#zhenniii

But then again, Director Kamado was a dense one, if Akari had learned anything about him. He was painfully prideful and fully under the impression that no one would dare go against him. He had a stranglehold over the entire staff of the Galaxy Team Research and Rescue center.

Kamado had so graciously told her that ever since he’d found her on the beach, she was on thin ice- that since he wasn’t sure who she was, she wasn’t a member of the team. She wouldn’t be considered one until she’d proven herself amongst the staff to be trustworthy. He’d proven his harsh skepticism of her actions when he’d accused her of making Ingo sick, when it was painfully obvious that her friend’s poor health was his team’s fault - not hers. She was the one who brought up his ill health in the first place! She was the only one that finally got The Pearl society to provide the appropriate medicine, and Diamond Groups medical equipment to finally heal Ingo from his illness and the broken fin. And yet, and yet and yet -  

Without any documents - without any knowledge of who she was other than a single first name- she was a ward of the “state” - of him, and he had the power to punish her like some sort of vindictive, cruel parent. 

But one other important thing Akari had learned? That he slept like a rock. Nothing but his alarm could wake him. 

And the room she’d been locked in had a window to the sloped roof of the research center.

She had to hurry - she didn’t have long after he woke up for her to be found out. 

The sun was just starting to peek over the ocean, and Ingo’s tank was bathed in that soft glow of periwinkle light. It should have been pretty, but it just made her sad that he wasn’t in the ocean, experiencing the sunrise below the gentle waves. She looked over the edge to spot him as she adjusted her wetsuit sleeve, willing and ready to help. 

He was at the bottom of the tank in a somewhat relaxed position, staring up at the water, unaware of his friend’s arrival - of his impending freedom, so long as Akari played her cards right. 

She took a deep, deep breath. She could hold it for a long time - perhaps too long for a human to be able to - but instead of that making her feel like a freak (The weird look Kamado would give her made her feel like she was being studied - perhaps she was) she currently felt like it was a blessing in disguise. 

She didn’t bother to let Ingo know she was here, jumping right into the tank with a small splash. 

She’d startled the large merman out of his half-awake state, and his eyes were wide looking at her, confusion evident in the furrow of his brow. She held up her left hand, showing the almost comically large key she’d grabbed right off the wall behind the front desk, and pointed to the cold steel around his tail with her free hand.

He was clearly shocked that she’d managed to grab it- and watched as she swam down to the shining metal, unlocked it with an echoing click, and pushed it off of his tail with a solid shove, watching it sink sluggishly to the tank’s floor

She watched him as he stared at the freed tail, sleek black white, a little raw from the right fit, but free - free! He gave it a testing flick, and he moved. His freedom seemed to hit him all at once. 

Ingo grabbed Akari gently - his hand not gigantic, but big enough to cover her lower back - , pulling her up to the surface and placing her on the platform with a fluid motion- as if concerned for her breath. She typically was, despite showing him how long she could hold her breath for. Akari took a deep breath as if to make a show of it - she didn’t feel winded at all, but knew that it made Ingo feel better, before standing up and jumping in place.

“You have to go!” She practically ordered him “Kamado is gonna be awake any minute and he’ll see me and the keys missing!!” She pointed over to the rocky outcrop - the single barrier between him and the ocean “You have to get over this, and you’ll be free!” She ran over to it, climbing just a bit to stand on the rocks and wave her hands at him. “You can do it!” 

His expression was unreadable as always (most of it, at least. He had very expressive eyes), and he swam over to her at the rocks with a short flick of his tail, then looked out at the open sea - she could see longing in his eyes, but also worry. 

“Ingo?” She tilted her head

“You will be in trouble” 

His rarely used voice was almost raspy, and somehow quiet. 

But she gave him a smile at the concern - it was nice to be cared for in such a way. 

“Eh, it's not like Kamado can do much worse than lock me in my room.” She shrugged “It’s not a big deal, promise! Plus, I think-” She stage whispered, revealing to him something she hadn’t wanted to tell just yet, but knew would be what he needed to hear “-I'm starting to remember where I'm from!” She was grinning at him as he stared at her in surprise - the news unexpected and feeling a tad out of left field for the merman.

He seemed to want to say more, but there was the sound of a door opening somewhere in the facility - the tell-tale, distant beeping making its way through the area. Akari’s own eyes widened

“Hurry - hurry you have to go!” She made a pushing motion at him, eyes wide. 

He didn’t need to be told twice. 

The sun was gently kissing the sky awake as he dove down to the bottom of the tank. Taking a moment to focus, he steeled his expression, and pushed off through the water with all of the strength he could muster, breaching the surface with a splash and - with a dramatic bend, jumped over the barrier to his freedom, Akari’s hand reached up to his own, their fingers just barely touching, and her expression so full of joy that he felt it radiate in his own chest. He was certain that he was also smiling, despite how odd the action often looked on his face. 

He resurfaced quickly to look at her from the other side of the rocks, and Akari kept looking from the building to him, and then waved at him, shooing him away with slight desperation

“Go - go! And don’t worry about the boats!” She grinned at him as she said, “I tossed all the keys into the harbor! They can’t get you back! You’re free!” 

Sky above, this child was such a glorious little menace. She deserved the world

Without even thinking about it, he reached up with his hand as if to grab her, but not quite - pausing and getting her to pay attention to him for more than a fleeting glance. 

“Come” 

“Huh?” 

“Come” He offered again, hand gentle against her back “I will take you further south. I will take you away from this foolish place. There are kinder peoples. Irida’s people. Adaman’s people. I will take you to them.” 

.. She hadn’t expected such an offer, admittedly

“I -” She looked back “I can’t leave yet. I have to finish what I started here. I have to help the professor! Once I do, I’ll finally get out of here - I just know it” She attempted to assure him

He didn’t look convinced. 

“Uncle Ingo, please. I can do it. I have to” She hated using that affectionate term as a sort of bargaining chip, but she saw him huff at its usage and her pleading, and his hand left her, going back into the water 

She gave him a big smile, trying to reassure him so he could leave safely. “I know I'll see you again - I can feel it!”

“... Keep that promise” he pleaded with her, voice staying uncharacteristically low “Promise me” 

… He said that as if he was saying goodbye forever. Like that promise was going to be the last thing she said to him, and he wanted to remember it… And despite her best efforts, perhaps it would be.

She looked back at the facility, seeing the shapes of people coming closer to the back pools- time was up! She turned to him again, steeling her own expression 

“I promise.” she stated boldly “I promise that you’ll see me again. Now go!!” 

He had at last dove under the water as the doors opened to the back tank, and disappeared just as fast. Akari turned to face the consequence of her actions, staring over at the adults looking right back at her with wide eyes. She held her head high, and refused to cower. 

She did the right thing. She knew it. 

She just hoped that - after all of the fallout from this- she’d be able to keep her promise.

-

Ingo’s reunion with Emmet was mostly just the two of them crying and hugging each other for what one could only describe as “too long”

A lot of crying. So much sobbing, dear god above-

Emmet then introduced him to their “Uncle” Drayden (uncle, the moniker that Akari had given him - was she okay? Was she-), a fellow mer who had known their mother, and had been looking for them since they were lost calves.

It was comforting, knowing they were missed - even if they did not know by who. 

They were to be reunited with their families pod - if only temporarily - and join them on the migration south - back to their home waters - to the shores of Castellia City, to Elesa, to their *jobs and homes and their joys* - their excitement could not be contained. 

But Ingo couldn’t hold back that little ache in his chest despite the impending possible happiness

It was worry, he knew it was worry. As if he could be experiencing any other emotion when his mind wandered over to his escape. 

Worry for his dear little friend - his niece, if he used her affectionate naming conventions. It had been nearly two weeks since his escape. Was she okay? Was she locked away in her room? Had she had enough and run off? Would they truly ever meet again? Was her promise empty? These questions plagued him endlessly in the vastness of the ocean - filling his mind amid the crashing waves that he watched from underneath them.

But… he had to trust her. She kept her promises, always. He just had to give her time. 

As the whale songs grew closer and their reunion became imminent, there was an unmistakable joy interwoven within it - a song of .. discovery? Reunion? It was more jumbled than the simplified song that the twins were used to Ingo and Emmet were, admittedly, not all that adept to the nuances of their mother tongue - have been separated so young, they only knew the basics, and a few self-thought songs that probably didn’t translate too well to native speakers. 

Drayden’s eyes however, showed that whatever that said was good news - very good - worthy of that distinct version of happiness that warranted getting choked up.

“The lost calf” Drayen muttered - a tinge of disbelief to his voice

“What?” Emmet tilted his head “Lost calf?”

“Last year, a calf got separated from the pod in a horrid storm - we thought her dead, or perhaps permanently separated as you to had been but- she’s been found, it seems” 

“Oh, wonderful!” Emmet delightfully “clapped” under the water. “That's such excellent news!! What luck!!”

“The pod shall be delighted to be so completely united… even if only temporarily on our journey to the south seas.”

Ah right. Drayden was not.. Completely onboard with their lifestyles - the lives they had carved out for themselves in the bay of Castellia City with their human friends and “family”. 

But that was not something that Ingo was about to argue with. They were fully grown - it was their life to live and while it was unconventional for mers, it was theirs, and it made the brothers happy beyond all measure. 

The whale song became louder, and the group turned their heads to the approaching pod - which became clearer and clearer vision-wise every second as they swam closer, and closer -  

Ingo suddenly felt very, very nervous - that tell-tale feeling creeping up in his throat as he floated there. 

It had just been him and Emmet for so very long, and then he had human friends in Castellia, and then he was alone in a tank across the sea, and then all he had was a strange little human as a friend, the one that freed him from his forced loneliness in more ways than one. He had so little interaction with his own kind. What would he even say to their pod? This family he had no memories of … What would he- 

“-Ingo!?” 

Ingo, who had been looking away from the pod out of sheer nerves-  sharply turned his head to face them once more at the shouting of his name from a distance. That voice - that voice?!

A head of inky blue-black hair weaved through the pod, formerly stagnant gray eyes looking bright and silver and healthy and familiar and as they pushed through the rest of the mers and he could see her face-!! 

“Akari!!?” 

 He was barreled into full force by the supposedly missing calf, who wrapped herself around his middle with a tight hug and caused the both of them to tumble about for a few seconds in the current before righting themselves. 

“I’m a mermaid!” She announced to him as if it wasn’t the most obvious of facts “It makes sense now!!” 

“You are!” He responded, holding her head in his hands and looking her over with almost alarmed eyes as he took in the big and little differences and similarities, piecing together her oddities and obviousness “It does!” 

She was grinning at him so widely we wanted to cry out with his own song of joy, but he kept himself calmer than that. He could talk about it soon, very soon - but first..- 

“Ingo?” 

He turned his head to see both Emmet and Drayden with shocked faces at their reunion. Akari’s head turned to them as well, and she gasped when she looked at Emmet - looking between the twins with rather amusing confusion. 

“.. She is the friend I made. The one I told you about, the one that saved me. She was not a calf when I met her... She was a human child” He bluntly explained. “Or, looked like one, at the very least” 

Drayden seemed to understand very quickly - or at least pick up on what might have occurred. 

“Ah… It seems more storytelling is needed” Drayden looked at the calf, giving her as much a smile as he could muster at seeing her safe. “it is good to see you again” Akari gave him a big grin “I’m happy I remember you! When I was stuck with a human body I couldn’t remember anything… But, Uncle Ingo helped me a lot” 

She was still squeezing Ingo, who seemed to have a bright light aglow in his eyes at the reunion - something he probably wasn’t ever expecting, but was thrilled about despite the questions he most definitely had.

Drayden had a feeling - just a feeling- that once they reached the Castellia port, they would not be leaving just Ingo and Emmet behind. 

But, strangely, that did not fill him with any negative emotions. 

They were all alive. They were all safe. 

And that? That was more than enough.