CustardSlice

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro watched Keith and felt a jolt of excitement within him. This new method of explanation was really working and they were able to communicate so much more clearly. He was getting through to Keith and his original thought that Keith was related to merfolk had hit the man too. Shiro watched him shrug off the idea and then gently placed a hand on Keith's arm, both reassuring him and getting his attention. Shiro pointed to the necklace again and quickly drew a pregnant belly on the mermaid he had drawn earlier. He poked a string of dots around her neck, then pointed from it to Keith's necklace. He was almost certain that this kind of necklace and those kinds of shells came from a mother. Perhaps Keith's mother was a mermaid, or she had cared for him for a while when she was a baby. Shiro wished he had the words or the mental strength to explain to Keith, but draw away he did.

He drew what he imagined a baby man might look like. Tiny arms and legs, with a few hairs on top. He drew it crying, then a very quick dead man lying down. He then drew the sea below the baby and drew a mermaid holding out her arms towards the baby. His drawings were getting more crude in his excitement to communicate the idea. But perhaps Keith had been looked after by a mermaid and that explained the necklace. He pointed to Keith, then drew Keith's hair on the baby, which in any other circumstances would have looked hilarious, but he looked eagerly to Keith. He pointed to the dead man in the drawing, then looked at Keith questioningly. Did Keith's parents die? Or did they leave him? If they had, his drawing theory could make sense. If not, they were back wondering why Keith had such a necklace in the first place.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

When Keith ignored the question, looking freaked out, Shiro dropped the necklace and held out his hands, trying to reassure Keith that he wasn't angry or trying to hurt him. It was another moment before he realised that Keith was trying to speak with him telepathically. It wasn't working this time and Keith's face furrowed into a frown. Shiro watched him drawing intensely and frowned, trying to understand.

He smiled lightly at his depiction of the 'mind waves' coming from Keith's head to Shiro's in the drawings and linked the emotions instantly. Shiro nodded. When he had been starting to learn the same thing had happened to him. His emotions had controlled everything. He nodded and tapped his chest, 'Me too.' He pointed to the waves that were managing to get across the two people in the drawings and pointed to himself, then squeezed his eyes shut and held his head, like he was really concentrating. For him now, it was purely concentration. If he worked hard, he could talk telepathically, but if he didn't work hard enough the link wasn't established. He then pointed to the big cross that Keith had drawn and pointed to himself again, then yawned dramatically before shaking his head and pointing again to the links that Keith had drawn. When Shiro was tired, he struggled to make the link.

He drew a mermaid, a normal one, and drew the lines like Keith, then crossed them out. He then drew a smaller, but more whispy looking mermaid - a siren - and drew lots of lines from it's head. Finally, he pointed to the mermaid and made the concentration face. He pointed to the siren and made a complacent face, then waved his hand around to show that they were able to do it whenever they liked. It all depended on whether or not Keith knew about sirens, but he hoped it shed a little light on the matter.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro felt Keith’s arms around his shoulders and he felt safe, secure. He felt cloaked in a dream of sorts, one where only he and Keith existed and this feeling of excitement within him filled the air around them. It was so strange, he thought, that a stranger to him like Keith was had become such a prominent thought in his mind. Keith had been on his mind constantly since the merman had first set eyes on him and he couldn’t help but continue to think about him.

A gentle niggling played at the back of his mind, thinking about the arena fight he would have. He knew that it would be dangerous and he knew that he risked losing everything. He wondered how Keith really felt. From what he could feel, Keith was seething beside him. A sense of rage filled the man and Shiro held a small piece of hope to that. Hope that this sense of attachment was returned to him and it made him smile.

When Keith’s voice made sense again in his head, he pulled back away from Keith, staring at him. It happened again. He heard Keith’s voice clearly and understood it as though he were speaking the merfolk’s language. Shiro looked back at the necklace around Keith’s neck and frowned. He gently lifted it and carefully ran his thumb over them, then closed his eyes and concentrated, “I hear you.. who gave this to you? Where are they now?” Using this method of communication was starting to give him a headache. He wasn’t well-practised in it and it didn’t come naturally to him, but hearing Keith’s voice in his head raised so many questions.

He didn’t know any other species that could speak like this. Whales were the closest, with their sounds that only they could hear and pick up but nothing like this. Nothing as clear and strong as this. That was reserved only for sirens and merfolk. He wondered whether the person that had given Keith the necklace was related to the merfolk or had knowledge about communication between the two species that Shiro could use to learn to speak with Keith. He had to know.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro felt Keith's hand and sparks flew up his arms sharply. It was like an electric eel's sting each time they touched and it make Shiro's heart race. He squeezed Keith's hand back, stroking along the top of his palm with his thumb and then fell into Keith's eyes, watching them silently reassure him. He wished he could speak to him, wished he could communicate with more than drawings because he wanted to tell him just how much his gestures meant. He wanted to say how much he missed having something to return to and how he would fight to keep that. He tore his eyes away to watch Keith draw and his heart raced, seeing that Keith held the same sentiment.

He saw Keith draw bandages and he stroked over the one covering his arm. He leaned his head against Keith's shoulder and closed his eyes. From the drawings, Shiro could sense the sadness in Keith, that he didn't want to have to help him, but that he would, because neither of them had a choice. In that moment he felt safe and he wanted to thank Keith. He wanted to tell him what this made him feel, to have something - someone to return to that would care for him meant so much to Shiro. He would fight for his life for Keith and get back to him, because he was the only sense of safety that he had. Shiro buried his head into the crook of Keith's neck and breathed in slowly. Keith's smell was wild and warm. He wouldn't forget it. It surrounded him with a feeling of calm security and he promised himself that he would come back to it.

He breathed slowly and concentrated, using his telepathy carefully, "Keith.. I will come back to you.. I promise. You are my safety. I will come back for you."

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro looked into Keith's eyes and he saw instantly that he understood. His expression was grim and serious. Shiro was encouraged by the fact that Keith began crossing out the bad fish that he had drawn and he almost chuckled when he crossed out Zarkon. His movements were deliberate and purposeful. Keith was asking him a question. He watched Keith make the little drawn Shiro smile and Shiro sighed.

He had an answer of course - why couldn't he get away and be happy? He simply wasn't strong enough. He couldn't defeat Zarkon and he wasn't smart enough to find a way out other than killing him. So he was trapped in this endless loop of fighting and surviving. Shiro leaned his head on one hand, heavy-hearted and he re-drew his arms in a pose that showed off his muscles. He then edited Zarkon to have particularly huge muscles and sharper, longer teeth. He also pointed to his prosthetic tail fin and flapped it gently. He wasn't able to swim as fast anymore either. He couldn't outswim any of Zarkon's creations, so he had had to improve his defensive techniques more recently. It always felt like it wasn't enough.

He looked at Keith, then looked up at the moon. It was just a small sliver in the sky, soon to disappear. His next fight wouldn't be far away now.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro finished off the parts of the pizza that he enjoyed most. He found that the red circles were too sour for him, but he enjoyed the salty yellow parts. He left the parts that he didn't like on the box that Keith had brought for them both. He then looked down at the man as he drew. He was telling a story and there was a kind of childish beauty in this form of storytelling that made him smile. Keith's drawings made a lot of sense and he was much better at it than Shiro. He flicked his eyes up to watch Keith as he concentrated and his breath caught in his throat, viewing his side profile. Keith had a long jaw and a neat nose that was highlighted by the rising moonlight. His line of sight was so low that his eyes were almost closed, but his eyebrows were less peaceful. They were furrowed in his concentration and twitched every now and again.

Shiro switched back to the drawing and he watched Keith change the mood from light to dark. Keith was happier in the dark. Shiro supposed that he had his reasons. Shiro took a breath and he began to draw, himself. He drew the light first. He copied Keith's idea of Keith in the boat and drew a sun above him. Then he drew Shiro in the water beside the boat, smiling widely. In the water around them he drew small fish with big smiles and cute tails. Then he erased the sun and Keith's boat. He drew the moon, then erased half of it, then three quarters, then no moon at all to symbolise the phases of the moon. When the moon was completely erased, his expression darkened and he drew his best picture of Zarkon. A huge merman with a shark's tail and sharp teeth. He changed all of the fish, giving them spines and sharp teeth. He then drew himself again, fists up and teeth out, fighting with another merman.

The fighting arenas were a trap he was caught in. He was yet to find a way to escape Zarkon. Wherever he went, something or someone always found him and dragged him back to face bigger and better enemies that tore into him more each time. Whether Keith would understand any of this or consider it as just a childish phobia of the dark, he couldn't say. He looked at Keith, his eyes stony and serious. He hoped Keith wouldn't laugh at the very least.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro felt a warmth growing in his stomach and smiled at Keith whilst he drew a matching line to his likeness in the sand. Somehow he felt like a child again, scrawling on rocks and on the walls of caves with his friends. This was a little different though, it was intimate and intense. He could feel himself willing Keith to like something that he did so that they had things in common. He watched Keith attempt to reassure him that he wouldn't eat his dorsal fin and he relaxed a little more than he initially thought he would. He smiled again and contemplated Keith's gestures, but he realised that he was getting distracted just watching the way Keith's hands and face moved as he concentrated and thought about what he would do next. He sighed happily and nodded, watching Keith retreat again. He had a skip in his step and a grin in his eyes. Shiro liked to think that it was his fault the man's mood was so high at the moment. It certainly hadn't been the night before.

He smiled softly and traced the word 'pizza' with his fingers. They were strange letters that he had seen before, floating by and on the sailing vessels that lay in the harbour. He had no idea what they meant but he knew that it was a form of communication. Perhaps it was a name for this strange triangle drawing. Hearing Keith's footsteps, he looked up and he recognised the same letters on the side of the box. He pushed himself up, beginning to smell something foreign. His nose twitched and he followed the smell to the box as Keith placed it on the ground beside them. Shiro's eyes widened and he grinned, pointing to the drawing when Keith opened the box. He lost the grin when Keith handed some to him and he sniffed it, unsure. It was unlike anything he had smelled before. Sometimes there were ships passing by with cargo that held something smelling vaguely like it, but he couldn't identify it as anything more than that.

He bit into it slowly and chewed on it, then looked down at it. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, smelled or tasted. He couldn't decide if he liked it or not. It had the saltiness of seaweed, but other tastes and textures that were sweet, sharp and tangy at the same time. He swallowed and took another bite, this time from the other side and he reeled back. This part crunched like bones and had a bland taste to it. He wasn't sure about it, but he wanted more of it. He looked to Keith, unsure how to take this new experience of flavour before he saw the new drawing that Keith had made. He found that this was something they didn't have in common.

Shiro had grown to almost fear the moon. He dreaded the phases, particularly the waning phases. They symbolised his pain and fear. Shiro shook his head solemnly at the moon and drew his own, then rubbed it out quickly. He drew a sun in it's place, the rays long and large. He much preferred the sun to the moon, the day to the night. Even if the night had brought him Keith, the night could just as easily take him away.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro had hoped that this new mode of communication could add more answers, than questions, but he lay staring at the strange triangle that he had drawn. The other things he understood, the fish and the shells, Shiro had added to his own drawings, showing little pebbles, human sailing vessels and dolphins so he understood that Keith was trying to show not just what he liked to eat, but what he liked in the world too.

He just couldn't get his head around the strange triangle. He chuckled, seeing Keith's drawing of himself though, watching him make the eyes starry and work really hard on making the hair perfect. He had to admit, it looked a lot like Keith. He grinned at Keith and drew an arrow from the drawing of Keith and made the arrow point to his likes. He felt extremely forward expressing his fondness of Keith, but he couldn't help how he felt. He then pointed at the strange triangle, exaggerating his confused face. He pointed to his dorsal fin. It was the same shape, maybe Keith liked eating shark fins. His own was spotted, like that of a tiger shark, so perhaps it was something like that. He hoped not.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro didn’t make out any of the words that Keith had said but Keith pointed to his legs and was clearly telling him that they were the legs of a man. Shiro scrunched up his nose again, a little unconvinced because that lead the only other option to be that Keith or Keith’s parents had taken the necklace to pass it along to him. An uneasy feeling started to settle in his mind, wondering whether they had been hunters of sorts, but they couldn’t have been.. could they?

He shook his head and carefully handed the necklace back to Keith. No. It wasn’t possible. Keith would never have given him a shell from the necklace if he had known what it meant. He awkwardly shifted, sitting up on his side and tied the bag around himself carefully and deftly tied a tight knot to stop it from falling off, then he looked again at Keith and bit at his lip, wondering what to try to talk about. He looked down at the sand and played with it softly before getting an idea.

He drew a very crude portrait of himself with a fin and a lopsided smile, then drew a stick-like Keith beside it. He frowned as he concentrated and started to draw a long-armed squid with a line going to Shiro’s mouth. Again it was extremely simple, but a way to get to know Keith more. He liked squid a lot, so he made his likeness’ smile wider. He gestured for Keith to have his own turn. He was fascinated to know what this beautiful man ate, what he didn’t eat, what he liked and disliked.

of mer and men [Sheith Merman!AU]

Shiro took the necklace with care and held it up to look at it. His eyesight, it would seem, was not as poor as it had been in the water and the work was indeed some kind of mer-craft. The dried seaweed that had been used to make the string was tied in typical mer-fashion. It was an intricate knot that worked tightly underwater. Water had its way of untangling knots, so these were tight and strong. Shiro turned the necklace over and ran his hand over the beads and shells that hung from it. He narrowed his eyes, recognising the colours and the meanings of the shells woven into it. He lifted his head and looked to Keith curiously. These shells were gifts often given from mothers to their children. He turned the shells over in his hand and looked down to the bag he had.

He reached down and untied the looping knot that held it against him, then pulled it up to show Keith. He frowned slightly and placed the bag and the necklace next to each other. Shiro's bag was made from the shell of a horn-shark egg. It was a spiralling shape roughly as big as his hand and it was strung to a tightly woven strap made of seaweed and old ship ropes. Stitched onto the bag with a thinly woven string made of seaweed, like the string in Keith's necklace, was a collection of tiny shells and trinkets. Some of which matched Keith's.

Shiro made sure Keith was looking and he pointed to his bag and the shells stitched onto it, then he pointed to the shells that matched on Keith's necklace. The shells he was pointing to had been given to Shiro by his mother and father many years ago and his collection had grown with additions from friends and extended family too. He looked into Keith's eyes and he cradled his arms, as though he was holding a baby, then pointed to the shells again. Finally he pointed to himself, then the invisible baby he was holding and pretended to pick up one of the shells and gave it to the invisible baby. He wasn't sure what this meant. Perhaps Keith had merely found the shells and had made the necklace himself. He didn't think it was possible for the reason to be something as sinister as Keith had stolen the necklace. But then that left the only other possibility to be that Keith's mother had given them to him. Or his mother figure at least.