No Prey, No Pay

Chapter 3

Ta-ta-tap.

Ta-ta-tap.

A set of well-cured fingers tapped on the big, circular table, carved from the whitest of the driftwood and finely decorated with pearls of any sizes.

Those red-painted claws tolled against the wood again and again, more and more often while their 'owner' huffed and puffed.

There were a lot of mermen and mermaids around him, all dressed up with corals or bones or seaweeds, but none of them was the one he was waiting.

When his impatience reached his limits, that hand curled in a fist and it dropped heavily on the table "where the fuck is he?!" he shouted, jumping up from the stool he was sitting, all of his fins now totally stretched out in his rage.

The poison stings at the end of each barbed fin whistled while cutting the water and all the little strands of his membranes were trembling softly.

The merman next to him shifted away quickly, afraid for that impulsive movements "Ruki, calm down" the smooth voice of his friend, sat at that same table just few seats on his left, reached his ears, but the lionfish merman was not that easy to appease "Calm down?? He had to be here hours ago!" Ruki barked, his black and blonde hair waving into the water around his furious face.

Uruha sighed, rolling his eyes while caressing distractedly his own big and soft transparent fins, that enveloped his moonstone colored tail like a gown "I know you're worried, Aoi's always here before we arrived, but was late too in the past so-" "I'm not WORRIED, I'm fucking PISSED!" Ruki hissed back at his friend, swishing his striped black and red tail in the water.

The shorter merman grunted again, raising his hands just above his head before slashing the empty space in front of him with his claws "it took me three days -three fucking days!- to get here for this stupid meeting just because I was glad to see his dumb face after a YEAR and he's not here?! I'm this much away to take my scaly ass back at MY Tropical Kingdom!" those ranting were normal and Uruha was accustomed to it from the days they were at the kindergarten.

The youngest between them, the smallest child in the school, but his poison and his tongue were there when they needed him: Ruki was famous for being guiltless when talking about revenge and self-defense.

Uruha chuckled a little "let's check on him, if you're so worried" the slender merman stressed out on the last word, making Ruki pout his lips so much, he thought they would fall "umpf...I would beheaded him at my kingdom, for disrespecting the King" the blond mumbled.

When Uruha got up from the chair and passed beside him, he rose a hand to pat his head a couple of times "there there Ruki-chan" he whispered "let's find Aoi and then we could go eat out together, mh?" he added, slowly talking like dealing with the tantrums of a child "don't talk to me like that, I'm not dumb" Ruki quickly responded with a harsh, snappy tone, but his head tilted just a little in that low-key cuddle.

Uruha grinned at him, before moving nonchalantly between the other mermen and mermaids, elegant as he always was with his big, silky caudal fin that moved in the water like a fine and translucent drape "we just have to ask his father where is he, probably-" "Hey! Shiro-fucking-yama!" Ruki shouted again, passing past Uruha with all his fins and quills closed to not harm him accidentally "where the fuck is your Shiro-fucking-son??" he added, making Uruha blush.

The pale merman immediately moved his hands to grab Ruki's face, blocking his mouth with his palm "R-Ru! Don't talk to the King like that!!" he breathed sheepishly, but a little laugh caught him off-guards.

King Shiroyama, father of Aoi and ruler of the Oceanic Realm, was a really easy-going merman, wise in his age and a good friend of their parents.

He ruled for many years like a good king, but everyone knew that his good mood was only covering up his true nature, that would emerge in case of danger: coldblooded, violent and sarcastic.