No Prey, No Pay

Chapter 12

He felt... pressure.

His mind wasn't there at all, but his body was feeling compressed between hard places.

Deep sounds of wood rubbing against wood underwater, the little tickle of million bubbles caressing his body.

Darker, darker, the light of the surface slipping away from him and letting his body rest among the wreckage of the sunken Takanori.

Its name still written on a colossal board laying near him like a torn limb.

Aoi felt nothing.

He didn't feel the ache in every part of his body due to the fall, the rolling against the whirling wood.

He didn't feel the agonizing pressure of the massive splinters in his tail, nor the throbbing of his left gills, still slowly bleeding.

He's here! I see the tail...!

He didn't feel, because his heart was shattered, both physically and emotionally: his Captain was gone.

Dead, snatched away.

MOVE THOSE BEAMS!

The merman didn't even want to wake up from that slumber, he only wanted to die there, follow that asshole with his golden hair and bright smile to the Other Side.

"You should stay away, it's dangerous..."
"Shut the fuck up Yuu! He's MY fucking child too!"
"Y-yes dear...I know, but...!"

More and more, Aoi's ears started to catch familiar voices, along with the grumble of shifted debris "Take that marlinbulance here!" someone shouted and finally the last of that heavy wooden junk got lifted up.

The Prince shivered weakly, feeling the freezing water on his battered, hot body "easy! easy! be careful!" someone else called, then a pair of gentle arm wrapped around him, hoisting Aoi up delicately.

"My darling starlet..."

That little nickname of his, Aoi shuddered in those arms while his mind started to resurface from the depth it was hiding, dying: while other shouts called out in the background, Aoi's cyan, bright eyes fluttered open, just so slightly, to see the form a mermaid above him.

Her short, wavy hair were glading around her head like a pinkish-purple mane and her chocolate eyes were looking at him with a relieved expression, even if the thorns of concern were still there "Aoi... mom's here, everything will be alright" she whispered with a soft smile on her lips, holding him to her chest like he was a child.

Her hands went around his waist and behind his head, rocking him slowly as a way to comfort him.

Only then, Aoi started to cry: a muffled sob from time to time, mainly due to the shock state he was in, and his arms clenched on his mother's figure, trembling.

It was so good to be with her, it was so good to feel embraced when his heart was threatening a failure.

With his mind powering up again, Aoi started to feel all and every of his injuries "the wreckage is moving, my Queen, you need to take him out!" someone pleaded, and the sweet-looking mermaid snapped her head to the right, baring her teeth like a wolf "then take here THAT FUCKING MARLIN!" she shouted completely enraged.

Aoi closed his eyes again, puffing a small chuckle into his mom's neck: if his father was feared for his cold, silent and deadly rage, her mother could go berserk and letting all around her know how she snapped your neck.

And everyone always told Aoi that he took from her mother, with his fits of anger "the marlin's here honey..." his father voice came into the picture, the King looking worried as the Queen for the health of their son, but he was acting calmer than the mermaid "we're gonna heal you, skimpy, come here".