The Sky's Eternal Sunset

Fathoms Below

I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue
And it's hey to the starboard, heave-ho
Look out lad a mermaid be waiting for you
In mysterious fathoms below

Fathoms below, below
From whence wayward westerlies blow
Where Triton is king and his merpeople sing
In mysterious fathoms below

Heave-ho
Heave-ho

Heave-ho, heave-ho, heave-ho
In mysterious fathoms below

Fathoms Below -Disney Studio Chorus

(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

Fifty days. It's been fifty days since he last saw Roxas.

Ever since he returned home to Hawaii, Sora has worked. Two jobs, five days a week. From sunup to early afternoon, he's at the docks hauling up nets full of albacore and grouper on a commercial fishing boat. It's grueling work, but it pays nicely, especially if the catch is good that day. Sometimes he gets a nice bonus at the end of the week, or he gets to bring a nice sized albacore home with him for his family to share at dinner.

After working the boats, Sora runs home, takes a quick shower, then runs right back out to tutor at the community college for a couple of hours. That one doesn't pay quite as well, but remedial marine biology and oceanography are a breeze for him. And it doesn't hurt that it's indoors, making it a nice reprieve from the hot sun and foul-mouthed sailors he spends all day with.

That leaves Sora with enough time at the end of the day to eat dinner with his family, do his bi-weekly phone call with Riku, practice his Aquan for an hour, then hit the sack, and do it all again tomorrow.

Sora's mother complains constantly of his working so hard, especially when in the last few years, he just did the tutoring when he was back home. She was more than happy to house, feed, and clothe him as long as he did some small job, but now she wonders what he could possibly need so much money for. Not wanting to explain, he merely tells her it's for a research project for the future, and she doesn't pry further. At least, not for another week.

He needs to save up every penny in the off-season if he wants his plans for Falmouth next year to pan out just right.

Even though most days he's bone tired from hauling fishing nets or schooling undergrads, Sora still manages to drop into his desk chair once a day and scratch out a basic sketch of everything he can remember about Roxas to lift his spirits.

His spiky golden blonde hair. His piercing lapis blue eyes. His broad shoulders.

Soft lips. Sharp jawline. And equally sharp teeth in his smirking mouth.

When finished, it always brings a smile to his face. He adds it to his folder, now bursting with sketches and fully rendered drawings of Roxas in all manner of poses and facial expressions. He revisits them from time to time, staring at them and sighing wistfully as he wonders what the merman is doing right this minute.

Around now, Roxas should finally be arriving in Oblivion. Until this past year, no one really knew the exact route they took to return to Japan. Thanks to Axel, or perhaps it's thanks to Remus's persistent groveling, they have the first documented Rusalkas migration route via the GPS tag Axel agreed to wear on his fin. Remus messages the entire Falmouth team with constant updates for when they slow down or stop, making comments about fish spawning spots or deep sea caves they might be resting in for a few days at a time. It's been making a splash in several migration specialists circles since summer ended.