#selkiedabi

When he was a small child Natsou loved the ocean. Of course he did, his family was partially made up of selkies. Both his brothers and his mother belonged to the seal shapeshifters while Fuyumi was more human with small traces of her mothers heritage. While Natsou didn’t have a trace of the fae’s blood in him he spent as much time in the water with siblings as they could all get away with.

Touya had been a decent swimmer in his human form as a child. Perpetually exhausted and tired as he had been he still raced his siblings in childish games and won. Fuyumi in close second with Natsou rarely overtaking her. His best memories are always of them in the salty cold water. The 3 of them playing in the shallower water with Rei lurking nearby. Salty cold laughter filling the air as he tried to catch Fuyumi's forever faster form as she propelled herself with webbed feet.

Then their mother ran away, abandoning them with the man who had trapped her. Natsou had been the one to find her coat the same day, he dosen't remember where enji had hid it. Only that he had flinched away when Rei lunged at him, or the coat held gently in his tiny hands, the desperate look on her face.  Then Rei running down the path to the beach with her clutched skin, she never looked back, never said goodbye. Her graceful shift and she hit the water as enji pulled up, gone before he had even got out of the truck.

Things changed after that. Not right away, first Touya left and became Dabi. Natsou kept in touch as much as Dabi would let him. enji came home less often. Fuyumi and him were left to practially raise Shouto by themselves.

Fuyumi didn't care about being a fast swimmer anymore, once a point of pride now seemed a embarresment. Mutilating her feet so she could pretend she was normal, enji okaying and paying for the surgery.

Nothing was the same and Fuyumi wanted to get rid of the memories they did have, of their mother before she’d had to leave.

-"I want to be able to wear flip flops and sandals Natsou. I want to be able to run barefoot after Shouto." She'd tried to explain calmly to him at first.

He’s exhausted by the time he makes it down to the coast. predawn light not enough yet to brighten the scenery, just light the edges of the sky and highlight the fog rising. It’s private property so he’s not all that worried about being seen by anyone but the owner, and well, If he sees then he’s got bigger problems than being caught shifting. He sits his backpack down on the pier and shrugs into his coat. The seal skin smoothly sliding on and then slips off one shoulder and half way down his arm. He hurridly kicks off his shoes and shucks off his jeans, folding it over the backpack.

He reminds himself firmly that she mus have gone for the pod. Rei went for her pod, her sisters and family, when Natsou had found her own skin and shown her the shimmery coat folded and tucked away in a safe he’d somehow found the key to. Rei had snatched it up, moving so fast it had caused both Natsou and Touya to flinch. She’d then ran out the door and down to this same pier, throwing up the hood as her children watched and gracefully tranforming as she fled to the open waters. Fuyumi had tried to go after her right after, despite the cold she was a good swimmer and the cold rarely bothered her. Touya had grabbed her out of the water before enji could come home and become upset. Fuyumi was a fantastic swimmer, slight webbing between her toes helping her, but she wasn’t like their mother. Wasn’t a selkie like Rei, himself or baby Shouto.

That’s why she’d left, Shouto was finally old enough to swim in his sealskin like they did. Touya shoved away the recent memories of Rei pouring poiling water on Shouto’s eye as he flipped the hood over his face and shifted, nowhere near as graceful as his mother had. The hurry to find her skin soon after and her sprint to the water were a coincidence, were her rushing to contact her family and take them all away.

Touya floped awkwardly into the water, his coat would never fit. streched thin in some spots and pooling in wrinkles. He’d always been skinny and small but with only his skin to hide it the fur highlighted the ridge of his changed spine. He blinked a few times as the ache of shifting settled, allowing him to clearly see his surroundings. his mother claimed not to have any pain the one time Touya had managed to ask about it. Shouto didn’t seem to either so Touya attributed it to his scars.

The purple-red mass of skin a result of being denied his skin and no way to submerge himself in his coat. Rei had begged and pleaded enji that he needed it, needed his skin and the sea that she called home. Enji had accused her of lying until he came from a buissness trip to see his son covered in skin that cracked and bled whenever Touya moved. He’d screamed when Rei had slipped the skin on him before applying her own to her own drying skin and taken him into the sea for teh first time. Enji had followed in his boat, and Rei had used his presence to set him in the boat whenever her own weakening body couldn’t carry them both. In and out of the water the 3 of them had drifted for hours until his skin lightened to purple and was soothed. if he went too long out of the sea or his skin it still became red and bleed.

He tested out his voice, calling out for his mother. There was no response and he started towards a outcropping of rocks a few miles out. once when he’d been very young Rei had tried to take him out to them. He couldn’t hold his breath that long and had almost drowned, Rei had to unshift and hold his head above water as she slowly made her way back to her prison. Now he was sure he could make it and could hold himself and his skin above water for a few minutes if he had to, depite how heavy it could be. The rocks were full of other seals and he carefully edged up on one, still calling. There was no reposnse, from his mother or the other seals, no other selkie’s revealed themselves and after a hour or so the rest of the seals took off. Diving beneath the waters and leaving the bony pup sqeaking by himself.

He swam around the rocks and as far out to see as he dared. Calling in diffrent tones the entire time, a few times he’d popped up on a rock and shifted just to yell for her in a diffrent way. He yelled he was hurt, that he was there, that he was lonely and scared. That he was looking for his mom and called his mom’s names until he realized she wasn’t coming and then until his voice faded at parts of it.

The sun was setting by the time Touya gave up and made his way back to the pier. He stripped out of his coat and carefully folded it up before hurrying inside. Hir dripping wet and shivering from the cold. He didn’t have the layer of fat to protect himself as most seals did and his coat could only do so much when his human form was so thin.

Touya called for his mother one last time, angry and knowing he would get no response before he turned around and headed inside. Enji came home tomorrow and would find out that his wife had escaped.

There was no awnser, not that Touya expected one after crying and yelling all day.