Longer Writes

Twins (Mer AU)

4

Most mer pups were were round, chubby little things. Happy, chirping balls of sunshine that took up attention and food in mass amounts. Most mer pups were also usually part of a pod that would pay out both things without a second thought, doting on the little things for years.

Since the day James had started working as a feeder at Lexcorp Labs, Kon and Match had only had each other.

Kon and Match were twin hawkfish pups that had "showed up" alone in the bay almost four years ago, and had been brought in to be cared for. In those four years, they'd never once been put with any other mers that the Labs had in their care, though not for lack of trying.

Kon had always instantly attached himself to anybody that gave him a smidge of attention -and the fact rang true with every introduction the pups went through- but Match was a whole other story.

The little cirrhitops seemed to have all the worlds anger bottled up, with a tiny fuse to boot. He despised things that could be a threat to him or his brother, and that was everything in Match's book. Every interaction with him came with ceaseless screeching, clawing, and biting, to the point it was easier to sedate the little thing whenever he got hurt. James' wrists and hands had more scars than lines at this point, and he'd been around them since day one.

And so, alone they were, two skinny, sullen pups in a large concrete tank, and the guy that'd been hired to feed them.
———

8

Kon sat with his head resting on James' knee, chewing on a fishtail and sniffling. Some idiot had decided to separate the twins for "testing", and the dark-finned hawkfish hadn't been taking it well. The human would've assured the pup that his brother was fine...but he didn't know either. Someone else fed for the experiment labs, and more than once James had the sickening thought that they might've gotten fed up with Match and just...killed him. Cut him up for science and left Kon in the dark for the rest of his life.

"You still hungry, lil bud?" Logically, he probably was, as the fish bucket sitting on James' left was still half-full, but it was easier to ask then to hand him something and have it receive the same treatment as his toys. Kon didn't say anything, but tugged the salmon skeleton from his mouth and made grabby hands at the bucket. The human chuckled and handed over a clam for him to fiddle with, looking over his shoulder at the door for what felt like the hundredth time in the last two days.

As if his concern summoned them, the heavy steel swung open, followed by two lab techs he'd never met before, Mr. Luthor himself, and another tech carrying Match's limp form none too carefully; ghost-clear tail fin dragging along the ground.

Kon dropped his food and pushed himself up onto the shallow ledge James was sitting on, squeaking and chirping excitedly as the four got closer. Water splashed up onto the tile floors and droplets smacked James in the face as the pup vibrated with happiness.

"Uh, Mr. Luthor, hello! I didn't-we didn't know you'd be stopping by!" The human was acutely aware of how the place looked: the toys bobbing haplessly across the water, the remains of Kon's dinner in a now scattered pile less than ten feet away from Luthor's polished dress shoes, the plants in the tank that they weren't technically allowed to have -it had made the two happy, sue him- and, of course, the awful palm leaf swim trunks and holey orange t-shirt combination James himself was wearing. He could feel the disgust rolling off the besuited man, and winced.

"Mmhm. Are you their handler?"

"I mean, I feed them and clean their tank, but-"

"Close enough. From here out, I'm going to require daily updates on subject X. Vitals, behaviors, everything. Keep him separate from Y as much as possible until a secondary tank can be built, and please try to ensure they don't bite each other."