hold me down

"Why th’fuck’re you askin’ if I’m okay?” he shouted. “Some poor fucker died. He was just a kid, Milo, he’s—he was covered in fuckin’—it just stuck t’ everything. Everything. I don’t even have legs, ‘n I still feel fuckin’ disgustin’. And—and he’s dead. He was a kid, Milo. He was so fuckin’—he coulda been good at charms or maybe he was a seer or—or—fuck, man. Fuck.” He tightened his grip around Milo’s waist, holding him tight as though he feared what was going to happen the second he let go.

He flinched when Didg began yelling about the dead kid, widened eyes meeting the merman's as he froze.  Milo didn't want to think about someone actually dying - he was reminded all too much of how he'd been attacked as well, how he'd spent weeks coughing up blood and stone while he waited for the antidote.  But at the smaller boy's shouted words, everything hit him hard, and a cold sort of fear began to settle in the pit of his stomach, making his blood run cold.  And even though he didn't want them to, his eyes began tearing up as the fear dug its claws into him.  "I - Didg, I-" he stammered, frozen as the boy tightened his grip on him.  

His expression fell further when Milo’s smile fell. Things were going to be serious, and Didg wasn’t sure he had the stomach for it. “Not really? I mean — what’s there to talk about? I miss somethin’ good on land over there?”

He frowned, chewing at his lip for a minute as he thought of how to ask the boy about what'd happened.  He knew Didg had been one of the poor boys who'd seen the dead bodies, but approaching that subject was going to take some delicate word choices.  "I know what happened, Didg," he said quietly, trying to meet the merman's eyes.  "I know what you saw.  I just want to make sure you're okay.  Or, not okay okay, but that you're at least taking care of yourself.  If that makes sense?"  He cut off with a groan, rubbing a hand over his face again.  "I'm not making sense." 

Didg knit his brows together in concern. What was he doing here? Had he fallen in? Was he all right?

"There you are!" he sputtered, wiping at his face for a moment before going back to treading water - he wasn't going to make Didg keep them both out of the water, not if he could help out.  "I've been looking for you all over the place."  The grin fell away to be replaced with a concerned frown as he looked over at Didg.  "You need to talk or anything?"

He pulsed blue as quickly as his heart raced, lighting up the murk of the Grotto and, briefly, illuminating his surroundings. Not that it mattered. Didg knew the area by heart now, and he could swim it blind. His focus was solely on the fish, and when it darted up, so, too, did Didg, until he burst through the surface, snatching the writhing fish from the air and falling back into the water with an unceremonious smek. The second-long breach was the only sign of where he was, and it echoed off the walls, above the surface of the water, and away from where Didg could hear it. He had his lunch. That was all that mattered now.

It seemed he'd gotten to the Grotto just in time to watch Didg breach the water for a split second, obviously intent on grabbing something out of the air before landing with an echoing noise that made Milo wince in sympathy.  "Didg!" he called out, immediately kicking his shoes off as he headed for the railing they'd both dived off before.  "Didg!"  He moved to strip his pants off, but in his haste to unbutton the stubborn jeans, Milo stumbled and bumped into the railing in such a way that he fell over it, hitting the water with a yelp and an echoing noise of his own.  After a moment of confusion as he sank, Milo kicked towards the surface, gasping for air once he'd started treading water.  "Didg?" he called again, this time a little quieter.