——————-

For the first few years of Kou Nakano’s life, his skin is bare.  Free of marks.  He’s too young to really think one way or another of it, so it doesn’t trouble him too much, but he does sometimes wonder what kind of mark he’ll get when his soulmate is finally born.  A name?  A picture? A sentence?  He knows better than to ask his parents about it, but he does look at the marks of the people around him curiously.

He’s lucky enough to see his mark set, one lonely afternoon when he’s in the bath.  The water had gone cold, but some inertia had kept him lying there listlessly long after he should have gotten out.  It’s with a start that he notices a warm pressure on his leg.  Wide-eyed, he watches as pawprints appear one by one, like a ghostly cat walking up his leg and stopping at his chest, before the feeling suddenly vanishes.  But the marks remain.

Years later he’s kicking himself for not thinking to take note of the date so he’d know his soulmate’s birthday, but he could hardly expect a four-year-old to think of something like that.  All he has is a vague recollection of the season and year.  And a messy smattering of pawprints on his chest.

More years pass, and Kou stops thinking of it much at all.  As he goes longer and longer without developing a real, substantial crush on anyone, the whole affair starts to feel foreign and disconnected from him.  He doesn’t even really like cats, what is this.  He’s got enough shit to worry about without this soulmate crap.

And then he dies.  He doesn’t think of his soulmate once in all the days he spends lying motionless on the floor, but not long after he reawakens it occurs to him that something might have happened to his soulmate’s mark.  And then he wonders if perhaps it’s vanished completely.  Is he free?  The thought comforts him, though he supposes that he feels bad for his soulmate, wherever they are.

When Kei Nagai is born, at first the doctors fear that something is wrong with him; a strange pattern of lines crackles across his skin and seems to indicate an illness of some kind.  But as they monitor him, they realize that the lines, despite dramatically resembling the scars seen on the victims of lightning strikes, are merely soulmate markings, and dismiss him.

Kei is raised to cover the marks diligently, and to not dwell on them. Only fanciful fools waste their lives away chasing after their soulmates, his mother reminds him.  His parents’ markings, as she so often likes to tell him and Eriko, do not match.  It’s probably for this reason that Eriko is born without a mark, and even years later as a teenager, well beyond the point where one might expect one to manifest, she’s still without one.

Kei still uncomfortably remembers the day that Kai had nonchalantly shown them his marking, a pair of wings over his shoulder blades, and Eriko had cried the whole way home.

But Kei doesn’t trouble himself with it.  As he gets older, he feels no desire in him for the bodies of others, and even tells himself occasionally that the mark isn’t truly a soulmate mark, but something else explained away as such when the doctors couldn’t identify its true cause.

The lines spiderweb across his body all the same, and do not fade or change as he ages.  Once in a while, he catches himself clutching his shoulder, where they originate, and it troubles him.  It doesn’t distract him from his studies however, so he tries to just ignore it. He’s never fully able to put the mark out of his mind.  Even after he dies, and he’s on the run with Kai, he finds himself thinking about it when his mind wanders.

He hopes he never meets his soulmate.  He’s fairly certain that he won’t meet their expectations.

When Kou Nakano stumbles across Kei Nagai in the woods, Kei doesn’t want him to die.  Not really. Yes, it would be sort of convenient if he did, but Kei’s frankly more surprised by his ghost’s violent overreaction than he is by Kou’s sudden arrival.  Even after Kou’s revealed to be an ajin, Kei still at least mostly wants to let him go.  He’s not totally sure if he will, but he thinks he will.

And then Kou’s eyes are wide and excited, and he fills the air with bold words about challenging Satou and saving the world and protecting everyone and his hand clamps down with searing finality right on Kei’s shoulder and Kei feels like he’s been electrocuted.  The words to dismiss Kou almost leave his mouth; he’s sure he could make him go away if he was persistent enough, and from just a few minutes with him Kei can already tell that Kou’s too much of a goodhearted idiot to turn Kei in.

Instead he finds himself making riceballs with poisonous mushrooms, the thought I can’t let him leave burning through his brain like lightning bolts.  And again, when he’s given away and forced to run, it’s as if his blood had been replaced with the words I can’t leave him behind and if his ghost dares to say a word about it he’ll—

“Why’d you come back for me?” Kou asks him later that day as they ready themselves by the cliff and Kei has to literally bite his tongue to keep himself from blurting out “for the same insane reason I decided to fight” and Kou looks at him with stupid stupid s t u p i d earnest eyes and Kei glares at him because this idiot is dangerousDangerousDangerous and he’s about to literally jump off a cliff with this moron what the hell is wrong with him?

Kou Nakano, for his part, doesn’t give it a moment’s thought that Kei’s ghost clawed through his chest exactly where the pawprints of his soulmate mark are.

He does however start to, just in his head, compare Kei Nagai to some kind of aloof asshole of a cat.  It starts when they emerge out of the ocean and Kei looks pissed-off and drenched and Kou has to muster every bit of self-preservation he has to choke back a laugh and keep his face serious.  Kei also likes to take naps, Kou observes, naps which are very precisely timed and apparently are calculated to optimize the restorative qualities of sleep while minimizing the amount of time wasted actually sleeping.  As for why Kou often finds Kei napping in the sun specifically, well, he’ll just chalk that up to Kei secretly being a cat.  Kei never gives him anything, but sometimes leaves him things, usually food, for him to find.  He never lets Kou approach him, always finding some excuse to put space between them when Kou tries, but sometimes, when Kou is distracted with something, he’ll suddenly notice that Kei has been nearby for an indeterminate amount of time, watching him critically with catlike eyes.  Okay, it was really the eyes that did it for Kou. He’s a shallow bastard, what could he say?

He idly imagines fucking Kei a few times, watching those icy eyes thaw from pleasure (but without losing any of their sharpness) and coaxing wild sounds out of him.  But the fantasy, while pleasant, isn’t especially consuming, and all of his probes, ranging from asking Kei about any past lovers to obtusely crowing about Izumi’s beauty around Kei to see if he could get any reaction, any, out of him, lead him to believe that Kei isn’t to be pursued in that area.  Honestly, Kou wouldn’t be surprised if Kei didn’t even have a soulmate mark at all.

Oh yeah, his soulmate mark.  How’s that soulmate of his doing, anyway?  Wherever and whoever they are…

Once in a while Kou finds himself thinking that it would maybe be nice if he and Kei could be a little closer, if they could curl up around each other with enough room to breathe but close enough to share warmth.  Knowing they had each other’s backs, understanding each other in a way no one who hadn’t died before could understand.  And then there were other times…

“Are you saying you think you’re more important than anyone else!?!” Kou snaps, feeling his hackles rise as he fights to keep himself from actually throttling Kei.

“Yes of course,” Kei says coolly, his eyes slits, “Don’t you?”

“Of fucking course not!”

Kei sneers.  “Well you should.”

Those words keep Kou up all night, and in a last-ditch effort of getting some sleep, he goes to wake up Kei, who, not being a heavy sleeper, is easy to rouse.  “What do you want, Nakano?” Kei asks languidly, the moonlight making him seem to glow.

“Tell me what you meant earlier.”

Kei’s eyes search his face curiously, before he closes his eyes and sighs. “Ah I see,” he says, lying back down, “You mean when I upset you.”

Kou grabs Kei’s shoulder to keep him upright, and Kei’s eyes snap open.  Belatedly, Kou notices that Kei isn’t wearing a shirt, and maybe this is making him a bit uncomfortable, but he’s not going to back down unless Kei does or says something about it.  “Tell me what you meant earlier,” Kou repeats, his voice a bit softer, “when you said I should think I’m more important than anyone else.”

Kei rolls his eyes.  “I only meant that in the grand scheme of things your life or mine has no lesser or greater value than any other, aside from the fact that they belong to us.  If you weigh the worth of your life and find it wanting, then why are you even still alive?”

“I couldn’t end my life even if I wanted to.”

Kei being Kei, rather than reacting to that with something resembling sympathy or pity, simply smirks.  “Oh yeah,” he says, “dang.”  Kou has never been more relieved in his entire life.

Kei still hasn’t done anything to remove Kou’s hand from his shoulder.  “Do you…” Kou begins hesitantly, “…do you think we’ll live forever, Nagai?”

Kei shrugs.  “It’s too soon to tell,” he says, “I’ll need at least a few years before I can determine whether or not being an ajin counteracts senescence.”

“Sen-sene-what?”

Kei glares and shoves him away.  “Senescence!  Aging!  Did you ever pay attention at school, moron?”

Not particularly.  Now Kou may not have been smart enough to be ready for medical school like the asshole sitting in front of him was, but he’s learned Kei’s mannerisms well enough to know that right now he was actually pleased.  Kou chuckles despite himself.  The petty asshole liked showing off how smart he was.  “Why don’t you explain it to me?” he says cheekily, “so I remember for next time.”

A lot of what Kei says makes no sense (he’d be a terrible teacher), but Kou likes hearing him talk.  He figures it’s the only way to understand this bizarre creature that has become his travel companion, and maybe if he hears Kei talk enough about his detached carefully calculated uncompromising view on humans that he sees as nothing more than electricity and chemicals, maybe Kou will figure out how to explain to Kei why he’s wrong.

Kei seemed to have realized that Kou wasn’t properly paying attention, because his face was screwing up like a displeased toddler and what had once been graceful gesticulations from his hands had turned more emphatic and frustrated.  Kou smiles despite himself, propping his head on his hand.  “What?” Kei snaps.

“You’re cute.”

Kou laughs at the disgusted look on Kei’s face even as Kei’s ghost eviscerates him.  When he comes to, Kei is eyeing him suspiciously, his face flushed either from anger or embarrassment, or perhaps both.  “Sorry,” Kou teases.

“Why the fuck would you say that?”

Embarrassment then, at least mostly.  Kou supposes he can’t blame Kei.  And with Kei’s people skills being what they were, he’s going to have to spell it out for Kei, isn’t he?  But then he notices something.  “Dude,” he says, pointing at Kei’s shoulder, “what the fuck happened to you?”

Kei grabs his shoulder, turning his body away from Kou, but the raggedy jagged lines crossed his chest and back as well.  “I got struck by lightning,” he snaps.

Gnarly as fuck.  Except… “But you last reset this morning…” Kou says curiously, “Remember?”

“Oh now you’re smart, of course. It’s a metaphor you dipshit, of course I don’t have any scars anymore.  I was born with this.”

Kou sits back on his knees and thinks about that for a moment, before blinking in surprise and crawling over to where Kei is curling in on himself.  “Kei?” he asks, poking Kei’s cheek, “you have a soulmate?”

“So I’m told,” Kei says loftily, failing to disguise his discomfort.

This wasn’t adding up.  “But I thought you…I mean, I guess I could be wrong, but you don’t—”

“Have a sex drive?” Kei interrupts coolly, and Kou shudders. Shit, now he was pissed.  “No, I don’t particularly.  What’s it to you?  Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

Kou probably should have paused, and taken a moment to think about how to salvage this conversation.  But instead he just blurts out, “I’ve always thought there was something wrong with you.” He pauses to ruffle Kei’s hair fondly, “but not that.”

Kei swats his hand away, and Kou smiles.  “What about you?” Kei asks savagely, “Don’t you have a soulmate you should be trying to find?  It seems like it’s right up your alley.”

For the first time in weeks, Kou thinks of pawprints, pressed delicately over his heart.  “Nah, not really, I don’t think,” Kou says nonchalantly, “Aren’t you supposed to put all your love or whatever into that person?  I’ve never really been able to do that…”

“Do you have a mark?”

Why do you care?  “Yeah, sure, I guess,” Kou says, hesitating for a moment before pulling off his shirt to reveal the pawprints on his chest.

Kei looks at him thoughtfully, and Kou averts his eyes.  “I’m surprised,” Kei admits, “I would have thought that destiny ordaining someone out there to be more important to you than anyone else would be something you’d jump at.”

“Heh, maybe you’re rubbing off on me then,” Kou says, only half-sarcastically. “What even is a soulmate, anyway?” he asks, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.

“What do you mean I’m “rubbing off” on you?”

“I think more now, I guess,” Kou says, “I never would have tried to have a conversation about the worth of different people, before.  Just cuz we don’t always agree doesn’t mean you aren’t rubbing off on me, just that I’m applying your philosophy differently.”

There’s suddenly a weight being pressed into Kou’s chest, and he wheezes, looking up to see Kei staring down at him, his foot pressed right over Kou’s heart. “It should come as no surprise to you,” Kei says, “that I’ve given the nature of soulmates a great deal of thought, and what that might mean to someone like me.  I’ve concluded,” he adds, sliding his foot up to Kou’s throat and pressing just hard enough that Kou has to fight to breathe, “That a soulmate is someone who barges into your life and asks questions you thought you’d already answered, until doubt burns through your body like a fever and you sweat out old ideas and wake up as someone else.  Someone that brings out the most in you.”  He cocks his head and lifts his foot away, allowing air to flow freely into Kou’s lungs again.  “I’m surprised you don’t look more afraid.”

“I trust you,” Kou says simply.

Kei crouches down and rolls his eyes, flicking Kou in the forehead before gently placing his hand on Kou’s chest, just for a second.  “So I’m a cat, am I?” he says softly, before standing up and walking back over to his futon.

Kou processes that admirably fast, in that after only a few moments he was shakily pushing himself up and stuttering, “wh-what?”

Kei sits elegantly on his futon, his limbs arranged gracefully and his long eyelashes fluttering demurely.  “Tell me,” he purrs, “Is it sad to live in such a fog of stupidity?  Or is it relaxing?  Perhaps I should try it.”

“You couldn’t turn your brain off if you wanted to.”

“Perhaps, but maybe you’re rubbing off on me too,” Kei says, lying down and covering himself again with his blankets.

Kou blinks, certain he must be missing something.  Kei sighs.  “I wasn’t joking,” he declares, “when I said I’d been struck by lightning.”

Kou rolls his eyes at that, not having the patience to deal with some other dumb thing Kei is saying, but then…when he thinks about it a moment more.  Oh.

“Good job,” Kei says, “perhaps I’ll reward you with a scratch behind your ears later.”

Kou sits quietly for a moment, before asking “Does this mean I should call you Kei now?”

Kei groans.  “Don’t overthink this, it doesn’t suit you.  Why does anything have to change?  Just do what you want, like you’ve always done.  I trust you,” he adds quickly, as though that’s unimportant.

“Do…what I want?”  Kou couldn’t remember ever having permission to do that.

“Sure, whatever.  But if you fucking touch me I’ll kill you.”

Kou’s shoulders sag in relief.  Good, they weren’t going to play some weird uncomfortable scripted game of pretend.  Grinning devilishly, he crawls across the room over to Kei’s futon, lying on the floor right next to him.  Kei glares. “What are you doing?” he demands.

“I’m not touching you,” Kou says, stealing some blankets off of Kei and curling his body until their noses are juuuuuuuuuuust shy of touching.

Kei wrinkles his nose distastefully.  “Whatever,” he says, closing his eyes, “do what you want.”  He doesn’t move.

"Oh wow!" the human boy exclaimed, reaching out with stubby fingers to touch the slick black scales. Though Kei stiffened, he allowed it. "So pretty...!"

A touch of color tinted Kei's ashen cheeks, although that might have been a trick of the light as he looked down. "Like a dead fish..." he murmured. "Not pretty..."

Kai shook his head furiously. "You're beautiful, Kei!"

The merboy drew back slightly, the blotched, inky gills on his sides rippling, then scoffed. "You're crazy. Is that why you spend so much time here in the woods?"

"That why you came out to meet me?" Kai asked, eyes shining and one palm still pressed to Kei's tail. "Because I come here every day?"

"I was curious."

"I'm so happy!"

Kei looked up in surprise to see the little human beaming, tears flowing down his round, flushed cheeks. After a beat of earnest confusion, the merboy looked down; allowed his hand to be held tightly.

"... You're weird."

... ... ...

"Kei!"

The merboy surfaced at the call of his name, shaking his head and scattering water droplets. "Hey, Kai."

The human boy kicked his shoes off excitedly; he wore no socks. Wading into the pond, he laughed as Kei swam up beside him.

"I'll come out of the water."

Kai shook his head. "No, I want to be a part of your world, too! I want to be where you are, Kei!"

The merboy shook his head, but then shrugged as he glided back out toward the deeper water. Kai yelped as he stumbled on the rocky pondbed, then splashed into the water. Kei appeared at his side, steadying him.

"You can swim, right?" The merboy's voice was muffled from beneath the surface.

"K-Kind of!"

"Kind of?"

"Whoa!" Kai yelped as he fell forward, crashing into the water face-first. Kei, with a worried exclamation, dove after him. Though the pond wasn't more than five feet deep, the human was small; the merboy was even smaller, but his very nature nullified any danger the water presented. Grabbing the human by the arms, he dragged him back toward the bank.

"I knew this was a bad idea..." he grunted, even as Kai giggled.

"No, no, I've got this! I can learn!"

"Or drown trying," Kei replied dryly, letting the human's body come to rest in the shallows. Kai sat up, shaking his head as the merboy peered at him from slightly deeper water.

"Than teach me, Kei!"

The merboy blinked, his membranous third-lid lagging a beat behind his standard eyelids. "Merfolk know how to swim instinctively. I wouldn't know how to teach you."

Kai pouted momentarily, then shrugged. "Fine, fine... But we'll stay in the water, anyway. Okay?"

Kei crawled into the shallows on his elbows, murky tail fanning out behind him. "Okay. But why?"

"Because I want to be part of your world!" Kai reiterated, beaming. "I don't want you to come into my world--my world stinks!"

... ... ...

Kei looked down at the fish in his hands--cold and dead and delicious. He took a contemplative bite--teeth sheering through scales and elongated  tongue snaking out to lap at leaking fish innards--as he watched Kaito sleep, curled up on his usual rock.

The human boy was scrawny. Though merfolk were self-dependent nearly from birth, Kei knew that humans weren't. His playmate seemed an oddly solitary human youngling, and often bore minor injuries. Along with Kei's curiosity there was a sharper, more invasive emotion present.

Crunching mindlessly through the fish's spine, Kei wondered if the attachment he was developing to the human was a good thing or a bad thing. It would be so simple--and more acceptable, by merfolk standards--to drown the child. He could simply reach up and drag the boy under the water; hold him down. His tongue flashed out to claim one of the fish's eyes.

Strength-wise, there would be no contest.

"Kai. Kaito."

The human boy stirred, rolling over to find the merboy clinging with pale fingers to the edge of his rock. Rubbing drowsily at his eyes, he sat up.

"Hey, Kei. Sorry I fell asleep..." He yawned hugely.

"Want one?"

Kai blinked down at the fish offered on an upturned palm. He smiled, a radiant splitting of his face,

"Sure! But I'll have to cook it, you know."

Kei tilted his head. "Cook?"

"Yeah!" Scrambling off his rock, Kai swept together a pile of twigs. Kei watched in fascination as the human pulled a strange little devise from his pocket; used it to produce a flickering tongue of fire.

"Whoa..."

"Swiped one of my dad's lighters," Kai said sneakily, then speared the fish with a stick. Kei wriggled up onto the muddy bank as the fish began to crackle and blacken. He felt vulnerable in the open air, but he'd exposed himself to Kai in such a way too many times to start worrying about it now.

"That's really... cool..." Kei murmured, peering into the small fire. Kai pulled the fish back for a moment, prying at the scales with dexterous fingers, and then held it out to the merboy.

"Try some!"

The merboy leaned forward on his hands and took a hesitant chomp; his eyes widened sharply and he drew back, startled by the heat.

"That's good!"

"Right?" Kai asked excitedly, taking a bite of his own. Kei twisted and slithered back into the water with a splaying and thrash of his fan-like tail, returning a moment later with several more fish in-hand. Kai laughed, settling in for a night of shared fish beside their improvised campfire.

As soon as the fish were cooked, however, he doused the flame; hid their rendezvous from anyone who might venture into the woods.

... ... ...

"A lot of merfolk are known to drown people... for fun," Kei said one day, floating on his back near the center of the pond. "You're lucky I'm not one of them."

Kai laughed boisterously--it was that laugh that often beguiled the merboy, and he softened at the sound. Years had passed since the two had become proper friends; a day they didn't see one another was an unusual day indeed, although the time they spent together varied from a single hour to a full twenty-four.

"I am lucky..." Kai murmured warmly, one hand dangling into the pond. He let himself tumble forward into the water a moment later, and Kei squeaked with alarm. But Kai emerged a moment later, swimming strongly--if a bit clumsily--over to him.

"Who taught you?" Kei asked in amusement, though with a reluctant undertone of jealousy. Kai smiled at him as they came face-to-face in the water, the merboy's tail-fin brushing the human's bare legs.

"You did. I watch you."

Kei felt a slight flush of heat across his skin, which only grew worse when Kai laid a casual hand on his shoulder to steady himself. They hovered for a moment, close enough to feel one another's breath, then Kei pulled back.

"Let me show you how to dive, then."

"I'll bet I've about got that down, too!"

... ... ...

When Kaito entered high school, his visits became shorter, if not more infrequent. Kei spent hours perusing the schoolbooks his friend stashed by their pond, and often helped the human boy with assignments and tests.

"I'm so glad you didn't disappear."

Kei looked over at his friend in surprise. The water was no longer deep enough to pose any threat; it was, in fact, seeming a bit crowded, and the two boys were nestled next to one another in the shallows. Kai's textbook sat atop on a neon rubber flotation device.

"What do you mean?" he asked, tail flicking up and accidentally showering them both in droplets of water. Kai chuckled, pressing his bare shoulder against the merboy's.

Neither particularly noticed the temperature difference between their bodies, anymore.

"I mean..." Kai murmured, "I used to be afraid you'd disappear when I got older. Sometimes I was convinced you were just... an imaginary friend."

Kei snorted. "Idiot. I'm stuck here for a while longer, at least."

Kai raised a brow, but didn't dig into the statement. That was one of the things Kei loved about the human boy--he never pried.

But the merboy had decided to share these facts, regardless.

"Young merfolk, we're... placed in these isolated pools by family members, where we can grow up in safety. Not only are we too weak to fight currents when we're young, but we can't pass as humans." Again Kai gave him a curious look, but Kei left that particular detail unexplored. "My family will be coming back for me, soon--in a year, or so. That's about when you finish school, right?"

"If I pass math."

Kei smirked. "Move away from here. To Noto, in Ishikawa. I'll meet up again with you there."

Kai beamed at him. "I'd love that!"

Kei felt a tenuous smile come to his face, too. "Yeah."

... ... ...

Sneakers kicked up pebbles as Kaito ran along the pathway, the faint shouts of an angry, drunken human following him into the woods. It was a three-mile hike to the pond he knew so well, and he made the trip in scarcely twenty minutes.

"Kei! Kei, where are you?!"

His friend didn't surface. Kai looked around jerkily, scattering droplets of blood from fresh cuts across his forehead.

It wasn't desertion that Kai felt, however--it was relief.

"Oh please..." he murmured, "be gone, Kei... He's coming...

"I never wanted to drag you into my shitty world."

Kai had stashed the majority of his valued belongings, over the years, near the pond. Now he collected those most important, stuffed them into a backpack, and took off at a sprint back down the path. He couldn't hear the shouts of his pursuer through the expanse of woods that separated them, but they still echoed in his ears.

In Noto, Kei. I'll meet you in Noto.

Kai burst from the woods onto a rural road; held up his hands to ward off a blaring car horn. Diving across the street, Kai felt hope surge up in him as his sneakers hit the pavement of a city road and he glimpsed the name of the train station on a sign overhead. His legs were burning, but he didn't let himself slow; pushed his body to move faster.

If Dad... if he catches up with me...

Then--the gunshot.

Kai hit the ground instinctively, jarring his whole body and tumbling forward. Scrambling for an alleyway amid the shrieks of civilians, he gasped in terror as burly arms closed around him.

"Looks like we found the little runaway," came a rumbling voice, and Kai thrashed against the hands that had seized him. "I think the boss'll be pleased."

"Shit..." Kai groaned, redoubling his efforts; kicking out and trying to get his hands free to fight properly. But the click of a gun beside his ear made him freeze.

"I think he will," a second voice purred. "I'll give him a call. And I'll bet he'll come out to retrieve his son personally."

... ... ...

"I never wanted to drag you into my shitty world."

Kei leaned out from the arms that held him; leaned after the human boy, Kai, as he gathered his things and fled.

"I have... to go."

"Like hell you'll be going anywhere," his mother said shortly. "Humans aren't worth getting involved with, in any form. See the trouble they cause?"

"I'll go after him," another voice volunteered, even as a shape began to trot after the human. Kei's mother gave a shout of objection. "Don't worry about a thing, Kei. I'll make sure he's okay."

"Idiot...!" the mother grumbled, then bundled Kei in the opposite direction. The merboy's tail flopped with a halfhearted protest.

"Put me down...!"

"You can't even Walk, yet," the mother replied briskly. "You aren't being logical. You're my son. Be logical."

Kei fell still for a moment, and the mother gave a huff of satisfaction. But then, the son spoke again.

"Put me down."

His tone made the older woman slow, then stop. But she didn't relinquish her grip, and Kei's tail thrashed crossly, it's end whapping against the ground.

"Put me down." His voice was calm; steady; determined.

And the mother sighed. "Too much of your father in you, then..." she murmured, and relaxed. Kei tumbled from her arms, landing with an undignified squawk.

"What was that for, Hag?!"

"One minute playing the love-struck romantic, the next calling your own mother a hag," the woman huffed, crossing her arms. "See how you fair, then. I hope you live, offspring of mine, if only for biological-imperative reasons."

"H-Hey...!" Kei shouted after her, but the woman had already stalked away into the shadowy trees. Struggling to crawl after her on his elbows, the merboy slammed his tail angrily against the forest ground. "Aren't you supposed to teach your offspring how to Walk?! Hey!"

There was, of course, no reply. Kei bent his head, face twisting with anger and fear.

Kaito...

Someone help me...

Someone help him...

I have... to get to him...!

... ... ...

"He's on his way here!" the man that Kai was internally referring to as Henchman Two told Henchman One, the one holding him.

Henchman One made a satisfied sound in that rumbling voice of his. "Then we'll just sit tight, won't we, Kid?"

Kai didn't bother to object; limbs tied and gag stuffed tightly into his mouth, he sat obediently at the side of the ally, though watching for any sort of opening. He looked over sharply at a new voice from the entrance of the alleyway.

"Well, it isn't as if I haven't always wanted to save a damsel in distress... shame you're really Kei's damsel, and I'm just acting as a stand-in."

"Who the fuck do you think you are, Brat?" Henchman One snarled, cracking his knuckles. The brunette--of unremarkable height and build, certainly no older than his late teens--only grinned.

"But I guess this'll make good damsel-rescue practice."

He came at Henchman One--a hopeless match, in Kai's estimation. But within blurred seconds Henchman One was on his back, eyes rolled in their sockets. Kai's jaw slackened through the gag as Henchman Two angled his gun.

"Turn around. Don't try anything like that on me. I'll shoot you in a second, minor or not."

The boy held up his hands in exaggerated fear. "Ooh, I'm so scared!"

The gun popped and Kai winced, but the strange boy only glanced down at his leg in mild annoyance. Kai's eyes widened--and Henchman Two's practically bugged--as glimmering golden scales slithered out over the wound.

"Now what did you have to go and do that for? I hate feeling them squirm like that."

Henchman Two gave a panicked shout as he fired again; and then again, making gold scales blossom on the boy's chest and forehead. Then the gun was skittering across the ally, and Henchman Two shrieked as his wrist was wrenched. A single blow across his head sent him crashing to the ground, and then Kai was being untied and helped to his feet.

"I'm Kou!" the stranger introduced himself, taking Kai's hand; it felt familiarly cold. "And you?"

"Kai. You're a...?"

"Right. An acquaintance of Kei's," Kou answered, with a wink.

"Is he...?"

"Safe and sound," Kou chirped, collecting Kai's backpack and tossing it to him. "Where are we headed?"

"Train station," Kai answered breathily. "Kei and I... we were going to meet up in Noto."

Kou replied with a radiant smile. "Let's get you to the train station, then!"

... ... ...

The high school campus was nearly deserted--three days after graduation, only a few instructors were still cleaning before locking up for summer vacation. One such teacher was Hirasawa, and he was just closing his classroom door when the black-haired youth stumbled into the hallway.

"You!" the boy gasped out, and Hirasawa straightened. "I'm looking for Kaito! Kaito... shit, I don't even know his last name... He goes to school here. Do you know where he is?"

"He's in my class," Hirasawa replied, drawing himself up. "Or was, until three days ago. He's a special young man. What business do you have with him?"

The boy began to answer, but one of his legs buckled. He thudded against the wall with a curse, struggling to breathe. "Because he's in danger...!"

Hirasawa instantly put down his pile of books, hurrying to the boy's side. "It's that no-good father of his, isn't it?"

"You knew...?" the boy ground out.

Hirasawa nodded. "He seemed to be handling it well, so I figured he had a support network of some sort. I kept an eye, though. Are your legs hurt?"

Kei shook his head. "They just... don't want to work right, that's all."

Hirasawa peered critically at him for a moment, then scooped the boy up in one arm; Kei squawked an objection, but Hirasawa was already striding toward the exit.

"He told me he was going to move to Noto," the teacher said. "If he's being pressured, I'd be willing to bet he's headed for the train station."

"... His forehead was cut."

Hirasawa looked over at Kei's broken murmur; nodded seriously.

"We'll find him."

... ... ...

Kai and Kou ran side-by-side down the stairs, emerging into the bustling train station below. Kai peeled away at the ticket window as Kou spun to face the stairwell, watching the human's back diligently.

"Kei told you to meet him in Noto, eh?"

"Yeah..." Kai murmured, foot tapping impatiently in the ticket line.

"He's breaking every single rule our kind has, you know."

Kai looked over curiously. "He's never told me much detail about your kind."

"Sounds like him..." Kou sighed. "Well, the first thing is that we aren't supposed to reveal ourselves to humans, at all."

"That's a pretty obvious one."

"Second, we definitely aren't supposed to reveal safe zones like Noto to humans," Kou continued conversationally, though every muscle in his body was tense. "Third, we absolutely, positively are not supposed to fall in love with humans."

"Kei isn't..." Kai began, with some confusion, but a commotion on the stairs silenced him. They'd reached the window, and Kai quickly purchased two tickets before hurrying deeper into the station.

The shouts and gunshots behind them set Kai and Kou to scrambling along faster, weaving through the flustered crowd as they searched for the right terminal.

"I just hope he ended up leaving with his mom..."

Kai ground to a halt; Kou stumbled beside him. "What do you mean? Didn't he leave with his family?"

"The family comin' to get him was his mom and me," Kou explained. "But when he heard you calling for him, he wanted to go after you. That's why I went, in his place. But, knowing his mom..."

"You mean he might still be here?" Kai demanded, although the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of his head destroyed any hope of an answer.

"Who might still be here? The bratty little son of the boss? Yeah, I don't think he's going anywhere."

Kou spun to face another pair of henchman that appeared behind him, but the crowd was dissolving to reveal half a dozen gangsters closing in. Kou shifted nervously, raising his hands.

And then there was the kingpin.

"Well, well, well..." the father murmured, swinging a broken bottle--the edges of which matched the wounds on Kai's forehead perfectly. "If it isn't my little would-be-runaway. We aren't the type of family that runs away from one another, Son. You should know that."

Kai shuddered violently, and Kou stepped bodily in front of him. But both boys knew they were cornered, and with the sound of the approaching train in their ears.

The approaching man spread his arms. "C'mon home now, Son. Nothing else for it."

A brick flew through the air; struck the henchmen holding the gun to Kai's head squarely in the temple, dropping him instantly. All eyes swung upward, and Kai called out his teacher's name in surprise.

"Hirasawa-san?!"

"You've got a train to catch, haven't you, Son?" the man called out, from his vantage point on a staircase. He hefted another brick; lobbed it, and took down another would-be-evildoer. "Go on!"

Kai and Kou spun; bolted, much to the shouted objections of the irate father. Kou made sure to stay behind Kai, and winced as two bullets sunk into his shimmering flesh.

By the time they reached the terminal, only one pursuer had stayed with them. Kou gave a choked exclamation as a bullet found its way into his neck; went down as his body began to heal the wound, only to lose both of his eyes to twin shots. Kai found himself paralyzed as his father approached him, broken sake bottle exchanged for a handgun.

"Now..." the man began, only to gasp in surprise as a lithe shape jumped him from behind. Kai's eyes widened sharply.

"Run, Kai...!" Kei shouted, only to gag as the older human grabbed him by the throat. He wheezed, kicking out helplessly as he was lifted high. His legs began to flicker with oil-black scales as he struggled.

"And just who the hell--?" the father began, only to be cut off by a fist drilled squarely into his ruddy face. He dropped Kei; stumbled backwards, hands flying to his face, and fell backwards with the force of his son's punch.

Kai didn't bother to shout any vindicated or triumphant words; only helped Kei to his undependable feet, grabbed Kou's arm as the other merman blinked his healing eyes, and bundled the three of them into the beckoning doors of the train.

... ... ...

"'Local Teacher Responsible for Arrest of Crime-Lord,'" Kai read aloud, then laughed. "Hirasawa-san looks so uncomfortable in this picture... I'm glad he's getting credit, though."

"Hmm..." Kei stood at the window, gazing out at the picturesque Noto beach. "He's a good fellow."

Kai nodded, sprawling more comfortably across the bed in the freshly-rented apartment. "I can't believe... I got away..." he murmured. If he wasn’t so used to dream-like days spent by the pond, he might earnestly doubt the reality of their escape.

Kei made another vaguely affirmative murmur, moving to the bathroom and beginning to fill the oversized tub with a rush of water. Kai rose, with a lazy stretch, and followed him.

Kei's skin was still deathly pale and cool to the touch, but not so damp as when he had been living in the pond. His jet black hair, too, was dry and fluffy; soft.

"You've got a pretty nice set of legs, I'll admit, but I think I like the tail better."

Kei shot him a supremely disbelieving look, but waited patiently for the bathtub to fill. Kai watched him contentedly. Only then did he stroll over to the human, wrapping his arms around his waist.

"I should have drowned you years ago."

Kai yelped in mock surprise as he was dragged into the bath with a splash. Scales sprang into being and a huge, ink-black tail materialized to fold over the human, trapping him, along with a set of thin arms, quite securely against Kei's narrow chest.

"Better?"

"Better," the human chuckled, then gazed down rapturously into the merman's dark eyes. "Kou said a funny thing to me, when he was listing off the merfolk rules you'd broken."

"Kou's an idiot," the merman scoffed.

Kai didn't falter. "He said you guys weren't supposed to fall in love with humans."

Kei blinked. "Love?" he echoed vaguely, then looked away thoughtfully. "Is that... am I in love with you?"

Kai shrugged. "I'm in love with you, I think."

Kei's eyes flickered back to meet the human's serious gaze. "That would make sense..."

Their lips moved closer; hovered, for a moment, and Kai drew back briefly before closing the gap between them. Warmth collided with chill in the hesitant, passionate meeting of lips, and then they parted slightly.

"I love you..." Kei sighed, his tail shuddering from base to tip.

Kai smiled slowly; tenderly. "I love you too, Kei. I'm so glad you didn't disappear

The telltale smoke of a campfire should be comforting, but it isn’t. It should be exciting, another chance to see a human face, another possibility that he’ll finally, finally be done with his search.

All that excitement is gone. It’s been five months since he last saw a human, and more than two years since he last saw someone he could consider friendly. The people who still survive in the after are a harsh group, and it doesn’t pay to buddy up with others. Anyone inclined to stay with a group is already in one and wary of anyone else.

Sometimes Kai wonders if he isn’t making a mistake. If he shouldn’t be trying to get in with one of those larger groups. Back when the world first ended and people actually stuck together there had been a lot of talk about making new towns, and Kai thought it was a pretty good idea.

He always pushes those thoughts away. He can’t stop moving, can’t settle down. He has to keep going.

When he finds Kei, then he’s allowed to stop. Then he can settle down, but not before.

Even though there probably aren’t any other humans for miles, Kai doubts that Kei would ever be stupid enough to have such a blatant fire. It’s practically a beacon, and the more the sun sinks, the more obvious it gets.

Kei would never do something so stupid, but Kaito feels the need to check anyway.

It feels weird pointing his rifle at a stranger, but he doesn’t have binoculars, and the scope is his best option. He keeps his hands well away from the trigger as he squints, looking the man up and down.

He looks like he’s in his mid twenties, a man even if his face looks a bit round and boyish at a distance. Through the scope Kai can’t spot a weapon, and he looks to be completely alone, sitting in front of the fire with his knees drawn up to his chest. If there was any question, the sandy brown of his hair makes it clear that the man in front of him is not Kei, but in truth there never was.

Kai didn’t expect it to be Kei, and that just means he isn’t disappointed when he accepts that it isn’t.

Kai stands up slowly, slinging the rifle onto his back as he approaches. He’s gotten good at moving quietly, and he’s within twenty feet of the man before he notices anything is up, his head suddenly spinning towards where Kai hides among the trees. The clearing the man has claimed as his own isn’t very big, but it’s not until Kai’s too close for comfort that he realizes he was wrong.

The man does have a weapon. Kai’s rifle is great for hunting, but the handgun at the man’s side isn’t good for anything but shooting humans.

Kai goes perfectly still, refusing to even breathe.

The man’s eyes flick around the forest, clearly searching him out, and Kai tries not to panic. He’s come too far to give up. He’s come to far to freak out. He just has to keep it together.

“I already know you’re there,” the man says, his hand on his gun. “So you can come out and we can talk, or I can assume you’re trying to jump me.”

Kai has to admit that certainly is what it looks like, and after a moment he lets out a little sigh.

Stupid. He’s acted like an idiot, missed something important, and now he’s at the mercy of someone with a gun.

“I’m going to stand up,” he calls, waiting for confirmation before he does just that. He keeps his hands up in the air, guessing (hopefully correctly) that if the man was trigger happy, he’d already have a bullet in him.

The man keeps his hand on his gun, but he doesn’t make any attempt to shoot Kai.

“So are we having a standoff?” Kai asks. “Or are we going to sit down and talk?”

The man seems startled a bit at that, and his hand jerks clear of his gun. He reaches up, scratching at the back of his neck awkwardly as Kai drops his hands.

“Sorry, it’s been ages since I saw anyone. Kind of expected you to be one of those assholes from Kyoto,” the man admits, drawing back towards the fire.

Kai doesn’t know anything about anyone in Kyoto, let alone assholes.

“I’ve mostly kept east,” he admits. “Closer to Tokyo. What’s the deal with Kyoto?”

“Assholes,” the boy says, which doesn’t clarify things at all.

Kait grabs a seat beside the fire, using his backpack to prop him up as he does.

“Name’s Kou,” the man offers as he takes a seat himself.

“Kaito,” Kai response in turn. “Or Kai, but it’s not like it really matters.”

“It matters to me,” Kou says. “And I guess it should probably matter to you.”

Kai sits in silence for a moment before shrugging.

“Kai then.”

“So what’s your deal?” Kou asks, digging into his own backpack and offering Kai a half-eaten bag of beef jerky. 

“Who says I have a deal?” Kai asks, raising an eyebrow as he reaches out to take the offered bag.

“I figure everyone who’s left has a story,” Kou says, and Kai has to admit he’s probably right.

“I’m looking for someone,” Kai says.

“So’s everyone,” Kou replies, and Kai frowns slightly, disliking the constant interruption. Kou seems to realize as much, throwing his hands up.

“Sorry, got used to the sound of my own voice. I won’t interrupt.”

“Thanks,” Kai says briefly, unsure of how much he really wants to say. He decides to keep it short, leaving out most of the worst things. There’s no need to mention where he escaped from--it’ll only end badly if he does.

“When the plague hit, it was just me and a friend left. I was far away from home, and I didn’t know where anyone is. Took me months to get back home, and when I did, everyone was already gone. I found a note though, a letter from a friend saying that he was still alive, and that he was going to look for help. Didn’t leave me a forwarding address or anything, and I’ve been looking for him since then.”

“That sucks,” Kou says when it’s obvious Kai considers his story done. “It’s hard to find people if you get split up. That’s why you should figure out a place to meet up if you get separated.”

The logic sounds so like Kei that Kai can’t help but let out a little laugh, popping a piece of jerky into his mouth as he leans back.

“Probably,” he admits. “What about you? You said everyone’s got a story, so what about yours?”

Kai feels that since Kou got his story, it’s only fair that it works the other way around as well.

“Uh, well,” Kou says, scratching at his cheek. “I was alone when it hit, and I ended up by myself while everyone was dying off. But I guess it wasn’t that bad, because I got lucky. I ended up meeting another guy who was alone, and he helped me figure out how to defend myself, and how to scavenge for food and things like that. I owe him a lot.”

Kai almost wants to ask what happened to him, but he suspects the answer is bad.

“We ended up getting split up, and I haven’t seen him since then. But even after that I got lucky - I ended up running into someone else not long after that, and then he helped me come up with a plan.”

“A plan?” Kaito has to ask, because he can’t figure out what plan there could possibly be. They--all of humanity, really--are past the point where plans could really matter. All they can do is survive, clinging together as best they can.

“He said that the US isn’t as bad as it is in Japan. They managed to isolate some people, and there’s more people left there. He had a radio, and he said the US has been broadcasting, and that if we got to the base in Sasebo, they’d be able to evacuate us.”

Sasebo. Sasebo is far, easily three or four weeks travel from where they are even if they don’t run into any difficulties.

“That’s the plan? Get to Sasebo?” Kai says. It seems like a pretty simple plan, but honestly he’s a bit surprised there’s even a plan at all.

“You can come if you want,” Kou offers. “I don’t know if your friend is going to be there, but I figure it’s probably better than wandering around. Maybe he’s heard about the evacuation, and he’s heading there too.”

Getting to the one place in the country that’s being evacuated does sound like something Kei would do, and after a few moments Kai decides that it’s his best shot.

“Deal,” he says. “We can go together then. Why aren’t you with him, anyway? They friend with the plan?”

Kou scratches at neck again, a behaviour that Kai decides is pretty much a nervous tick for him.

“We got split up,” he confesses. “But it’s alright, because we both agreed we’d meet up at Sasebo if we did. So as long as we go there, I’ll be able to find him.”

And maybe Kei too.

They make smalltalk for the rest of the evening, and it’s not until they’ve curled up to sleep--the camp booby trapped to let them know if anyone approaches it--that Kou brings it up again.

“Kai?” He says, his voice soft.

Kai stares up at the stars above them for a moment before turning his head towards Kou.

“Yeah?”

“I hope you find your friend,” Kou says, his voice earnest.

Kai can’t help but laugh a little bit at that, grinning even though no one could possibly see it in the dark.

“I hope you find your friend too,” he says in return. “I’m sure we’ll find both of them.”