you're my fish of the sea {Solangelo}

chapter two

An: play the song near the end, or just listen to it at the beginning so you know the tune for at the end. Also, I am aware that's Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls, I don't have the stuff to draw it as I usually would, it's just the general idea if Nico's design, so just pretend it's Nico.

Wills POV

I hear the siren mutter something, "what was that?" I question him. He responds with a simple "Nico". He must have seen the visual confusion on our faces because he spoke once more, "my name is Nico". After saying that he plunged to the bottom of the barrel and ignored us all. 

Sighing I turn to my crew and signal for them to get back to work, before looking back at the barrel. Inside was a complete mystery to me, we'd sailed these waters plenty of times and never seen anything like him, his attitude towards us is another mystery, sure I'd be pissed if I were kidnapped, but he was just straight up distant and mildly aggressive, and of course sassy.

I stare at the barrel a tad bit longer, pondering why and how he ended up on our ship. Realizing I'm just standing here, I call over Percy, my second in command, together we carefully carry the barrel with dear Nico over to my room, after deciding it's the best place for him.

After we set it down near my desk I dismiss Percy back to his duties, then just sit on my desk and peer in at Nico curled up at the bottom. He was truely extraordinary, his tail was a mesmerizing raven black with tiny hints of the rainbow when he moved (*cough* black holographic tail *cough*), the fins on his tail and his ears were a navy blue that gives a nice slight contrast from the black of his scales and fluffy hair. The darkness of his tail and hair made his already pale skin almost ghostly, especially compared to the mostly well tanned people making up his crew. His face looked soft and smooth both literally and figuratively, when I get up and looked closer though, he saw the worry lines in between Nico's eyebrows, and the heavy bags under his eyes. Slightly worried about his well-being I inspect him closer. Only then noticing how skinny he really is I can fairly clearly see his ribs, though, looking even closer, I see that most of the meat on his bones are muscles. In fact, he's probably very strong even though he has puny looking arms.

"Well shucks, your pretty hot Nico" I mutter to myself, checking him out.

"Your not half bad yourself" Nico says sassily. WAIT, NICOS AWAKE?!

I can barely keep in my surprised shout, whereas Nico just laughs his fishy butt off.

"SINCE WHEN WERE YOU AWAKE?!" I screech at him, completely flustered.

"Since when was I actually asleep?" He counters with more sass. And with that comment, I am speechless. He just chuckles and rolls his eyes.

"So, can a guy get some food around here? I haven't eaten in about a day and a half now, and I don't feel like starvation and pain right now" when Nico says this I'm still flustered but no longer speechless.

"What exactly does a siren like you eat?" I ask sitting back down on my desk.

"Well, I eat fish for one, but I can mainly eat anything, as long as it's not super dry. My usual diet is fish though" he says, resting his arms on the lip of the barrel so that his head is out of the water and he can face me.

"Some fish coming right up then. Does it matter what kind and whether it's cooked or not?" I ask, already halfway to the door.

"I don't care what type of fish, and I mostly eat my fish raw, sometimes I'll slightly cook them though. I'm honestly not a picky eater" well that's a relief, we only have one type of fish and if it's raw he can eat sooner.

With that I leave my room and head over to the kitchen, this is a fancy pirate ship afterall. When I get to the small kitchen I ask the guy cleaning it to grab me a small tuna, I watch as they wrestle with the fish, cringing slightly when they bang its head on the counter, effectively killing it. They then hand me the now recently dead fish and get back to cleaning.

On my way back to my cabin I hear beautiful singing coming from inside, "I never fit into any category, always deemed an outcast since I was in Sunday school, and all the cool kids said I was weird." I come closer, almost at the door now, "It's exactly the same they say, 'why do you dress that way'? 'why do you act that way'? 'Why aren't you just like me'?" I'm at the door now waiting, and I'm sure that it's Nico singing. "So is that what you really want to say to me, you playing games with me, telling me if I'm a cûnt, till you abandon me, colour me words I'm not, painting a picture that is false. You must not know my heart but I know it isn't your fault, you live in a world in your clutch, you don't get out very much. Livin in a fake world full of facades and chaotic behavior, you pull the lever for fun, yell, 'fire', then you just run." I reach for the door handle, "fire drill, what would happen if a nuke just hit, would you say 'bye' to your family, would you post about it? Fire drill, if it all went up in flames one day, would you give your mom a hug before your house burned away?" I quietly open the door and look at Nico as he sings beautifully, "it kills, I-" he stops singing as I cringe due to the squeaky floor board I just stepped on. 

Now it was his turn to be flustered, as I start clapping softly. "That was beautiful Nico, but may I ask. How would something burn….. underwater?" I ask him with a tinge of humor in my voice. 

He starts laughing, and after a minute or tear jerking laughter, he responds, "we, or I guess them because I'm not welcome there, have some underwater fire as well as lava pipes for heating and lighting".

"Wait. What do you mean your not welcome there? And where is 'there'?" I ask curious about his underwater world.

"Well 'there' is my old home it's the capital for mer folk and sirens, the only other settlements are small and scattered. And as for why I'm not welcome, people are dîcks sometimes and only see you for what you aren't and not what you are. Sirens are supposed to be social, seductive, and inviting. When I was none of the above I was bulied and harrassed, it only worsened when my tail changed from blue to black since sirens are supposed to be colorful and eye-catching." He paused to think of how to word something, or whether or not to say it at all. "I-umm" he started but didn't get far.

"Hey", I reach out and set my hand on his arm, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to" I tell him kindly. 

He smiles but shrugs my hand from his arm. "Sorry, I don't much care for physical contact." He apologizes, looking like he means it too.

"It's fine, we all have boundaries. On that note, we're nearing a boundary between our waters and enemy waters, I need to keep an eye out. Even though it'll take up until tomorrow to reach their terf due to the stop at a dock, it's better safe than sorry" I tell him, resisting the urge to pet his hair I leave the room but not before saying, "if you need something or someone, just holler" I was about to walk off when Nico shouted.

"Wait! The fish, I'm hungry!" I chuckle and toss him the fish which he easily catches, with a short wave I walk of to do my duties.

Well, I wrote that quicker than I thought I would, (not as quickly as I hoped but *shrugs*), I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, the next will probably be out within twenty four hours.
1322 words

~Aria