Mute

9 | Jellyfish

I smiled as I leaned on the railings, watching the swarm of fish fly by. This aquarium had several parts. One was open to the sea, so everything was always new and free. There were several parts for creatures from different types of oceans, and everything was carefully monitored so it all thrived like it would in their native land.

My favorite part was the ocean part, I loved to see how the animals moved, most only having seen humans on boats before. I'd only been here this one time, but of all the aquariums I'd visited it was easily my second favorite.

Todoroki stood beside me, his hands on the rail but not leaning forward like I was. I lifted the pad to get his attention, showing him the writing. "Are you having fun? We can go someplace else if you'd like." I was having fun, but Todoroki didn't seem too interested in the sea life.

He smiled slightly, reaching out and surprising me by ruffling my hair. "No, I'm enjoying myself. I was just wondering what time Present Mic wants you back."

I took back the paper, writing one number and showing it. 6.

Todoroki nodded. "Then we still have 4 hours. Where would you like to go while we're here?" He opened the map for us to examine. I scanned it, reading the names as I looked. Several looked interesting, honestly, I wanted to visit them all.

He seemed to notice, because he pointed to where we were. "We're here. We should go around this curve and along this path."

The way he pointed it out made sure we passed everything, and I nodded happily. So we left the schools of fish and went to the next section.

I was instantly amazed by the sheer number of jellyfish in the room. We were in a glass dome, with most of the lights off. Jellyfish surrounded us everywhere. I didn't realize Todoroki had taken my hand until we were by the glass several feet away and he used my hand to point.

"Right there, you see it? It's radiating its own light."

My gaze flicked towards where he was making me point, quickly spotting the jellyfish as it floated behind a cloud of other jellyfish.

"Cool." I breathed. Honestly I didn't even realize the word slipped out of my head and into my mouth, flowing into the air. I was awed by the jellyfish. I beamed at Todoroki, leaning on the rail to watch it move.

"Next we'll look at the turtles."Todoroki spoke as he leaned on the rail next to me, his hand brushed my arm. "I thought maybe we could stop and get souvenirs after that, maybe some yogurt or smoothies."

I nodded, completely pleased with that idea. I hoped they sold snowglobes here, they sold them at every aquarium I'd ever been too. It was a little rule I had, a game for myself. No matter where I was, or how broke I was, everytime I went to an aquarium I had to buy a new snowglobe. I had a ton, and all of them were different. I'd labed the bottom of them all and covered it in a clear resin, making sure it'd never be wiped clean or erased.

"There's some over there."

I glanced at where Todoroki gestured, beaming at the angel-like creature.