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Most of the time Floyd doesn’t have the focus necessary to well focus on his studies.
Studying sucks and not in a fun way point blank end of discussion.
Homework is the bane of his existence and he would rather listen to Jade talk about mushrooms or Azul about taxes for hours than do it.
Classes though? Well those could sometimes capture his attention.
History was generally where he would get a nap in because Professor Red squid made it really easy with that voice of his to fall asleep in seconds. On occasion though he found himself actually staying awake during certain lessons because they felt less like lessons and more like stories.
Stories of great beasts and epic battles.
Tales of princesses who need a true love kiss or tales of thieves who also needed just a bit of love in their lives.
Regals of great treasures and legends older than the great seven themselves.
So yeah even he could say that he likes history class sometimes.
Potionologie is another one of his classes that sometimes is great and sometimes it’s like pulling scales.
When it is just theory that sucks because it’s writing about this and that, nothing fun about writing repetitive crap.
When it was actually time to do potions though? Well that was usually his favourite part.
Potions are a lot like cooking he’s found.
They both have recipes and sometimes they have tons of wiggle room to work with and sometimes every step needs to be followed to the letter or it will blow up in his face.
Literally.
He tends to prefer the potions that leave some room for error, but on occasion he finds himself enjoying the difficulty of one that needs to be on point.
It’s also funny to see how each one smells and looks.
Seeing guppies faces get all scrunched up or professor Beakfish’s face scrunch up at a perfectly failed potion is also incredibly entertaining.
Now PE has to probably be his favourite class without fail.
Mostly because he gets to actually move unlike every single other one of his classes.
He doesn’t have to sit still and listen to boring teachers.
He listens to a boring teacher and then gets to run or swim or fly.
It’s liberating.
The Monstro Lounge is kind of like PE too because he’s moving around a lot to either get orders for demanding patrons or he gets to move around in the kitchen. A place in which he has total control to do whatever he pleases as long as he doesn’t kill anyone. Which is offensive he actually prefers to make yummy dishes rather than crappy ones cause they smell way better and Azul doesn’t get pissed at him.
He likes to move it move it what can he say.
This morning when he opens his eyes though he wants to do nothing more than stop his body from wanting to move.
With every single twitch his body makes the sheets rub like sandpaper against his skin, his skin that feels like there’s sea snakes underneath. Slithering around right under the surface and making him want to tare his own flesh off just so that he can get to them and kill them.
He’s tired too, he doesn’t want to do anything.
Which really really really really-
Really
Really
Really really
Really.
Sucks.
It sucks so bad because he has basketball practice this evening, something he was really looking forward to going to yesterday and still is now unfortunately.
It’s unfortunate because the school has put in a new rule that if you don’t attend classes then you can’t participate in club. A rule that The Sea snake just loves because it means that Floyd can’t just waltz into club after not attending school cause he was in a bad mood.
Sea snake just hates losing to him, loser.
So his brain wants to play basketball, but he can’t if he doesn’t attend his classes.
Life fucking sucks. He’s so hitting Sea snake with a ball ‘by accident’ once he gets there this afternoon.
He eventually drags himself out of bed, physically drags himself out of bed, and ends up face first on the floor.
He pushes himself back slightly, his head now facing his bed and the bottom half of his body still on it, as his eyes land on something underneath it.
Hey there’s his phone! He’s been looking for that.
Maybe today won’t be so bad after all- are famous last words as when he reaches for it he forgets what position he’s in and the blankets tangled around his waist do not stop him from falling off of his bed.
Ouch.
He’s now partially underneath his bed as he holds his phone up to his face and squints at the bright light to read the time.
“5:38 am”
He mumbles out loud to himself before turning off his phone and dropping his hand holding it to the side.
Wait.
Wait a second.
“It’s 5:4-!”
He doesn’t finish his pissed off shouting because in his exclamation he suddenly sits up only to realize, or more like be reminded of, where exactly he is when his head collides with the underside of his bed. The following smack resounded throughout the room and is followed by a painful groan. Then that is followed by another smack and another sound of pain as he punches the same spot.
Waking up in this state and before even Azul would usually be up?
Yeah today is not going to be fun.
Now what’s something that classes can all have in common no matter their curriculum or professor?
They can all be fucking torture!
How has he ever enjoyed any of these they all suck so bad.
He has PE at the moment and all he wants to do is get out of it, which is to say rare for him.
While he would usually extra be enjoying this class right now, because they are doing joint flight lessons and boy is it funny seeing Azul and Jade suffer through it, he simply isn’t.
Whoever said that gym uniforms are breathable are damn wrong, he can’t for the life of him breath through the fabric right now.
It’s incredibly constricting for one thing making the sea snakes under his skin squirm even more than they already are.
He wouldn’t even be surprised if one slithered out of his nail bed or out of his ears or something.
The sun isn’t helping either, he feels dehydrated and it makes his skin also feel not only uncomfortable, thanks to the sea snakes, but also incredibly dry and cracked.
He can’t see them, but sevens can he feel them.
He feels everything.
The wind that pushes his hair against his neck or into his face.
The wood from his broom that digs into his hand. The broom that rubs up against him wrong no matter what position he takes on the thing.
The sweat forming layers that don’t provide relief to him in the slightest and instead makes everything else like a gajilion times worse by causing things to cling to him.
So when coach Lobster yells at Azul and Jade for quote ‘not flying well enough’ he doesn’t laugh at the faces they make or tease them later for being so bad at the sport. He instead keeps his head down and holds back the urge to bite his broom in half or dig his teeth into his skin.
He’s tried both before and it doesn’t help it just makes everything worse.
And splinters are a pain to remove from his gums and lips.
Potionologie is trying to kill his lungs he is sure of it.
Cause seriously he is sure of it.
They are making a potion today that requires the wearing of a mask.
A mask that only helps him not inhale toxins fumes and that’s it.
It doesn’t help him breathe normally, which has already been a difficult task since he woke up this morning feeling like crap.
Puny human lungs.
It doesn’t help keep out the horrible nauseating smell of the potion. It’s a smell so strong that if he were a plant he’d probably wilt and shrivel up. He’s not a plant but he is thirty seconds away from doing just that.
Seriously did he just eat mushrooms? Because bile is bubbling up in the back of his throat and with the mask still on his face it threatens to make him choke on it. He’s not sure if he’ll make it through the class.
He doesn’t even know what potion they are making anymore, but he can practically taste it the smell is so vile.
The mask doesn’t even for a second help his skin either by digging into the side of his face because of how tight it has to be.
So tight that he’s half tempted to rip it off and inhale the fumes that may or may not kill him. He didn’t listen to hear if they actually would or not, couldn’t focus on professor Beakfish’s voice long enough to catch instructions or anything.
He doesn’t care if he gets something wrong, he needs to get through this class.
He should have tried inhaling the possibly toxic fumes.
He really really should have tried because history isn’t a perfect napping spot or a fun story to listen to.
Just like every other class today it’s a fucking torture session on his senses.
Professor Red squid’s voice isn’t soothing like waves washing ashore. No it’s deep and scratchy and grating on every single one of his nerves like piranhas gnawing on every part of his body.
The occasional whispering of other students are just as grating if not more so because they are so annoying. They aren’t interesting or trying to do their job they only make Floyd want to squeeze every single one of them until they pop.
He can’t though, not with Tiger shark getting the guppies to shut up by hissing at them. A sound that even though it’s across the room is like a harpoon shooting through one ear and out of the other.
If his head wasn’t on the desk already, ears trying desperately and uselessly to be covered by his hands, then he would have smashed it against the piece of furniture.
Slammed it against it until he passed out.
He lets out his own deep throated hiss when that cat hisses at another pair of guppies. It’s painful honestly because everything just hurts right now apparently.
Everything is trying to torture him.
He can hear it beginning to rain outside and the patter of the water against the window is like fireworks exploding right beside his head.
Each tic louder and worse than the rest and threatens to make his own eyes become like outside; pathetic miserable and watery.
The final thing though that makes him snap, the thing that finally sends him careening over the edge is something that most can agree is a form of torture all on it’s own.
Something that on its own would usually make everyone feel pain, it’s something that’s so bad it has its own expression.
Nails on a chalkboard.
Red squid drags his nails down the chalkboard to get everyone’s attention because so many people were talking.
The action just about kills Floyd.
Against the screaming of his skin and the assault on his eardrums that is the subsequent yelling of the teacher after the sound that shattered every single part of him, he bolts.
He gets up and runs.
He rushes right outside into the poring rain and he doesn’t stop running until he’s forced to.
Until his balance is completely thrown off by a puddle that sends him tumbling into more of the murky, sticky, squishy, viscous, horrid sounding, wretched smelling mud.
He falls mir inches away from the entrance to the hall of mirrors and at this point he doesn’t even know if he should keep going.
He writhes on the ground clawing at the tie around his neck that’s choking him, one of the many things that is simply too much for him right now.
His dexterity is all off though and the mud doesn’t let it slide off easily, instead it sticks painfully until he feels the sting of his nails digging into flesh.
The sting is barely registered, not with everything clawing at him and refusing to let him go.
The tie eventually comes away, tinged red but mostly brown, and then is tossed to who cares where. Then Floyd is pushing, slipping and scurrying away from the piece of fabric as if it was the predator and not him.
He tumbles through the mirror leading to Octavinelle and he’s bumping against walls as he stumbles down the hallways blinded by every single one of his senses.
He’s full on clawing at muddy skin and clothes by the time he busts through the Monstro Lounge doors.
He sheds the wet clothing on his way as if he were a creature trying to shed its skin.
Ripping and tearing at it, even using different surfaces, all in an effort to feel relief.
He doesn’t get relief though no it’s all torture torture torture.
He cries out.
He breaks things.
And by the time he makes it to the backroom with an empty tank he even retches what little he was able to swallow today which mostly consisted of water, which is horrible.
Everything about the action is horrible the smell, the taste, the sight, the feeling, the sound.
He hates it. He hates it.
He.
Hates.
It.
He doesn’t even manage to get everything off by the time that he makes it to the tank which makes his transition from human to mer uncomfortable if not even painful.
But it doesn’t matter not when everything else is just as bad if not worse, it’s simply something to add to the pile.
He swims around in the narrow, it’s maybe thirty feet by ten feet by twenty feet, tank for a bit knocking against the glass. Slicing his claws against anything, which sometimes happens to be his own tail, before eventually he tries burring himself under the sand, but even that isn’t enough.
He hisses, he growls, he cries.
It isn’t enough and yet it’s to much all at once.
He wants it to stop so badly.
He gets out of the sand and presses his head against the glass as if he could push his scull right through it.
As if he could phase through the surface like a ghost.
But he can’t, he’s no ghost.
Eventually he starts ramming his head against it.
The first hit isn’t very strong but it makes his whole body reverberate, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, and for the briefest of moments it almost feels like relief.
He isn’t sure if it is relief though because it was so short lived.
So this time he backs up before barrelling his whole body, head first, into the front of the tank.
He hits the glass with such intensity that it shakes threatening to give way under the force.
His whole body screams at the vibrations, not relief so very far from relief, but it’s one thing.
It’s not sea snakes under his skin or toxic fumes or scratching voices.
It’s one thing.
Pain.
Everything else was pain, but this is one pain.
Then it’s all rushing back and Floyd screams.
He screams until his throat hurts.
He screams as if that would stop everything from happening.
He screams as he tries to bash his whole body through the glass, stirring up sand and swallowing some of it.
And then he isn’t screaming anymore because he’s coughing violently because his whole body is screaming at him and he just wants it to stop.
He repeats the motion over and over and over and over again.
He keeps ramming into the glass until it cracks.
Threatening to crumble and shatter into a million pieces just like he is.
He doesn’t even notice that he’s nearly broken the tank though.
Floyd’s about to throw his body into it again, but he stops just short of it. Not by free will, but by something holding him back.
He’s then being lurched away from the wall by something strong and sticky.
Something that wraps around his arms and pins them to his sides.
He desperately attempts to wiggle free, to bite, to scratch the threat away. The threat that is making his skin burn and writhe with every point of contact. He propels himself backwards into the other wall, but the thing keeping his upper half painfully still only makes a sound of discomfort at the impact.
Doesn’t let go, doesn’t give him a break.
Then there’s something else wrapping around his lower half to keep that part of him still and again he desperately tries to escape, but the strength is one that rivals his own.
It doesn’t matter if he’s being kept down though he’s still going to try.
And he does he really does, he wiggles and thrashes around, but it’s all desperate and useless.
He pushes more sounds out of his mouth next, lets his pharyngeal jaw click out all his pain and frustration. He keeps screaming too, keeps crying out because it’s the only thing he can do now.
With the lack of movement he and the things pinning him slowly sink to the bottom of the tank.
They sink until his face is pressed up against the sand there as the bodies wrapped around him squeeze him. They add pressure to nearly every inch of his body while still being mindful of his fins that have even stopped twitching, because for once in his life Floyd stops moving.
He can’t take the pressure, he hates it, but he can’t do anything about it.
There’s a moment of silence, a silence that somehow seems to echo, a silence because his throat has finally shattered and let go.
Then a sound so small and yet piercing that the ones pinning Floyd down almost miss it.
A whine of discomfort of pain of simply being done with everything. It’s not a noise being done to annoy others, but from genuine emotions that are no longer exploding out in a violent torrent but slipping through the cracks in a small pathetic whimper of a sound.
“We know.”
Was told to him in a whisper, a sympathetic tone that told him that they really did understand, pressure surrounding him increasing for a moment.
“We know but we will stay until we know that you won’t further injure yourself.”
But he wants them to let go he doesn’t like being squeezed it’s to much and-
When Floyd inhales next he catches it, the unmistakable sent of blood in the water.
With a sudden jerk of his body he attempts to free himself again, but the same as every other time he’s tried he doesn’t budge at all and the grip on him only tightens.
There’s something in the water that’s hurting. He snaps his jaws a few times but only really manages to eat some sand and scratch his chin against the stuff. Which he doesn’t like and is definitely not worth the movement.
He then feels a rumble against his back, it’s only there for a fleeting moment, but it makes his facial fins flare outwards and into the sand. Something he doesn’t particularly enjoy, the sand doesn’t help it’s itchy and he hates the itchiness.
“Ah so now you smell it.”
Another voice comments though that sound doesn’t return after he feels a shift from one of the bodies. Something unsticking from its spot to shift through the water and cause the other body to jerk a sound of offence coming from the body that didn’t remove a limb from its spot stuck to him.
“Not the time Jade.”
A click that sounds almost apologetic is given in response or at least that’s what Floyd assumes, it seemed like an apology.
He doesn’t like the noise of sorry though it’s too sharp and he really rather that the two keeping him pinned would at least shut up.
He lets out another whine shortly after the click hopefully getting his point across that if they aren’t going to help him then they could at the very least not make it worse.
Cause the feeling of something smooth and something similarly smooth but with barely noticeable, but extremely noticeable to him, bumps up against him with each squeeze isn’t helping.
It just makes him want to scream.
They don’t listen though and soon another vibration is shaking up the water around him. It’s right against his back and it’s a even pitched rumbling that reverberates through his entire nervous system.
He whines again, but the rumble doesn’t cut out if anything it gets more intense.
It just repeats over and over and over and over and…
It’s all he can focus on, the only thing he wants to focus on.
It’s so incredibly frustrating, but he also knows it, his body knows, his brain knows it, his senses knows it.
It’s not quite right it’s a couple tones off but the repeated message is the same, it’s something that doesn’t quite fit words but is really more of a feeling.
Worst will pass. Worst will pass. Worst will pass.
Not it’s ok or it’ll get better or you’re going to be alright or it’s fine.
Simply reminding him that there was a start to this and that there will be an end to it too. Not an end that will last forever but a breath that can be taken and not immediately lost.
It doesn’t give him a time frame or really anything to work with other than it won’t last forever and that eventually some of the sea snakes will slither away.
This is the worst, but there is an out and he just needs to wait for it.
He doesn’t like waiting though don’t they get that!?
As if sensing his feelings the repetitive rumble grows in intensity, not volume because there isn’t really much in the way of volume because it’s something that seems connected to his sense of touch much more instead.
It’s annoying to have to wait, but… but it’s not as annoying as the sand and it’s not loud or smelly and it definitely doesn’t taste bad.
Actually maybe he kind of likes the vibration.
His facial fins twitch back, fluttering against the sand as he attempts to replicate the feeling in the water.
Then he begins to do it without thinking about it.
Begins to replicate the thing that doesn’t hurt.
It’s not annoying and doesn’t itch or torture him.
He lets the rumbles flow through him as if they were a tide dragging out his own soundless symphony from his chest.
Worst will pass. Worst will pass. Worst will pass.
He doesn’t know when it happened, but when he opened his eyes, when did he close them?, the two people squeezing him are gone.
He pushed himself off of the sand confused. The vibration in his chest stopping. He whipped his head around looking for Jade and Azul- because those were the two bodies duh- and he was a bit sad when he couldn’t find Azul.
He did on the other hand find his brother a little flick of the tail away curled up in his own tail, head resting on his arms.
He found himself immediately going to cuddle up with him even though his skin still felt wriggly and itchy.
He rammed his head through one of the loops of tail, slipping under it and causing Jade to stir.
Floyd wrapped his arms around Jade’s midsection just under his dorsal fin and dove his head into his chest, rubbing up against it.
Without hesitation Jade returned the gesture putting his arms around Floyd as well and rested his head on top of his brother’s.
The two of them twisting together as they got comfortable on the sand.
“You stopped it.”
Floyd complained in their mother tongue, ending with a sharp hiss of annoyance, facial and dorsal fins flaring, and poked Jade in the side rather pathetically.
“Pardon?”
Jade asked quizzically. Floyd could practically feel the eyebrow raise of confusion, which he whined at pushing his head harder against his brother’s sternum.
He didn’t want to explain.
Where was the twin telepathy when he needed it?
“The soothing vibration humming purring thing.”
He explained lamely which earned him a rather jerky laugh. It wasn’t funny!
“Oh I get it now.”
Jade chuckled, trying not to tease his brother but unable to hide his humour. He replied in a familiar click of his pharyngeal jaws, something which Floyd instinctively responded to with a rumble click of his own.
The two of them settled back down silence filling the tank as Floyd watched his brother close his eyes. He then closed his own as a hummed vibration began making its way through the water and straight to him.
A sharp intake through gills was the next noise made, a borderline hiss of pain for Jade.
“What was that for?”
He asked in a clipped tone as he opened his eyes to look down at his brother who was now glaring at him as if he was in the wrong despite being the one who was just bitten on the chest. Not full on bitten, Jade would have been a lot more ticked if that were the case, but enough to penetrate his skin to the point where he could smell his own blood in the water.
“Not right.”
Floyd snapped as he switched to glaring at Jade’s chest and the tinged red mark now there instead of at his face, like if he glared hard enough it would make the supposed perfect sound.
“That was the one I was making earlier.”
He said in an attempt at keeping the atmosphere calm and began running a hand over his brother’s dorsal fin to soothe it downwards. Only now Floyd was back to glaring at his face, instead of his chest, and was clicking at him wildly like an ink covered elver, fantastic.
“First off no.”
Oh wow how literate of him, brilliant explanation.
“Second off earlier one wasn’t right either!”
Floyd full on cried out this time and at the same time began untangling himself and shoved Jade away. It was too deep, the pitch was all off, was way too loud, was grating as hell, made the water and subsequently his body feel all wrong. It wasn’t even really coming from his chest it was more of a throat rumble.
“So earlier I didn’t help at all?”
Jade challenged, cause he’s pretty sure he got him to calm down if he’s not mistaken. He then yanked Floyd back by the tip of his tail by using the end of his own. His brother wasn’t swimming away that hard, was really being more huffy than anything, so the quick tug was all that was needed for the two of them to be face to face once again.
Floyd let off a warning click, flashing sabre teeth and giving even twitches of his facial fins. Jade returned the click, but otherwise didn’t react which made the fins on the other drop once more though still continued to occasionally flick in agitation.
“Didn’t say that.”
Floyd corrected as he pushed at Jade again, no doubt looking for some sort of retaliation, but was once again not granted any. His brother didn’t even move back all that far even though the shove had quite a bit more strength behind it than the one before.
“Then dear Seven please do explain I would adore to have some light shone on this situation.”
He hated that Jade said that all clipped yet calm in that damn sarcastic and condescending tone. It never failed to make him feel not only stupid, but also made him feel like he doesn’t actually care for him at all. It was the tone used when he wasn’t explaining something well or when his brother thought he did something wrong, not necessarily ‘wrong wrong’ just something he deemed as wrong which mostly included social stuff or something to do with studying. Both of which suck because one he doesn’t even understand what he did wrong half of the time and the other Jade knows he can’t stand.
He felt the sea snakes start slithering again with a new found vengeance built on hatred.
He couldn’t explain it!
So instead of trying he just screeched at Jade, teeth bared and all fins flared as his tail spun up the water and sand behind him. He even brought up his claws as if that would make him more menacing.
It didn’t, perhaps it would have been if it were towards anyone else, but his twin only crossed his arms and stared him down nearly unblinking.
Floyd spun away and began lashing about, slashing his claws at glass, sand and water, tail swinging at much the same and his teeth clanking together with the need to bite anything. Nothing was available as something good to bite though as there are no objects or coral or fish in the tank to chomp upon. Only him, his brother and sand.
The first one hurts.
The second one is probably not the best idea.
And the third one is about the shitiest thing to bite down on, like seriously he can’t even really properly bite down on the stuff.
“Fuck”
He hissed.
“Fuck Fuck Fuck”
Jade watched as Floyd thrashed about, it seemed to be more in frustration rather than full on overload as Azul found him in earlier. Floyd was present and not stuck in his senses so Jade just let him swish up a fuss.
It must have been at least a solid ten minutes later that the tantrum began to turn around into something worse again.
Jade didn’t even see it coming.
Floyd was calming down, he thought, bubbles coming from his mouth and gills as he finally slowed down to only twitching in place.
Then in a blink of an eye he suddenly brought his tail up to his mouth and chomped down on it with enough force to shatter bone.
Blood instantly began to seep into the water making Jade’s eyes instinctively sharpen.
With a powerful flick of his tail he reached out and wrapped himself around his brother.
Floyd didn’t put up much of a fight though and the moment Jade was there he dropped his tail out of his mouth causing a bunch of blood to mixe into the surrounding water.
There was a long silence where the both of them simply watched the two liquids swirling together.
Floyd swallowed and licked at his lips, tasting his blood in the water, he didn’t like it and he doubted that Jade did either.
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
Jade let out a sigh at the quiet words, yeah he got that.
“Do you have a solution?”
He prompted tilting his head to catch a glimpse of his twin’s expression, but for once it didn’t give him much to work with.
Floyd lowered his tail onto the sand, which had settled down by now, and smacked the wound against it a few times. Jade didn’t stop him and instead watched as the gears began turning.
“Could you try again?”
Jade let out a huff, but gave a simple click in confirmation that he would in fact try again. Floyd got the message that he was playing with a rip current though.
As a low throaty humming travelled up and down his spine Floyd couldn’t help but shiver, letting out a growl in response.
The second he did that though the rumble stopped and in its place was a growl of Jade’s own.
Floyd hated it, it itched. He pulled down on his facial fins and stopped growling himself.
When he ceased his fight Jade’s warning in retaliation slowly lessened in volume and intensity over an agonizing minute.
A minute in which he tried to desperately block out the noise that he could feel through his whole body, it was so much worse than the wrong vibration.
“Would you like me to try again?”
Ok maybe this time he really got the warning.
Floyd let out a broken chitter, both jaws clicking in discomfort if not a bit in relief that Jade finally shut up with the growling. Chest heaving as his sucked in oxygen properly once more instead of his whole body being so tense that he couldn’t.
It took him a bit, but eventually he nodded slowly pulling his hands away from the side of his face, though the knuckle white grip on his facial fins remained.
So Jade tried again, not exactly knowing what Floyd considered him to be doing wrong, so he tried using a different tone, deeper and more clicky.
“Ya using your throat too much.”
Floyd shivered clearly trying to hold back a whine, why in all of twisted wonderland did he go deeper?
“Too deep.”
That he did whine out as Jade paused to listen to the criticism that for once gave him something to work with.
The next attempt was better in Floyd’s opinion, it wasn’t as annoying for starters.
“Try rolling more.”
Jade rolled his eyes at the added commentary, but tried to roll more? Whatever that was. He attempted to make each vibration really rumble and cut out all the clicking. That change seemed to do the trick as Floyd’s dorsal fin that was stabbing into his chest, raising in constant agitation and unable to be lowered, finally did.
“Higher then lower.”
Jade did as instructed once more and made the rumble a higher pitch and then dropped it into a lower one.
Floyd let out a sharp hiss click, dorsal fin digging into his brother’s chest once more. It was a momentary action though and he was quick to correct.
“Intensity not pitch not pitch too deep.”
Jade immediately corrected himself and then he watched as if he had just flipped a switch on his brother. He could feel the way muscles tensed up briefly before then going slack. How his dorsal fin was back to pressing against his chest, but not from being raised, but from the body against him finally leaning back and breathing again.
Floyd knew that it wasn’t right, he knows that Jade is still doing it wrong, but it’s close enough to scratch that itch that the wriggling sea snakes won’t let him get to.
It was kind of like the one from earlier, not right, but still managing to send him the right message.
It was no longer then two minutes later that Floyd was no more then a noodle in Jade’s arms, his whole body back to being lax.
Jade proceeded with caution as he slowly lowered the both of them back down into the sand, but his brother didn’t so much as twitch an inch and began mimicking, though not replicating, the rumble.
The two vibrations slowly mixed into a soundless, to the naked ear, harmony.
It was much later that Jade thought perhaps he could finally stop making the rythme as it wasn’t exactly instinctual and was quite tiring. So slowly he began easing out of it believing Floyd to finally be back to sleeping or at least something close to it.
He was sadly quite wrong because when he stopped Floyd very much reacted.
“Don’t stop please.”
While most would say that Jade doesn’t care for anyone and for most people that would be entirely correct statement.
For that handful of people though, his brother included…
Well that sound was rather pathetic, yes, it did make him feel for his brother.
Instead of a vocal answer to the request, Jade doubles down on the rumble that is apparently still making Floyd feel better.
It’s not like he has anything important to do anyway.
As a reward for his compliance Jade gets a bone crushing full body squeeze. Pops that he didn’t even know about coming from him at the pure power and any air in his lungs was firmly pushed out of them.
It obviously isn’t very much of a reward especially with the feeling of Floyd digging his nails into his back.
He has half a mind to get himself out of the situation.
“Ma’ used to do it.”
Was said before Jade could get the chance.
“That’s where I know it from.”
Floyd added a moment later as he somehow tightened his grip, how? Jade has absolutely no clue, but at least now he knows how a poor unfortunate guppy feels whenever this happens to them. He Seven honestly can not breathe right now, it’s incredibly painful.
“She used to do it when the sea snakes wouldn’t go away.”
Jade tries to listen he really does, but it’s becoming rather difficult to get air into his lungs and he can smell his blood in the water again because of how many of his scales Floyd has undoubtedly clawed off and under. He tries to push out of the hold.
“I really miss her.”
After that statement Jade doesn’t need to continue his escape attempts as Floyd lets go. Lets him go and pushes away.
The action allows Jade to properly think through all of what just happened.
To realize that the squeeze was one of desperation, clearly the proper communication of thoughts and feelings being difficult for Floyd at the moment. Also that, despite hardly mentioning her since they’ve come to NRC, Floyd misses their mother deeply. He needs her rumbles, but it’s not as though they are easily accessible right now.
When Jade began slowly stopping the rumble he kind of panicked.
Floyd was just suddenly feeling overwhelmed again, he was really fucking tired of the sea snakes and finally when they were starting to go away again she just stopped!?
He whined his plea that he didn’t want for the song to finish, that if it was over that he would suffer again.
When he cracked open his eyes realization washed over him like a title wave, hitting him hard.
He momentarily forgot where he was and who he was with, sure it helped, in a roundabout way, to remind him of why exactly he thought Jade’s rumbling was off, but it also filled him with panic.
He doesn’t like loosing time like that, doesn’t like loosing himself, so he clung and he squeezed.
He squeezed like the action would keep the sea snakes away.
It didn’t, it just made them worse, it reminded him that he wasn’t squeezing the right mer and it made his insides feel like they were on the outside.
So he pushed away and swam away until he was lying, his tail partly buried in sand, in the corner.
“So it reminds you of her?”
He hears almost distantly as he keeps his hands on top of his head, eyes forwards but not really seeing.
Floyd nods.
Jade sighs.
“Do you want me to continue?”
Floyd thinks about it for all of three seconds before vehemently shaking his head.
“I hate this fucking day.”
Hs hisses through clenched teeth.
Jade slowly settles down in front of Floyd, lying down right in from of him and rests his head on the sand in much the same way while keeping his hands beside his face on the floor.
“I know.”
“I didn’t have fun in PE.”
“That’s unfortunate that’s usually your favourite.”
“The potion smelled like a bad rotten corpse.”
“Not a good corpse? Didn’t know there was such a thing. How disappointing.”
“And professor Red Squid dragged his fucking nails down the fucking chalkboard!”
Jade blinked at that, oh that one legitimately pissed him off.
“That’s fucking stupid.”
“The tie that Azuly- I didn’t have the energy to fight him on it this morning and it kept choking me.”
“How dare he and that tie do that to you.”
“And I never got to play basketball…”
While Jade wasn’t sure, because they are literally surrounded by water and neither of them cry tears made of ink like a certain octopus, by the way Floyd’s voice trails off at the end he believes him to be crying. He doesn’t move forward at all to confirm.
Jade doesn’t say anything else after that, doesn’t offer solutions or answers to the complaints, instead letting it float off and away. Lets it mix and dissipate into the surrounding liquid without drawing attention to it just like the tears.
“I want to leave.”
Jade wasn’t expecting that, nor was he expecting the words to be in land dwellers tongue.
“Sounds good to me.”
So they do, Jade begins slowly swimming to the top of the tank Floyd trailing behind him.
They drag themselves out onto the platform where there’s towels and two pairs of clothing.
Floyd scowls at the towel and hesitantly reaches out to grab it, only to be pleasantly surprised when it’s not scratchy and instead the fluffy one.
It takes much longer to dry himself off with the fluffy one, but it’s not a tortuous experience.
By the time he’s done Jade’s already dry, changed into his human form and nearly done getting on his clothes.
He glances at the angry and now slightly bleeding mark on his brother’s chest in the shape of-
Floyd runs his tongue over his teeth, looking down at them and picked at one with his claw.
Jade lets out a hum in question only to look at his brother, he then connects the dots rather quickly with that look of guilt on his face.
“You’ve given me plenty worse I simply need a wrap or two.”
It really is unfortunate that these human bodies are so fragile, skin so thin and fickle it’s really a hazard. It’s a wonder the Ramshackle prefect has survived all that they have.
“I am much more worried about the chunk that you took out of your own tail.”
He says walking over and crouching down beside his brother who had yet to change out of his true form.
Floyd removes the only part of his tail still in the water, the part with scales torn off and a wound that has long since stopped bleeding. Stopped bleeding in his mer form, but who knows how that will transfer to his human one.
He’d basically forgotten about it, but apparently subconsciously left it in the water.
“I’ll go and fetch us some first aid supplies.”
Floyd turns his head towards Jade at the sound of him speaking, while he can make the words out they sound kind of distant, as he dips his tail back into the water.
“Azul set out one of your favourite sets of clothes nothing scratchy or constricting.”
Jade said as he got up from his crouched position to push the pile closer, under it though…
Floyd scrambled tossing the sweater and shorts off to the side and held the item close to his chest for a moment. He hadn’t seen it before. He slowly runs his one hand over and around the soft fabric, his other helping keep the heavy thing balled up as much as possible in his arms. His eyes staying fixed ahead not looking and simply feeling the weighted blanket for a second.
A couple of minutes later he allows himself to wrap it around his shoulders and drapes it over his head.
He lets out a stressed chitter, both jaws clicking together, at the feeling of the perfect weight on his shoulders. He nuzzles into the fabric and honest to Seven jumps when he feels a slight change in pressure. Did Jade just poke him?
“Don’t hiss at me I already attempted to get your attention vocally.”
Jade shakes the white box with a red cross on it in his face and Floyd cuts off his own apoplectic noise. When did Jade have the time to go get that? When did he wrap up his wounds?
“Now care to do the honours of turning into your human form?”
Jade hands him his magical pen and while Floyd is quick to grab it he isn’t exactly sure how he feels about turning into a human.
It will be a lot easier to hide under his blanket if he’s shorter though.
So with that thought he takes one more look at his pen before swiping it over and down his body in one smooth motion. The transition isn’t particularly painful or uncomfortable like it was earlier, but once it’s finished both of his legs are throbbing.
“Holy Seven they hurt.”
He hisses as he pulls the appendages towards himself only to be stopped by a hand on his foot.
“You quite literally have a tear on each of them and they are bleeding quite profusely so I’m not surprised.”
Jade rubs something over the wound on his right leg that makes him jerk, but thankfully the feeling is short lived and soon enough he’s covering it with a bandage.
“My head hurts too.”
Probably from the numerous times you rammed it into a wall, Jade barely held himself back from saying and instead chose something else.
“That sucks.”
Floyd lets out a laugh.
“Not as good as-“
He doesn’t get to finish as Jade chooses that moment to rub more of that stinging stuff into his other leg. Jade perhaps smiles at the much larger flinch that Floyd does this time.
Once his second leg is wrapped Jade cruelly makes him pull on at least a pair of briefs reminding Floyd about last time he was seen naked in Octavinelle. It was a whole thing that happened in the Lounge because humans really have to put up such a fuss about public nudity and how sexual it is.
Like sure he was lying across the bar, but he wasn’t trying to be sexual he was just hot and itchy.
Once he gets them on though he refuses to put on anything else, the only thing he wants on his skin at the moment is his weighted blanket.
After packing everything back into the white case, Jade stands up and seems to wait for Floyd to do the same.
He doesn’t.
He doesn’t want to move.
“Are you going to get up?”
Floyd doesn’t even look at Jade.
“No.”
He says flat and final.
Jade’s not going to push, if Floyd wants to stay up here the whole night that’s fine by him. When he turns to walk away though the Leech suddenly grabs his ankle nearly making him trip.
“I want my bed.”
Jade rolls his eyes and attempts to shake the hand off of his leg, it doesn’t work.
“Great then get up.”
He bends down and pulls Floyd’s hand off of his ankle for all of about five seconds before then his wrists are being grabbed. He tries to pull and push his brother off of him, but he decides to use his weighted blanket to his advantage and throws it at Jade. It hits him in the side of the head, neck and shoulder.
Eventually Jade gives up, not really wanting to wrestle and risk falling into the water. He’d have to change the bandages and that would just be a pain.
“You’re annoying.”
Floyd lets out a laugh, light and unbothered by the insult.
“Carry me.”
It’s Jade’s turn to laugh now, in fact he cackles, exaggerated and loud, as if the other had just suggested he cut off his own hand or something.
“No.”
He deadpans, laughter stopping instantly, and causes Floyd to pout.
“Why?”
Jade goes silent for a minute then to Floyd’s dismay takes a deep breath, oh great a monologue.
“Well as I’ve already said you’re annoying. Second you decided to tackle me and throw a heavy object in my face on top of injuring me to the point of needing bandages.”
That wasn’t really all that bothersome for him in reality, the human body is quite fragile and that’s not really Floyd’s fault.
“Oh and my absolute favourite reason-“
Jade felt his twin thump his head against his chest, clearly already knowing what he’s about to say. It makes him smile.
“Because I decided that I would get absolutely no enjoyment out of carrying your heavy ass back to our room so let me repeat myself.”
“Shut up…”
“No. I will not carry you.”
Floyd lets out a long suffering groan, loud and whiny like somehow he was horribly wronged. Jade simply takes the opportunity of the dramatics to shove the other off.
It doesn’t work though and Floyd still clings to him like a particularly stubborn barnacle.
“Carry me.”
Jade sighs.
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No.”
“Carry me.”
“No”
“Carry-“
“Oh dear Seven shut up.”
Jade finally snaps, not loudly but it’s a clear indication that Floyd’s stubbornness won this time. Why does he do anything for the other? Ever? When this. This is his reward.
“Carry me.”
“Fine.”
He hisses and finally Floyd gets off of him. He throws the weighted blanket at him, right in his face, jumps out of the attempted grabs for his ankles and leaves him.
“Jaaaaaaaaaadddee.”
The betrayal, cruel cruel betrayal. His brother is so mean.
“I do hope you have to crawl back.”
Is what Floyd is left with as he watches Jade walk away. He decides to try one more thing in this desperate situation because he really doesn’t want to walk all the way back to their shared dorm.
“Please?”
He clicks as sadly and as pleading as he can. If he shows, as much as he hates it, himself being pathetic then there’s a chance Jade’ll take pity on him.
Jade looks at Floyd from across the platform where he’s already partly down the ladder.
He sees the simply pathetic look on his brother’s face and-
“Why do I do anything for you?”
Jade voices out loud as he walks back to their room. Floyd’s arms around his neck give him a little squeeze, he also feels his black strand of hair being tugged at and gnawed on, definitely making him on the verge of regretting his decision.
“Cause… you care about me?”
Floyd responds, finally letting go of his hair, and Jade can’t help but laugh.
“No that can’t possibly be it.”
“Uh huh.”
“You’re annoying.”
“Uh huh.”
“Virtually unable to be quiet.”
“Uh huh.”
“Clingy.”
“Uh huh.”
“Very droppable.”
Jade grins satisfied when he feels Floyd’s grip minuscule tighten.
“Uh huh.”
“And all around expendable and easy to abandon.”
Floyd nuzzles his head against Jade’s and lets out a friendly chitter of his second jaws as the door to their room is opened.
“Awwwww you love me!”
Floyd lets out a shout and a sound of pain as Jade drops him harshly onto the floor. He rubs at his tail bone and uses the door frame to get up as he weakly glares at his brother who practically saunters over to his bed.
“No, but I do wish you a good night Floyd.”
The tone is final. Done. Floyd slams the door shut.
Jade closes his eyes ready to actually get some proper rest, one of the best things about living on land in his opinion, sleep patterns.
He gets a heavy fluffy thing draped across him instead and Floyd is making the mattress dip as he crawls up beside him. Then makes the bed bounce as he flops and gets situated.
“Comfortable?”
Jade asks sardonically, not bothering to open his eyes or push his brother away even as he’s clung to like Floyd’s part starfish at this point.
“Yup!”
Floyd chirps as he rests his head on Jade’s shoulder. His bed feels to empty and the contact is helping with the sea snakes. He glances at the black strand of his brother’s hair and moves to bite it again.
“Bite it and I’ll rip out your throat.”
Damn twin telepathy.
———
The next morning Jade wakes up to an absolutely devine smell.
Sitting up and casting his gaze upon the source he spots a fully prepared filet mignon with sautéed mushrooms on his bedside table.
To most it would seem odd, but to Jade, who’s grown used to Floyd roundabout ways of saying ‘thank you’, he simply smiles at the sight of one of his favourite meals.
Steak for breakfast. There are worst things especially taking in the fact that Azul says it’s quite healthy to eat protein to start your day. Then again Jade’s pretty sure this isn’t what the nutritionists he’s quoted meant.
He’s definitely not going to complain though.
Floyd throws the door to Azul’s office open to find that thankfully the octopus isn’t there.
Perfect that gives him plenty of time to do what he needs to.
Azul walks into his office planning on getting changing out of his dorm uniform and into his school one. Only he’s thrown off balance by Floyd running past him and back to the lounge.
“Floyd-“
He starts to reprimand, but the mer is long gone. He lets out a sigh, at the very least Floyd seems in much higher spirits than yesterday.
As he’s hanging up his jacket he takes notice of his laptop open on his desk. He doesn’t recall leaving it ope- dear seven.
As Azul scrolls through the many tabs open on his computer he finds that nearly all of them were either things that needed to be ordered or things that would need to be ordered based on typical customer requests. Not only that but detailed instructions of possible new menu ideas and who of the new possible hires should be hired.
He would look over the calculations or double check the decisions, but this time he knows there’s no use and that he won’t find anything amiss.
Yes it’s quite clear that Floyd is doing much better than yesterday.
“How did he thank you?”
Azul queries Jade as he exists his office and into his fabulous Monstro Lounge that is apparently a one man army this morning.
“Stake with mushrooms. You?”
Jade responds without looking away from his brother doing tasks that would usually take a whole team of staff double the time.
“I‘ll only need to count profits and deal with the occasional bleeding soul for the next month.”
Azul says as he too watches Floyd run in between taking orders, making drinks and preparing food.
“Pity that this will only last a few hours and then he’ll crash before the evening rush begins.”
Azul recounts with a shake of his head to which Jade only smiles as he watches Floyd bounce towards the Ramshackle duo. Sharky taking a step back trying to avoid the inevitable while Shrimpy has clearly long since accepted their fate.
“Yes well tomorrow he’ll be back to his usual unpredictability.”
Jade hums as he makes his way to greet the two who are currently being crushed by Floyd’s affections.
“I suppose.”
Azul adds as he follows a step behind his vice house warden.
While both Azul and Jade are quite aware that in a few short weeks it’s likely that they will need to assist Floyd all over again.
They’ve done this for years after all and the pattern repeats itself.
But when the world becomes too much they’ll be there to lend a tail or tentacle, since they can always afford to share their benevolence with each other.