FIC: Love is a Many-Tentacled Thing, SanaYuki, NC17 (5/6)
Title: Love is a Many-Tentacled Thing (5/6)
Author: Ociwen
Pairing/characters: Sanada/Yukimura with others
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 47 000
Warning (if any): Bad fic ahoy! This fic contains spoilers for 40.5, crude humour, bodily functions and crabs.
Summary: Sanada experiences a sea change in order to begin a relationship with Yukimura. Can he balance his secrets, the Rikkai Dai tennis club, and still achieve his goal?
Notes (if any): Thank you pixxers for all the help and koneko_meow for the beta. Written for a rude and ungrateful recipient in balls_it_up. Hopefully others can appreciate the humour-and horror-involved in badfic. Have your umbrellas ready!
This fic has been truncated into 6 sections due to length. These are not chapters. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]
Next weekend they will be playing the prefecturals.
One week, to the day.
Yukimura knows he had the perfect team with Sanada. Eight of them. Eight monsters who would have swept the courts, gone all the way to the top and won the Nationals together. He lies on his bed, staring at the shadows on his ceiling. The wind picks up outside and the furin outside his parents' bedroom window chimes furiously, portend to a storm. Misty drop of water whip up through his window; his curtains are ghosts, wailing at him and fluttering their formless masses.
He licks his lips and rolls onto his side. He can taste the salt from the sea and it makes his chest ache, that hollowness increasing.
Sanada…he thinks.
It's his fault Sanada isn't here. Nothing has been the same without him. Niou doesn't smirk as much, with no one to bother. Yagyuu studies alone between class breaks, sighing heavily between the stacks in the library and frowning. Yanagi doesn't talk much and Yukimura found his notebooks of data-all three on Sanada-in the garbage bins behind the clubhouse last week. Jackal stops singing in the showers, no more annoying enka ballads to make Yukimura twitch.
Marui eats more than ever and complains of cramps in his calves during laps. Akaya stops doing laps altogether and instead roams the streetcourts, on the loose with no one to rein him in.
And Yukimura…
He sniffles when he sees the team photo sitting on his desk, eight figures staring back at him. Sanada stands there, stiff and scowling and slightly bow-legged. Maybe it hurt his feet, forcing his webbed toes into sneakers. Yukimura never thought to ask. Now, he won't ever have the chance. No more Sanada to shout out laps. No more Sanada to play a friendly, good game of tennis. No more Sanada to watch out of the corner of his eye, naked and wet and dripping and muscular in the showers.
No more Sanada to hold his hand.
Or to kiss his neck.
Or to murmur things in his ear as they cup each other's balls, stroke each other's hips, lick each other's nipples.
A lump rises in his throat as the wind roars outside, rattling his curtains as they whip up in a frenzy. Yukimura swallows back a sob; he knows it's his fault. He told Sanada to go away. He told Sanada he was a freak. He kicked and screamed and even though the memory of the cold, scaly tail between his legs still makes him shiver, as he heaves a choking sob into his pillow, his cock swells at the memory.
Because he loved Sanada. And he never said. And now, Sanada is gone, leaving him all alone. Under his bed, he can hear the eels moving around. They've been so listless this past week. Or two. It feels like ages since he was with Sanada, and yesterday all at the same time. The sensation of Sanada's hot, wet tongue sliding into his mouth makes Yukimura bite his lip, his balls tightening and his dick twitching. But seeing that silvery sheen of Sanada's tail…Yukimura can barely recall it. It was no more than a flash, really, and then he screamed. Sanada panicked, and Yukimura probably stabbed him straight through the heart with that.
Yukimura sniffles. He shakes his head and buries it in his pillow. Tears sting his eyes. He hasn't been to the beach since that day. He hasn't even been able to hold a pencil in art class because art reminds him of the sea reminds him of Sanada. At first he wanted to shake with rage and starve the eels and kick things, but now…
He drags his fingers across his damp sheets. The rain is cold on his back. It pelts the apartment roof, threatening more and more of his bedroom if he doesn't close his window soon.
Outside his bedroom door, his family moves about. His mother shuffles around, chatting to his father about a pair of Prada pumps she wants and by the way, can father get those cheaper at the duty free place at Narita when he goes away again? His sister is watching a cartoon and the music is some faux-cheerful jingle that makes Yukimura grind his teeth. He wants to throw his pillow at the door and yell at her to turn it off. The happiness only makes his chest ache more, like he's going to have another attack and go numb below the neck and it scares him.
He shakes and huddles on his bed. "Sanada…" he whispers. The wind howls and the rain pours, slamming into his window with a staccato scuttling sort of noise. Yukimura sniffs and sighs and bites back another sob. It's girly to be crying like this, but at the same time, he can't stop.
He's lost Sanada. Nothing can bring him back, not if he's a merman.
The scuttling noise is louder, tapping at his window and then there's an odd grunting, too. Maybe one of the zelkovas in the park below the complex is straining in the wind, Yukimura doesn't know for certain and he doesn't really care. But the clack clack clack of something near his window sill makes Yukimura stand up. The noise grates his ears, distracting his misery because it doesn't stop! With the hem of his sleeve he wipes the tears and the snot from his face and pads over to slam his window closed. He wants to be left alone from the storm in peace.
But then something crashes to his bedroom floor. It flies up over the window ledge with a wet arc of rain water splattered across his floor. Yukimura purses his lips, angry at the rain for chucking in bits of leafs and branches. He looks down to pick it up, reaching his hand out to the shadowed object in his dark room…
It blinks at him. And crabwalks sideways toward his feet. "Hello," it says.
"Eep!" Yukimura says. He takes a step backwards, trying to avoid the creature. "I've had enough of-" mystical creatures…
His eyes adjust to see the object in the dim light of his bedroom. At the first peel of lightning, he can see the shell of a crab and claws upraised, clacking faintly as the rain pours down. Yukimura swallows and touches his temple.
He's losing his mind.
A crab is staring at him, with oddly human features: sharp and slitted eyes, a wide mouth smiling. It blinks placidly as Yukimura continues to gape. The crab's face is pale and serene and sweet, contrasting with the hard, spiny exoskeleton that comprises the rest of his body.
"You're Yukimura," the crab says.
"You're…a talking crab," Yukimura echoes. His voice is weak and it fades as the crab scuttles, his legs clicking across the Pergo floor.
"I'm Fuji," the crab says.
Yukimura stares at it, unable to believe that there is a crab talking to him. He pinches his arm, but the dream doesn't dissolve.
The crab keeps smiling, unsettling in the way his eyes don't leave Yukimura's. He scuttles sideways, climbing Yukimura's bed with greater ease than Yukimura would have thought possible. Until there is a crunching noise. The eels splash under his bed-they must hear Fuji, too. And Fuji half-turns his head to them, but stops. He keeps smiling, and then he looks up. "I know more about you than just your name," Fuji says.
Yukimura blinks in confusion. He sniffles and inhales sharply, trying to compose himself and wipe his tears away as discretely as he can with his index finger. "Oh re-ally?" he manages.
"Go on," Fuji says. "Don't you want to know about him?"
Pain stabs him between the ribs, sharper than the look Fuji gives him. Yukimura swallows at the lump in his throat.
The crab circles around himself, then settles into a small nest of Yukimura's sheets. Outside, the rain pours, draining down his window and washing away the streetlights of the suburb. Thunder rumbles as Yukimura stands there, not knowing what to do, barely believing his eyes.
If mermen exist, then why not talking crabs?
Maybe I need to take my pills…he thinks, pinching his arm again.
Fuji stretches a leg out. One of six. Then he tucks it back under his shell and moves his claw, examining it through a squint. He chews on the end, crunching at a barnacle-or something-before he looks back at Yukimura.
"Um…" Yukimura leans down, trying to get a better look. "Um…how are you able to talk?" he asks.
Fuji smiles. "The same way Sanada could walk on land."
Hearing Sanada's name is a fresh wound. Yukimura's mouth goes dry. A gust of cold air whips through his roof, slashing through his hair and messing it up in a wet gale. Yukimura shivers. He rushes to close his window, but the storm doesn't quiet even when he does.
"You…you know him?" he asks.
Fuji nods. "He's very sad. Your Sanada."
Yukimura gasps. He staggers to the side, grabbing at the side of his desk for balance. His head spins and a cold shudder runs down his spine, leaving his fingers numb as he grasps for a hold. His knees shake. No! he thinks. No! He breathes through his teeth, willing his mind to get a hold of his body and not flake out and swoon in front of a talking crab. Relax. Breathe. Breathe.
"Sanada, eh?" Yukimura asks. He clears his voice, cringing at the sound of his thick uncertainty that makes it shake and choke in his throat.
The crab scuttles out of his nest of sheets. Fuji moves to the edge of the bed where his face falls, his eyes glittering wide and bluish in the flashing lightning. His smile is gone, now instead a thin line breaking his craggy shell.
"You had the chance," he says, "and you let love swim away."
The knife twists in Yukimura's chest, nearly doubling him over with the shock of agony inside. His insides are a twisted mess and Yukimura squeezes his eyes shut, refusing to believe the crab's words. But deep down, he knows it. He could have asked Sanada why and how instead of screaming and running away. He could have done things differently. Yukimura bites at his lip, tasting blood but a single hot tear still slides down his cheek. He turns, hating the way the crab stares.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he says. Even he doesn't believe his own hollow words.
No wonder the crab doesn't.
"You know," he says, "the sea can reach a mean depth of over 1800 metres around the Japanese coast." The crab starts to laugh. It begins as a low chuckle, as cold as the shivers that run across Yukimura's skin. But then the laughter picks up, chilling him to the core.
Yukimura's blood freezes. His heart stops pounding in his chest; he sinks to the floor.
"I can't change what's happened!" he snaps, unable to stop the words that surface. Through a veil of tears, he shakes his head and balls his fist. "I can't just tell him to come back! I can't tell him how much I-"
The crab cocks its head to the side. "How much you what?" he asks. He blinks, slow and steady. "How much you…?"
Yukimura's eyes go wide. His jaw drops, but he manages to clamp a hand over it. The crab, however, sees everything. His antenna twitches and a shadow of his sweet smile returns.
"I have a story to tell you," Fuji says. He pats the edge of the mattress next to himself with his claw. "Sit down and listen, ne?"
Yukimura doesn't move.
"Please," Fuji adds. He pats the bed again.
Yukimura hesitates. His fingertips linger over the edge of his desk, unwilling to move closer to the talking, smiling crab sitting on his bed. The crab bobs his head a little, encouraging Yukimura to come closer.
He sucks in a breath, then spins around, sitting down on the end of the bed, as far from the crab as he can be. The draft from his window is strong here, and the sheets are damp with rain. Thunder groans, shaking the earth as the rain batters down on the soft spring leaves outside.
The crab sighs contentedly. "Once upon a time," he says, "there was a boy who liked to go to the beach."
Yukimura stiffens.
Fuji goes on. "He liked to make pictures of the ocean and he found the perfect place. No one else really went there and the beach was perfect. He could walk along for hours there and not see a soul.
"Except, there was someone who could see him."
Yukimura closes his eyes. Sanada…
"This someone loved that boy very much, although the boy didn't know that."
Yukimura's chest heaves, aching around his sides, his ribs, everywhere. The image of Sanada burns his vision: Sanada, heartbroken and hurting as he looked at Yukimura with those pleading black eyes, begging him to understand, begging him to realize his secret….
Yukimura chokes. He shakes his head, tears streaming down his face, settling in the corners of his mouth, all itchy and hot.
"That someone was able to use the magic of the sea to come onshore to tell the boy." Fuji sighs again, his antennae falling limp for a moment as he stares off into the dark rain storm beyond Yukimura's window. "But there was a condition. That someone could only be a human for twenty-three hours of the day and-before midnight every day-he had to soak in water and reveal his true form."
Sanada. The pool. The fish poo floating there some mornings…
"One day, the boy found out."
Yukimura stops breathing. His nose is clogged up with snot and the crab's story-his story…he can't so much as move as he waits for Fuji to go on, to finish, to hit him with the end that will shatter his heart. If Sanada were dead, floating belly-up on his beach…
"But this boy loved that someone back," Fuji says. His smile is serene and almost taunting in its confidence when he continues. "He loved that someone for who he was, regardless of whether or not he was injured. Regardless of whether or not he was a bit of a hardass and frowned a lot. Regardless of whether or not that someone's true form was…unusual.
"This boy had choices. He had the chance to be with that someone, even if it meant one of them had to change so they could be together. The boy could have changed to be with that someone forever, even if times would get a little wet and crusty occasionally. Or, they could have lived one lifetime together-they would have grown old together and died, but they would have been together.
"All this boy had to do was love that someone back for who he was on the inside and confess.
"And do you know what he did?"
Yukimura hangs his head lower; the tears form wet patches on his shirt. He can't speak-he can't do anything other than wring his pants with his clenched hands because he and Fuji both know what he chose. He chose to scream and run away and tell Sanada no.
He chose no.
The crab makes a clicking sound with his claws. His legs clack as he scuttles up across the bed, moving close to Yukimura with a sideways gait. For a moment, neither of them speaks. Yukimura can feel the crab smiling, though, and it makes another fat tear roll down onto his shirt. The rain pours, splattering on the roof, on his window, everywhere. It drowns out the soft sounds he makes as he cries and curls his knees up to his chest.
"This boy decided he could deal with the barnacles and the fishing trawlers and he could give up his camera because he wanted to be together with that someone."
*--+--~--FLASHBACK--~--+--*
It was warm, the sort of early summer morning that was fresh and damp after a morning rain. Fuji walked along the beach. His toes sunk into the yielding sand, but the ground was soft like the sea. He squinted out over the blue horizon and smiled.
Raising his camera, he took a photo, then a second. The sun glared off the water, but he hoped the shots would turn out clear.
Someone walked alongside him, stumbling in the sand. Fuji glanced back over his shoulder. His heart swelled between his ribs and his head felt light. He was pathetically in love and he knew it as soon as those glasses glinted and he heard the distinctive baritone, "Aa."
"Tezuka," he said.
Tezuka's gait was off. He tripped over his feet again-so different from his usual stride-and Fuji's stomach seized up. He could see a tell-tale trail of dark splotches running back along the beach from Tezuka's path. His mauve shirt was torn and he cradled his left arm, hiding it from Fuji's view.
He rushed up to Tezuka. His camera fell into the sand, gobbled up by the surf. But Fuji saw only one thing.
The stump of Tezuka's arm, dripping deep blood onto the sand.
"What happened?" he yelled. "What were you doing? Your arm- it-"
"It's fine," Tezuka said. His face contorted in a painful grimace. Fuji's heart fell to the sand, shattering on the sharp rocks underfoot. Carefully, he touched Tezuka's arm, unwrapping the mess from a pile of shredded fabric and rags he'd used to sop the blood up.
"It's not 'fine'!" Fuji snapped. "Your arm is-"
Gone.
"Who- what- how did this happen?" Fuji yanked off his own shirt and balled it up. He held it to Tezuka's stump. The blood was cool and dark, seeping through his fingers unstoppable. Fuji shook his head. His eyes stung. Tezuka cringed and his breathing was shallow. He shuffled a step forward, then fell onto Fuji's side.
Tezuka's face was white. Fuji gasped.
"It was…" Tezuka's throat bobbed. Fuji kept shaking his head. No! he thought. No, Tezuka, you can't leave me! I won't let you go!
"…it was a fight with the Keigo Kraken…" Tezuka said at last. Fuji didn't understand. He squeezed Tezuka closer. Blood soaked through his shirt and stained his hands, his stomach and all over Tezuka's chest too. He looks down between their bodies and he could see the bleeding stump, but near where Tezuka's bicep should have been was…
A sucker.
Like a tentacle's sucker.
Fuji's jaw dropped. A noise emerged from the back of his throat and bubbled out. Tezuka's jaw was tense and his forehead a knot of lines. His body felt icy in Fuji's arms.
The sea started to roil and the seagulls stopped cawing above. Fuji could feel cold, black clouds roll over the placid sky.
"Fuji," Tezuka muttered, "there's something I have to tell you…"
*--+--~--END FLASHBACK--~--+--*
Yukimura whips his head around. He blinks in surprise. "Eh?"
Is Fuji talking about-
Before the thought finishes, Fuji places a cool claw on Yukimura's knee. The feeling of it makes Yukimura stiffen. Fuji's smile isn't so patronizing now when Yukimura looks at him. It’s a soft, sad quirk to his lips, followed by a resigned sigh. "Even if you can't make that choice," Fuji says, "you at least owe him the truth. And perhaps an apology for being unable to give him what he needs."
The crab stands up on all his legs and scuttles off the bed with a couple quick hops. He nods to the window and says, "I can get down to the beach myself, I just need a bit of help. You mind?" He taps the wall with a claw.
When Yukimura tries to stand, his knees shake so hard they nearly give out. Fuji asks if he's all right. Yukimura can only nod and mumble something incoherent.
He sets Fuji on the window sill and cranks the window open for him. A blast of rain hits his face, salty from the ocean and jagged with the force of the wind. His hair flaps and the thunder booms, rumbling over the ocean as it moves north. He can see the pavement below, four floors down and when he looks at the little smiling crab…
Yukimura grabs the crab and stuffs it into the pocket of his shirt. He grabs his cellphone and runs out of his room, stuffing his feet in his shoes and slamming the door behind himself before his parents can ask where he's going.
He has one thought, one person in mind as he flies down the stairs, tripping on his loose shoelaces and the slippery steps, but not caring about anything except getting to the ocean NOW!
Even if he can't do anything, even if he can't change the past, he has to tell Sanada the truth. He has to be honest with himself, and with Sanada.
I miss you, Sanada, he thinks as he mounts his bike.
I love you, Sanada, he thinks as he starts to pedal, riding into the rain and the storm as someone calls his name behind himself, four floors above, yelling at him to come back inside.
His pocket moves. A crab antennae pops out. Yukimura pedals harder. The rain pellets his face, sharp and stinging. The wind whips his hair up all around his face, making it even darker as he zooms through the streets, finding the fastest way to the ocean, veering around cars and whirring through stoplights.
Cars honk their horns. The rain drenches him, making it harder and harder to pedal his bike fast enough because his legs are twisted in his pants and he shivers uncontrollably. The lightning makes him jump up in his seat, but he doesn't have time. If he doesn't tell Sanada, if he doesn't apologize, he can't live with himself.
Whether or not Sanada hears, he doesn’t know.
But he has to try.
Something buzzes against his stomach and then the crab moves too, claws and legs sharp and poking at Yukimura unintentionally though his pocket as his cell rings, vibrating against Fuji in the process. Yukimura skids around a corner and pedals harder, pushing his limbs to the limit as he coasts down an incline. The sea is close. He can smell it. He can hear the roaring ocean, churning as the storm rages it. He can taste the salt and feel the sting in his eyes, too.
He should answer his phone that keeps ringing, keeps vibrating off and on in his pocket. The thought of Fuji's story, his words about choices and crabs makes Yukimura start to laugh. He can't hold back the choked, sobbing laugh that rises in his throat and he shakes his head. His mother might worry and come look for him and find a crab instead.
Water runs down his face. Whether it’s the rain or tears, he can't tell anymore.
He grabs his phone, flinging something from his pocket along with his cell. Behind him, he can hear the faint "Wait! You dropped me!" for a beat before the voice is lost in the storm. Yukimura can't stop anyway-not even for a talking crab.
Yukimura rides on, pushing himself up a hill and then around a bend. The squarish art gallery building looms in the distance, illuminated by the garish reflection of lightning strikes on the wide panes of glass that make up the outside walls.
He flips his cell open, pressing it to his ear as best he can. His left hand trembles on his handlebars, fighting to keep control as the puddles splash up and the mud makes it difficult to steer. "Yes?" he shouts.
"Yukimura?"
Niou.
Yukimura's bike jumps, jerking him up and throwing off his course for a moment until he swerves around a puddle and pedals on, charging toward his beach.
"Hey, my brother found something when he was fishing today and I wondered if you wanted it. Token of sea basses and shit," Niou says.
"What?" Yukimura shouts. When Niou doesn't answer, he yells louder.
"My brother found a Jack Purcell hat when he was fishing at the beach. Do you want it?" Niou asks.
"Sanada…" Yukimura whispers.
His cell slips from his fingers and his bike keeps going. Yukimura blinks as the mud splashes up all around him. He can't go back for his cell phone either, not now.
He keeps pedaling.
He keeps pushing.
He keeps going, closer and closer to Sanada, although he'll never be close enough again. But he has to be honest with himself. He has to try.
At the sight of the dune, Yukimura throws his bike down and jumps off, running to the beach in one single motion. He fights his way through the wind, which pushes against him, forcing him back onto land. He shakes his head. "NO!" he screams at the storm. "NO! I WON'T!"
The beach is a surging mass of white-capped waves and yellowish water, roiling with anger. Yukimura struggles in the wind and he jumps at the lightning. It's so close, the thunder so loud that he can't hear himself yelling. He can't hear the ocean screaming, or his own.
"SANADA! I LOVE YOU! I'M SORRY! I LOVE YOU!"
The waves beat at his legs and Yukimura trips, landing face first in frigid water. He stands up, but the waves keep swirling, keep pulling his body down as he screams. "SANADA! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" Yukimura shakes off the tears. The rain keeps pushing down and the waves surge around him, getting deeper and deeper as his shoes slip and he sputters, the waves up to his chest, his neck and water chokes off his screams.
Yukimura wants to close his eyes and feel that warm sun, to feel the misty spray of the ocean and Sanada's arm around his shoulder. Instead, he coughs and gasps, his lungs filling with water as he flails, grabbing at everything around and holding onto nothing, because the water slips through his fingers and pulls his feet out from under his body.
He closes his eyes. He can't even scream anymore because the pressure is so much-the water is everywhere, but he can almost feel that embracing arm, solid and strong around his shoulders as he slips down, trying to touch bottom and then surface, one last time.
*--+--~--A--~--+--*
Sanada knows that shadow. He knows that long, thin snaking swim anywhere. He turns away and does his best to ignore the toothy face that pokes its head into his cave.
Chitoseel, however, doesn't care. He's been one to bother with formalities. "Man," he says, glowing faintly, "looks like a rough storm up on the surface."
Sanada doesn't care. He doesn't even shrug his shoulders when Chitoseel swims up around him, floating past his arm and poking at Sanada with his jaw. Sanada lies at the back of his cave. The water bobs and flows around him; he can sense the storm, but he's too listless to do anything. He sighs. His chest aches to the point of collapse as he brushes the wall of his cave with his tail, limp and flaccid and lifeless.
The water is dark. The eels are silent, snug abed in their eel pits, waiting out the storm before they emerge again with their song tomorrow night. Sanada floats, waiting for Chitoseel to leave him alone again. If he doesn't humour Chitoseel, maybe he'll go away sooner and leave Sanada to wither up faster.
Chitoseel opens his mouth, showing off a row of sharp teeth to speak, when something small and silvery zips across the cave, zigzagging around frantically.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!" the fish squeaks. "There's a stupid human up there screaming and drowning! What a loser!" The fish darts around some more, flashing his bright scales around in his frenzy.
"It's rather funny," a voice outside the cave adds, drawling. "Gakufish is right."
Chitoseel looks at Gakufish. Gakufish zips around in a circle, whirling around Sanada's head and stirring up a cloud of sediment. Sanada's gills are gritty and he coughs. "Oh really?" Chitoseel says.
"Hell yeah!" Gakufish's high-pitched voice shrieks in answer.
Chitoseel sniffs, his body sparking as he chuckles. He swims closer to Sanada. "Hey, Sanada," he says. "Some dude's drowning up there. Humans aren't very smart, are they?"
Sanada pretends not to listen, even though he can hear Chitoseel and Gakufish full well. And Yuushi outside, who hums and haws when Gakufish asks "What are you feeling tonight, Yuushi? Male or female?" Sanada lets the water roll him further over onto his side; his body drapes, fin brushing the sandy ocean floor as the sea grasses sway, shivering in the stormy current.
Humans aren't smart. He knows that. They don't know about mermen and when they find out…
Sanada's chest squeezes tight. He stares at the sea grass fronds, dancing around him, soft and fuzzy, and wishes he would sink sooner, wishes the hole Yukimura drilled in his heart would finish bleeding him to death instead of lingering, gaping and raw and agonizing.
After a long moment, Chitoseel finally grunts and says, "See you around sometime." He slithers through the crack between the cave entrance and the family rock, and leaves.
Sanada's body hits the sea floor, hard and heavy. He has no reason to, but he drags his body to the cave entrance to peek outside. Chitoseel's whistling has long since disappeared in the din of the ocean noises, all scuttles and plops and swoosh and tick tick tick as the shrimps scurry along. There is no light, just an expanse of softly rolling banks of sand and coral mounds, a few giant clams and sea cucumbers and seaweed littering everywhere.
The large shadow of a Hump headed wrasse moves by; its blue scales are the only colour as a bolt of lightning illuminates the sea for an instant. Yuushi swims along, lethargic and lumbering with no particular direction. Sanada ducks back into his cave, hiding in the darkness.
Around Yuushi, Gakufish darts and dives, up around Yuushi's hump, then back down around his wide mouth, singing to himself "I love you Sanada! Oh I love you Sanada! I'm a stupid human and I love you Sanada!"
Sanada lifts his head and his eyes go huge.
*--+--~--‼--~--+--*
Author: Ociwen
Pairing/characters: Sanada/Yukimura with others
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 47 000
Warning (if any): Bad fic ahoy! This fic contains spoilers for 40.5, crude humour, bodily functions and crabs.
Summary: Sanada experiences a sea change in order to begin a relationship with Yukimura. Can he balance his secrets, the Rikkai Dai tennis club, and still achieve his goal?
Notes (if any): Thank you pixxers for all the help and koneko_meow for the beta. Written for a rude and ungrateful recipient in balls_it_up. Hopefully others can appreciate the humour-and horror-involved in badfic. Have your umbrellas ready!
This fic has been truncated into 6 sections due to length. These are not chapters. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]
Next weekend they will be playing the prefecturals.
One week, to the day.
Yukimura knows he had the perfect team with Sanada. Eight of them. Eight monsters who would have swept the courts, gone all the way to the top and won the Nationals together. He lies on his bed, staring at the shadows on his ceiling. The wind picks up outside and the furin outside his parents' bedroom window chimes furiously, portend to a storm. Misty drop of water whip up through his window; his curtains are ghosts, wailing at him and fluttering their formless masses.
He licks his lips and rolls onto his side. He can taste the salt from the sea and it makes his chest ache, that hollowness increasing.
Sanada…he thinks.
It's his fault Sanada isn't here. Nothing has been the same without him. Niou doesn't smirk as much, with no one to bother. Yagyuu studies alone between class breaks, sighing heavily between the stacks in the library and frowning. Yanagi doesn't talk much and Yukimura found his notebooks of data-all three on Sanada-in the garbage bins behind the clubhouse last week. Jackal stops singing in the showers, no more annoying enka ballads to make Yukimura twitch.
Marui eats more than ever and complains of cramps in his calves during laps. Akaya stops doing laps altogether and instead roams the streetcourts, on the loose with no one to rein him in.
And Yukimura…
He sniffles when he sees the team photo sitting on his desk, eight figures staring back at him. Sanada stands there, stiff and scowling and slightly bow-legged. Maybe it hurt his feet, forcing his webbed toes into sneakers. Yukimura never thought to ask. Now, he won't ever have the chance. No more Sanada to shout out laps. No more Sanada to play a friendly, good game of tennis. No more Sanada to watch out of the corner of his eye, naked and wet and dripping and muscular in the showers.
No more Sanada to hold his hand.
Or to kiss his neck.
Or to murmur things in his ear as they cup each other's balls, stroke each other's hips, lick each other's nipples.
A lump rises in his throat as the wind roars outside, rattling his curtains as they whip up in a frenzy. Yukimura swallows back a sob; he knows it's his fault. He told Sanada to go away. He told Sanada he was a freak. He kicked and screamed and even though the memory of the cold, scaly tail between his legs still makes him shiver, as he heaves a choking sob into his pillow, his cock swells at the memory.
Because he loved Sanada. And he never said. And now, Sanada is gone, leaving him all alone. Under his bed, he can hear the eels moving around. They've been so listless this past week. Or two. It feels like ages since he was with Sanada, and yesterday all at the same time. The sensation of Sanada's hot, wet tongue sliding into his mouth makes Yukimura bite his lip, his balls tightening and his dick twitching. But seeing that silvery sheen of Sanada's tail…Yukimura can barely recall it. It was no more than a flash, really, and then he screamed. Sanada panicked, and Yukimura probably stabbed him straight through the heart with that.
Yukimura sniffles. He shakes his head and buries it in his pillow. Tears sting his eyes. He hasn't been to the beach since that day. He hasn't even been able to hold a pencil in art class because art reminds him of the sea reminds him of Sanada. At first he wanted to shake with rage and starve the eels and kick things, but now…
He drags his fingers across his damp sheets. The rain is cold on his back. It pelts the apartment roof, threatening more and more of his bedroom if he doesn't close his window soon.
Outside his bedroom door, his family moves about. His mother shuffles around, chatting to his father about a pair of Prada pumps she wants and by the way, can father get those cheaper at the duty free place at Narita when he goes away again? His sister is watching a cartoon and the music is some faux-cheerful jingle that makes Yukimura grind his teeth. He wants to throw his pillow at the door and yell at her to turn it off. The happiness only makes his chest ache more, like he's going to have another attack and go numb below the neck and it scares him.
He shakes and huddles on his bed. "Sanada…" he whispers. The wind howls and the rain pours, slamming into his window with a staccato scuttling sort of noise. Yukimura sniffs and sighs and bites back another sob. It's girly to be crying like this, but at the same time, he can't stop.
He's lost Sanada. Nothing can bring him back, not if he's a merman.
The scuttling noise is louder, tapping at his window and then there's an odd grunting, too. Maybe one of the zelkovas in the park below the complex is straining in the wind, Yukimura doesn't know for certain and he doesn't really care. But the clack clack clack of something near his window sill makes Yukimura stand up. The noise grates his ears, distracting his misery because it doesn't stop! With the hem of his sleeve he wipes the tears and the snot from his face and pads over to slam his window closed. He wants to be left alone from the storm in peace.
But then something crashes to his bedroom floor. It flies up over the window ledge with a wet arc of rain water splattered across his floor. Yukimura purses his lips, angry at the rain for chucking in bits of leafs and branches. He looks down to pick it up, reaching his hand out to the shadowed object in his dark room…
It blinks at him. And crabwalks sideways toward his feet. "Hello," it says.
"Eep!" Yukimura says. He takes a step backwards, trying to avoid the creature. "I've had enough of-" mystical creatures…
His eyes adjust to see the object in the dim light of his bedroom. At the first peel of lightning, he can see the shell of a crab and claws upraised, clacking faintly as the rain pours down. Yukimura swallows and touches his temple.
He's losing his mind.
A crab is staring at him, with oddly human features: sharp and slitted eyes, a wide mouth smiling. It blinks placidly as Yukimura continues to gape. The crab's face is pale and serene and sweet, contrasting with the hard, spiny exoskeleton that comprises the rest of his body.
"You're Yukimura," the crab says.
"You're…a talking crab," Yukimura echoes. His voice is weak and it fades as the crab scuttles, his legs clicking across the Pergo floor.
"I'm Fuji," the crab says.
Yukimura stares at it, unable to believe that there is a crab talking to him. He pinches his arm, but the dream doesn't dissolve.
The crab keeps smiling, unsettling in the way his eyes don't leave Yukimura's. He scuttles sideways, climbing Yukimura's bed with greater ease than Yukimura would have thought possible. Until there is a crunching noise. The eels splash under his bed-they must hear Fuji, too. And Fuji half-turns his head to them, but stops. He keeps smiling, and then he looks up. "I know more about you than just your name," Fuji says.
Yukimura blinks in confusion. He sniffles and inhales sharply, trying to compose himself and wipe his tears away as discretely as he can with his index finger. "Oh re-ally?" he manages.
"Go on," Fuji says. "Don't you want to know about him?"
Pain stabs him between the ribs, sharper than the look Fuji gives him. Yukimura swallows at the lump in his throat.
The crab circles around himself, then settles into a small nest of Yukimura's sheets. Outside, the rain pours, draining down his window and washing away the streetlights of the suburb. Thunder rumbles as Yukimura stands there, not knowing what to do, barely believing his eyes.
If mermen exist, then why not talking crabs?
Maybe I need to take my pills…he thinks, pinching his arm again.
Fuji stretches a leg out. One of six. Then he tucks it back under his shell and moves his claw, examining it through a squint. He chews on the end, crunching at a barnacle-or something-before he looks back at Yukimura.
"Um…" Yukimura leans down, trying to get a better look. "Um…how are you able to talk?" he asks.
Fuji smiles. "The same way Sanada could walk on land."
Hearing Sanada's name is a fresh wound. Yukimura's mouth goes dry. A gust of cold air whips through his roof, slashing through his hair and messing it up in a wet gale. Yukimura shivers. He rushes to close his window, but the storm doesn't quiet even when he does.
"You…you know him?" he asks.
Fuji nods. "He's very sad. Your Sanada."
Yukimura gasps. He staggers to the side, grabbing at the side of his desk for balance. His head spins and a cold shudder runs down his spine, leaving his fingers numb as he grasps for a hold. His knees shake. No! he thinks. No! He breathes through his teeth, willing his mind to get a hold of his body and not flake out and swoon in front of a talking crab. Relax. Breathe. Breathe.
"Sanada, eh?" Yukimura asks. He clears his voice, cringing at the sound of his thick uncertainty that makes it shake and choke in his throat.
The crab scuttles out of his nest of sheets. Fuji moves to the edge of the bed where his face falls, his eyes glittering wide and bluish in the flashing lightning. His smile is gone, now instead a thin line breaking his craggy shell.
"You had the chance," he says, "and you let love swim away."
The knife twists in Yukimura's chest, nearly doubling him over with the shock of agony inside. His insides are a twisted mess and Yukimura squeezes his eyes shut, refusing to believe the crab's words. But deep down, he knows it. He could have asked Sanada why and how instead of screaming and running away. He could have done things differently. Yukimura bites at his lip, tasting blood but a single hot tear still slides down his cheek. He turns, hating the way the crab stares.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he says. Even he doesn't believe his own hollow words.
No wonder the crab doesn't.
"You know," he says, "the sea can reach a mean depth of over 1800 metres around the Japanese coast." The crab starts to laugh. It begins as a low chuckle, as cold as the shivers that run across Yukimura's skin. But then the laughter picks up, chilling him to the core.
Yukimura's blood freezes. His heart stops pounding in his chest; he sinks to the floor.
"I can't change what's happened!" he snaps, unable to stop the words that surface. Through a veil of tears, he shakes his head and balls his fist. "I can't just tell him to come back! I can't tell him how much I-"
The crab cocks its head to the side. "How much you what?" he asks. He blinks, slow and steady. "How much you…?"
Yukimura's eyes go wide. His jaw drops, but he manages to clamp a hand over it. The crab, however, sees everything. His antenna twitches and a shadow of his sweet smile returns.
"I have a story to tell you," Fuji says. He pats the edge of the mattress next to himself with his claw. "Sit down and listen, ne?"
Yukimura doesn't move.
"Please," Fuji adds. He pats the bed again.
Yukimura hesitates. His fingertips linger over the edge of his desk, unwilling to move closer to the talking, smiling crab sitting on his bed. The crab bobs his head a little, encouraging Yukimura to come closer.
He sucks in a breath, then spins around, sitting down on the end of the bed, as far from the crab as he can be. The draft from his window is strong here, and the sheets are damp with rain. Thunder groans, shaking the earth as the rain batters down on the soft spring leaves outside.
The crab sighs contentedly. "Once upon a time," he says, "there was a boy who liked to go to the beach."
Yukimura stiffens.
Fuji goes on. "He liked to make pictures of the ocean and he found the perfect place. No one else really went there and the beach was perfect. He could walk along for hours there and not see a soul.
"Except, there was someone who could see him."
Yukimura closes his eyes. Sanada…
"This someone loved that boy very much, although the boy didn't know that."
Yukimura's chest heaves, aching around his sides, his ribs, everywhere. The image of Sanada burns his vision: Sanada, heartbroken and hurting as he looked at Yukimura with those pleading black eyes, begging him to understand, begging him to realize his secret….
Yukimura chokes. He shakes his head, tears streaming down his face, settling in the corners of his mouth, all itchy and hot.
"That someone was able to use the magic of the sea to come onshore to tell the boy." Fuji sighs again, his antennae falling limp for a moment as he stares off into the dark rain storm beyond Yukimura's window. "But there was a condition. That someone could only be a human for twenty-three hours of the day and-before midnight every day-he had to soak in water and reveal his true form."
Sanada. The pool. The fish poo floating there some mornings…
"One day, the boy found out."
Yukimura stops breathing. His nose is clogged up with snot and the crab's story-his story…he can't so much as move as he waits for Fuji to go on, to finish, to hit him with the end that will shatter his heart. If Sanada were dead, floating belly-up on his beach…
"But this boy loved that someone back," Fuji says. His smile is serene and almost taunting in its confidence when he continues. "He loved that someone for who he was, regardless of whether or not he was injured. Regardless of whether or not he was a bit of a hardass and frowned a lot. Regardless of whether or not that someone's true form was…unusual.
"This boy had choices. He had the chance to be with that someone, even if it meant one of them had to change so they could be together. The boy could have changed to be with that someone forever, even if times would get a little wet and crusty occasionally. Or, they could have lived one lifetime together-they would have grown old together and died, but they would have been together.
"All this boy had to do was love that someone back for who he was on the inside and confess.
"And do you know what he did?"
Yukimura hangs his head lower; the tears form wet patches on his shirt. He can't speak-he can't do anything other than wring his pants with his clenched hands because he and Fuji both know what he chose. He chose to scream and run away and tell Sanada no.
He chose no.
The crab makes a clicking sound with his claws. His legs clack as he scuttles up across the bed, moving close to Yukimura with a sideways gait. For a moment, neither of them speaks. Yukimura can feel the crab smiling, though, and it makes another fat tear roll down onto his shirt. The rain pours, splattering on the roof, on his window, everywhere. It drowns out the soft sounds he makes as he cries and curls his knees up to his chest.
"This boy decided he could deal with the barnacles and the fishing trawlers and he could give up his camera because he wanted to be together with that someone."
*--+--~--FLASHBACK--~--+--*
It was warm, the sort of early summer morning that was fresh and damp after a morning rain. Fuji walked along the beach. His toes sunk into the yielding sand, but the ground was soft like the sea. He squinted out over the blue horizon and smiled.
Raising his camera, he took a photo, then a second. The sun glared off the water, but he hoped the shots would turn out clear.
Someone walked alongside him, stumbling in the sand. Fuji glanced back over his shoulder. His heart swelled between his ribs and his head felt light. He was pathetically in love and he knew it as soon as those glasses glinted and he heard the distinctive baritone, "Aa."
"Tezuka," he said.
Tezuka's gait was off. He tripped over his feet again-so different from his usual stride-and Fuji's stomach seized up. He could see a tell-tale trail of dark splotches running back along the beach from Tezuka's path. His mauve shirt was torn and he cradled his left arm, hiding it from Fuji's view.
He rushed up to Tezuka. His camera fell into the sand, gobbled up by the surf. But Fuji saw only one thing.
The stump of Tezuka's arm, dripping deep blood onto the sand.
"What happened?" he yelled. "What were you doing? Your arm- it-"
"It's fine," Tezuka said. His face contorted in a painful grimace. Fuji's heart fell to the sand, shattering on the sharp rocks underfoot. Carefully, he touched Tezuka's arm, unwrapping the mess from a pile of shredded fabric and rags he'd used to sop the blood up.
"It's not 'fine'!" Fuji snapped. "Your arm is-"
Gone.
"Who- what- how did this happen?" Fuji yanked off his own shirt and balled it up. He held it to Tezuka's stump. The blood was cool and dark, seeping through his fingers unstoppable. Fuji shook his head. His eyes stung. Tezuka cringed and his breathing was shallow. He shuffled a step forward, then fell onto Fuji's side.
Tezuka's face was white. Fuji gasped.
"It was…" Tezuka's throat bobbed. Fuji kept shaking his head. No! he thought. No, Tezuka, you can't leave me! I won't let you go!
"…it was a fight with the Keigo Kraken…" Tezuka said at last. Fuji didn't understand. He squeezed Tezuka closer. Blood soaked through his shirt and stained his hands, his stomach and all over Tezuka's chest too. He looks down between their bodies and he could see the bleeding stump, but near where Tezuka's bicep should have been was…
A sucker.
Like a tentacle's sucker.
Fuji's jaw dropped. A noise emerged from the back of his throat and bubbled out. Tezuka's jaw was tense and his forehead a knot of lines. His body felt icy in Fuji's arms.
The sea started to roil and the seagulls stopped cawing above. Fuji could feel cold, black clouds roll over the placid sky.
"Fuji," Tezuka muttered, "there's something I have to tell you…"
*--+--~--END FLASHBACK--~--+--*
Yukimura whips his head around. He blinks in surprise. "Eh?"
Is Fuji talking about-
Before the thought finishes, Fuji places a cool claw on Yukimura's knee. The feeling of it makes Yukimura stiffen. Fuji's smile isn't so patronizing now when Yukimura looks at him. It’s a soft, sad quirk to his lips, followed by a resigned sigh. "Even if you can't make that choice," Fuji says, "you at least owe him the truth. And perhaps an apology for being unable to give him what he needs."
The crab stands up on all his legs and scuttles off the bed with a couple quick hops. He nods to the window and says, "I can get down to the beach myself, I just need a bit of help. You mind?" He taps the wall with a claw.
When Yukimura tries to stand, his knees shake so hard they nearly give out. Fuji asks if he's all right. Yukimura can only nod and mumble something incoherent.
He sets Fuji on the window sill and cranks the window open for him. A blast of rain hits his face, salty from the ocean and jagged with the force of the wind. His hair flaps and the thunder booms, rumbling over the ocean as it moves north. He can see the pavement below, four floors down and when he looks at the little smiling crab…
Yukimura grabs the crab and stuffs it into the pocket of his shirt. He grabs his cellphone and runs out of his room, stuffing his feet in his shoes and slamming the door behind himself before his parents can ask where he's going.
He has one thought, one person in mind as he flies down the stairs, tripping on his loose shoelaces and the slippery steps, but not caring about anything except getting to the ocean NOW!
Even if he can't do anything, even if he can't change the past, he has to tell Sanada the truth. He has to be honest with himself, and with Sanada.
I miss you, Sanada, he thinks as he mounts his bike.
I love you, Sanada, he thinks as he starts to pedal, riding into the rain and the storm as someone calls his name behind himself, four floors above, yelling at him to come back inside.
His pocket moves. A crab antennae pops out. Yukimura pedals harder. The rain pellets his face, sharp and stinging. The wind whips his hair up all around his face, making it even darker as he zooms through the streets, finding the fastest way to the ocean, veering around cars and whirring through stoplights.
Cars honk their horns. The rain drenches him, making it harder and harder to pedal his bike fast enough because his legs are twisted in his pants and he shivers uncontrollably. The lightning makes him jump up in his seat, but he doesn't have time. If he doesn't tell Sanada, if he doesn't apologize, he can't live with himself.
Whether or not Sanada hears, he doesn’t know.
But he has to try.
Something buzzes against his stomach and then the crab moves too, claws and legs sharp and poking at Yukimura unintentionally though his pocket as his cell rings, vibrating against Fuji in the process. Yukimura skids around a corner and pedals harder, pushing his limbs to the limit as he coasts down an incline. The sea is close. He can smell it. He can hear the roaring ocean, churning as the storm rages it. He can taste the salt and feel the sting in his eyes, too.
He should answer his phone that keeps ringing, keeps vibrating off and on in his pocket. The thought of Fuji's story, his words about choices and crabs makes Yukimura start to laugh. He can't hold back the choked, sobbing laugh that rises in his throat and he shakes his head. His mother might worry and come look for him and find a crab instead.
Water runs down his face. Whether it’s the rain or tears, he can't tell anymore.
He grabs his phone, flinging something from his pocket along with his cell. Behind him, he can hear the faint "Wait! You dropped me!" for a beat before the voice is lost in the storm. Yukimura can't stop anyway-not even for a talking crab.
Yukimura rides on, pushing himself up a hill and then around a bend. The squarish art gallery building looms in the distance, illuminated by the garish reflection of lightning strikes on the wide panes of glass that make up the outside walls.
He flips his cell open, pressing it to his ear as best he can. His left hand trembles on his handlebars, fighting to keep control as the puddles splash up and the mud makes it difficult to steer. "Yes?" he shouts.
"Yukimura?"
Niou.
Yukimura's bike jumps, jerking him up and throwing off his course for a moment until he swerves around a puddle and pedals on, charging toward his beach.
"Hey, my brother found something when he was fishing today and I wondered if you wanted it. Token of sea basses and shit," Niou says.
"What?" Yukimura shouts. When Niou doesn't answer, he yells louder.
"My brother found a Jack Purcell hat when he was fishing at the beach. Do you want it?" Niou asks.
"Sanada…" Yukimura whispers.
His cell slips from his fingers and his bike keeps going. Yukimura blinks as the mud splashes up all around him. He can't go back for his cell phone either, not now.
He keeps pedaling.
He keeps pushing.
He keeps going, closer and closer to Sanada, although he'll never be close enough again. But he has to be honest with himself. He has to try.
At the sight of the dune, Yukimura throws his bike down and jumps off, running to the beach in one single motion. He fights his way through the wind, which pushes against him, forcing him back onto land. He shakes his head. "NO!" he screams at the storm. "NO! I WON'T!"
The beach is a surging mass of white-capped waves and yellowish water, roiling with anger. Yukimura struggles in the wind and he jumps at the lightning. It's so close, the thunder so loud that he can't hear himself yelling. He can't hear the ocean screaming, or his own.
"SANADA! I LOVE YOU! I'M SORRY! I LOVE YOU!"
The waves beat at his legs and Yukimura trips, landing face first in frigid water. He stands up, but the waves keep swirling, keep pulling his body down as he screams. "SANADA! I LOVE YOU! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!" Yukimura shakes off the tears. The rain keeps pushing down and the waves surge around him, getting deeper and deeper as his shoes slip and he sputters, the waves up to his chest, his neck and water chokes off his screams.
Yukimura wants to close his eyes and feel that warm sun, to feel the misty spray of the ocean and Sanada's arm around his shoulder. Instead, he coughs and gasps, his lungs filling with water as he flails, grabbing at everything around and holding onto nothing, because the water slips through his fingers and pulls his feet out from under his body.
He closes his eyes. He can't even scream anymore because the pressure is so much-the water is everywhere, but he can almost feel that embracing arm, solid and strong around his shoulders as he slips down, trying to touch bottom and then surface, one last time.
*--+--~--A--~--+--*
Sanada knows that shadow. He knows that long, thin snaking swim anywhere. He turns away and does his best to ignore the toothy face that pokes its head into his cave.
Chitoseel, however, doesn't care. He's been one to bother with formalities. "Man," he says, glowing faintly, "looks like a rough storm up on the surface."
Sanada doesn't care. He doesn't even shrug his shoulders when Chitoseel swims up around him, floating past his arm and poking at Sanada with his jaw. Sanada lies at the back of his cave. The water bobs and flows around him; he can sense the storm, but he's too listless to do anything. He sighs. His chest aches to the point of collapse as he brushes the wall of his cave with his tail, limp and flaccid and lifeless.
The water is dark. The eels are silent, snug abed in their eel pits, waiting out the storm before they emerge again with their song tomorrow night. Sanada floats, waiting for Chitoseel to leave him alone again. If he doesn't humour Chitoseel, maybe he'll go away sooner and leave Sanada to wither up faster.
Chitoseel opens his mouth, showing off a row of sharp teeth to speak, when something small and silvery zips across the cave, zigzagging around frantically.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!" the fish squeaks. "There's a stupid human up there screaming and drowning! What a loser!" The fish darts around some more, flashing his bright scales around in his frenzy.
"It's rather funny," a voice outside the cave adds, drawling. "Gakufish is right."
Chitoseel looks at Gakufish. Gakufish zips around in a circle, whirling around Sanada's head and stirring up a cloud of sediment. Sanada's gills are gritty and he coughs. "Oh really?" Chitoseel says.
"Hell yeah!" Gakufish's high-pitched voice shrieks in answer.
Chitoseel sniffs, his body sparking as he chuckles. He swims closer to Sanada. "Hey, Sanada," he says. "Some dude's drowning up there. Humans aren't very smart, are they?"
Sanada pretends not to listen, even though he can hear Chitoseel and Gakufish full well. And Yuushi outside, who hums and haws when Gakufish asks "What are you feeling tonight, Yuushi? Male or female?" Sanada lets the water roll him further over onto his side; his body drapes, fin brushing the sandy ocean floor as the sea grasses sway, shivering in the stormy current.
Humans aren't smart. He knows that. They don't know about mermen and when they find out…
Sanada's chest squeezes tight. He stares at the sea grass fronds, dancing around him, soft and fuzzy, and wishes he would sink sooner, wishes the hole Yukimura drilled in his heart would finish bleeding him to death instead of lingering, gaping and raw and agonizing.
After a long moment, Chitoseel finally grunts and says, "See you around sometime." He slithers through the crack between the cave entrance and the family rock, and leaves.
Sanada's body hits the sea floor, hard and heavy. He has no reason to, but he drags his body to the cave entrance to peek outside. Chitoseel's whistling has long since disappeared in the din of the ocean noises, all scuttles and plops and swoosh and tick tick tick as the shrimps scurry along. There is no light, just an expanse of softly rolling banks of sand and coral mounds, a few giant clams and sea cucumbers and seaweed littering everywhere.
The large shadow of a Hump headed wrasse moves by; its blue scales are the only colour as a bolt of lightning illuminates the sea for an instant. Yuushi swims along, lethargic and lumbering with no particular direction. Sanada ducks back into his cave, hiding in the darkness.
Around Yuushi, Gakufish darts and dives, up around Yuushi's hump, then back down around his wide mouth, singing to himself "I love you Sanada! Oh I love you Sanada! I'm a stupid human and I love you Sanada!"
Sanada lifts his head and his eyes go huge.
*--+--~--‼--~--+--*