Oscar and Mer 🍆🪼

IX

"You have some explaining to do." Oscar said.

Mer didn't think he had anything to explain at all, so he didn't move.

Oscar walked to the water and sat down at the edge of it, running his fingers through his black hair.

"Mer, you can't do that."

What? he signed, one of the few they remembered.

"Why did you try to drown him? I saw how he looked under the water. What did you do to him?"

Mer made his hand into an O shape and then moved it over his forehead. Oscar made a face because he had no idea what that meant. He didn't get that far in the books yet.

"I don't know what that means, Mer. I saw you letting him drown. You can't do that."

Why? Hurt you. he said, his eyes narrowing even more than Oscar thought they could.

Oscar sighed. "Yeah, he hurt me, but you didn't have to kill him. He was just an asshole..."

Mer stared at Oscar for a moment and then ducked in the water. He came onto the shore and crawled up beside his friend. Once he finally got there, he sat next to Oscar, tossing his tail to the side casually. He was really close and Oscar was a little put off by it when Mer turned to him, their noses pretty much touching.

"What are you doing?" Oscar said.

Mer felt around for Oscar's hand and grabbed it, pulling it to his chest. He seemed to think for a moment and then looked at Oscar.

I hurt, you help; you hurt, I help he signed.

Oscar smiled a little. "Of course. That's what friends are supposed to do... but they aren't supposed to kill their enemies." Oscar grabbed Mer's hand. "Thank you for trying to help, I really appreciate it, but also, please don't try to drown people. I can get in a lot of trouble for that."

He stood up and sighed as Mer watched him from the ground.

"I'm not really in the mood for signing today... You want to take a look at that encyclopedia I got? Maybe you can show me if there are discrepancies or something."

Mer made a small squeak and Oscar smiled a little.

"Alright then, just stay here. I'll be right back."

*********************

The two looked over the book for another hour or so, looking at each page individually. Although Mer couldn't completely explain anything, whenever there was something that wasn't correct, he would point and shake his head. They got through most of the book when they ended up on the reproduction chapter. Someone had gotten a little detailed and seeing the 'innards' of the merfolk made Oscar blush a little. Mer, used to seeing his fair share of naked bodies (human and merfolk alike), forced open the book to see what the humans had to say about them. So far, there were a lot of errors but the book was interestingly accurate about a lot of things. Mer couldn't read worth a flip but since he was learning, certain words jumped out at him, but the chapter seemed to mostly depict pictures of what the female and male reproductive organs looked like. Mer frowned and tugged on Oscar's shirt.

"What?" Mer pointed at the page. "Do you want me to read it?" Mer nodded. "There's hardly any words on here."

Mer pointed to the little paragraphs that were beside lines drawn to the mermaid and merman.

"You want me to read the diagram?" Mer nodded enthusiastically. "Okay..."

Oscar read the diagram one little paragraph at a time, pointing to each so that Mer knew where he was. He started from the heads on both sides but when he got to the torsos, he stopped. Mer pointed excitedly at the next part.