that there is nothing in between. Shige packs his cameras and one duffle bag and leaves a month later, not really hoping for miracles.
Two months later, he is working part time for a photographer, taking some art classes in a dodgy art center and craving takoyaki. He also needs a second job and figures the aquarium is his best shot given he has pretty damn good references. Even if all he does is mop floors, it will be water and fish again, and he misses the ocean even if it is supposedly somewhere in Tokyo. He feels like it is far away, and he can hardly trace its scent in the air.
He knocks on the door of the guy he was told to go to, is told to enter, does so and then almost falls back out the door when he sees two men talking in the office. The slightly prissy man sitting behind the desk with a name tag saying Matsumoto Jun raises a manicured eyebrow, and the other turns around at that.
“Mermaids do not exist,” Ryo says in what seems to be the conclusion of his previous speech, and Shige wants to laugh despite his stomach making one summersault after another.
“But I hear you make a pretty one yourself,” he says. Ryo falls off the edge of the table on which he is sitting.
“You are hired,” Matsumoto Jun says. Ryo glares. Shige really laughs this time. Suddenly he can smell fish in the air, clearly breaking through the clean smell of this aquarium.
“You still have bad hair,” Ryo says when he finally gets up and makes it to Shige in two quick steps. He runs his hand through Shige’s short hair freely, with no care in the world, and grins at him.
Shige blushes and Ryo pushes him out the door. “He’ll come sign the contract some other day,” he shouts back at-what Shige hopes is-his friend. “And you should stop by the Institute sometime.” Shige is already hardly breathing, and the stress of making a completely wrong first impression on his new boss is only a small part of the reason for that. He prepares himself for a barrage of questions, for teasing about working the mop again, for reproof because he has not contacted Ryo, for anything but . . .
“I’ll show you where they keep turtles around here,” before Ryo drags and pushes him around a few corners, into the part where there is water behind glass panes everywhere, down two corridors and into a corner where there are most certainly no turtles. Shige is slammed against the glass, the collar of his shirt almost tearing from the way Ryo clutches and pulls at it to make Shige lean down. Then there are teeth and tongues and nails digging into skin right away and water roaring in Shige’s ears. He wonders if he ever left home.
omake
“I call this one Tegoshi. He is friendly but has a really piercing voice, so be careful,” Ueda says quietly, the light of the boat reflecting off the small glittering scales that shape an impressive tail.
Ohno smiles and leans a little closer to the edge. “Thank you for taking me with you, Ueda-kun.”
Ueda hums and pushes the play button, a Gackt song resounding into the vast nothing. Tegoshi makes a sharp turn under the water, swims all the way to the surface and flips his tail with strength, splashing water all over Ueda and Ohno.
“Oh, maybe something more cheerful then,” Ueda notes and hurries off to change the music.
end
A/N: I really am not one for supernatural creatures, but I did have fun writing this, trying to avoid them I guess. Unfortunately then I had to edit it and had it beta read, and it seems I had too much fun writing it, which resulted in it being not so readable and me being bitter about a result of lots of thinking and writing? IDEK I did my best, so I hope natsudive found it at least a bit to her liking. And I can say good bye to the mermaids now.