H2O: Just Add Chaos

Being wild and free

This is totally normal and fine.

Tommy is definitely not freaking out right now. It's not as though the biggest secret of his life has been revealed or anything!

"Oh great! Is dad going to suddenly waltz on in here as well?!" Tommy asked dramatically, waiting for his father to comedically walk around the corner and discover Tommy's secret too.

But it never came. Thankfully, for now at least, it was just Grian and Techno.

He looked up at his brothers, his brain scrambling for an excuse even though Techno literally just watched him transform. "It's uh- definitely not real. I've been doing cosplay."

There was a long minute of silence.

Techno sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Tommy. I literally watched you magically transform. Unless I blacked out for several minutes while you pulled a costume on."

"You're dreaming then. Go back to sleep?" Tommy tried weakly.

"Is this why you wouldn't get out of the water last night?" Grian finally asked, still standing at the door. He didn't give Tommy any time to answer, already asking more questions, "when did this happen? I swear I saw you swimming around a week ago and you didn't have a tail then? Does it only come out when you want it to?"

Tommy sighed, trying to ignore the new wave of nausea that washed over him. There was no point in trying to hide it anymore. His brothers had seen his tail with their own eyes.

"Does it seem like I'd want to turn into a fucking fish right now?!" Tommy huffed, then forced himself to calm down before eventually muttering, "I turn into a mer whenever I touch water."

"Can I...?" Techno asked, trailing off in silent question as he pointed a finger at some of the exposed scales at Tommy's waist.

"Yeah. Just don't touch the spines. They're poisonous." Tommy told him.

Grian came over as well to poke at the scales near the foot of Tommy's bed, whistling softly under his breath before taking a seat on Tommy's mattress, his eyes wide with shock.

Techno sighed, leaning back and touching a finger to his lips in thought. "Can we ask how this happened? Or do you not want to talk about it?"

Tommy sighed, "I'm not ready to talk about it. Maybe one day." There was absolutely no way he was ever going to tell his brothers that he stole their fathers boat and sailed off to the assumed haunted island not too far off from the mainland.

"Fair enough." Grian said with a shrug. "Can we ask when this happened?"

"I dunno... three or so days ago?"

"Three days..." Techno trailed off. "Okay. Yup. Cool. This is happening. Grian, our brother is part fish."

"I can see that. Thank you, Techno." Grian said with a chuckle. He sighed, looking at Tommy with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry we found out about this against your will. I know you would've wanted to keep this secret."

"It would've been nice..." Tommy muttered, "I didn't want to worry everyone. I'm a fucking freak of nature that has no control over being a fish or not."

Grian tsked, "you're not a freak of nature, Tommy. You're just a kid with a big heart and a merman tail."

"Shut." Tommy told him, fighting to keep the blush off his face. Receiving compliments (or insults) was something he would usually deflect with comedy, though he really needed to stop doing that. But this one felt too genuine to joke about right now, and Tommy wasn't in the mood to try. "This was all supposed to be secret. I betrayed the fucking- I dunno, moon goddess? Or something."