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Dark wasn’t known to take wild chances. He knew better, he’d seen merfolk get hit and killed — some by accident but others had been killed on purpose by humans — and Dark thought himself to be smarter and more clever than he should have.
Mostly because humans were unpredictable. Horribly unpredictable.
It had been spring, and humans were drunk and loud and scaring away the good fish. Dark was hungry and debated for the first time in his life just risking it to see if humans tasted like sewage like he’d heard. He was almost hungry enough to try it.
But his resolve held and he tried to get a hold of some of the human’s food, and was burned for it. Thinking back, it had been fear that caused it. Dark, who lived in swamps and murkier rivers, and was colored in dark shades to help blend in, came over too fast and too desperately and a human jumped back. It caused one of the grills to fall into the water and burn two of his much needed fins and his side.
He tried to escape but his burned and injured fins only resulted in more pain and swiftly getting captured. Although Dark took pride in biting many of them in his attempt to escape, he was sedated and brought to some fancy “rescue aquarium” which Dark hated.
The food was more than plenty but his freedom had been stolen and robbed from him. He smashed against the glass and hissed, trying to refuse the food until inevitably the hunger got to him.
Dark would try and claw his way through a hatch and aggressively bang against the rocks. He would have managed to be more of a threat or even escape if his glider fins hadn’t been burned and damaged.
Then, after another attempt of escape failed again, Dark caught motion out of the corner of his eyes and flinched before seeing a slight he hadn’t seen in some time.
A flash of a pink and beige tail and fins was moving around and when he watched the mer glide through the water before it turned to look at him.
Dark braced for a fight, but when the other mer approached the creature set their webbed hand on the glass wall, reminding Dark that it was still there.
Then the other mer made a flip and disappeared into the other half of the tank as Dark carefully made his way over. Dark watched the other mer swim around with such potent jealousy, he wanted to bite the other mer to the bone.
The mer swam down towards the bottom of the tank and towards a vent that Dark had assumed was only to let in and out water for circulation. But he quickly realized it had an added purpose.
“Hello there,” the other mer greeted. “I’m Wilford.”
Dark slapped a jet of water towards him. “I don’t care.”
“Fiesty little temptus, aren’t you?” Wilford grinned. “They said you were a little firecracker.”
“A what?” Dark asked in confusion.
“Sorry, human term,” Wilford apologized, laying down on the sandy floor. “I’ve been around them a bit too long.”
“You can still swim, you could just change and get out,” Dark snapped at him.
“Why? My dear?” Wilford smiled. “Free food. I’m never bored. And now your pretty face is here to brighten my day.”
Dark tensed up and slapped sand towards the vent, before swimming away, hiding in his little cove.
The next couple cycles of lights, had Dark hiding from Wilford and refusing to talk to him or even see him. Wilford of course tried to talk to him regardless. Dark found out many things about Wilford: mainly that he had been brought to the aquarium when he was younger and was sick when he was taken in. He’d escaped a couple times when he was younger, mostly to prove a point but he always came back for the same reason: the food was free and the environment safe.
Both things that Dark hated to admit were true. Even if Dark was being stubborn and obstinate, he’d eaten better than he had in weeks. But Dark still refused to admit it.
Dark did give Wilford his name but it was much longer before Dark admitted to liking the other mer’s company. His smile was infectious and then the gifts started coming.
At first it was little things. A door had been opened that Dark hadn’t even known wasn’t an actual part of the wall and Wilford was swimming around. Dark pointedly refused to move through it.
If it could open, it could just as easily close. And Wilford did admit that the faster way out of the enclosure was through that door, there was a tunnel that Wilford had used many times.
Then Wilford began leaving little shells around Dark’s cove. He never entered it, often swimming back to his own half of the enclosure to sleep or sunbathe.
Dark rejected the gifts at first, it took well over two months for Dark to finally accept food from Wilford. He hated the enclosure, and didn’t want the humans touching his fins. The injury was getting worse and they did sedate him to treat them and it made Dark more paranoid and angrier. But he couldn’t stay mad at Wilford.
He hated to admit it but having Wilford around was making him feel better. The sight of another mer was an unexpected comfort. Especially one that wasn’t treating him poorly for his injuries. Dark’s old pod would have kicked him out for an injury like this.
And Wil was right . . . the food was free. The food was safe. But he hated how cramped his enclosure was.
The humans promised he could go back when he could swim like he used to. But Dark liked being with Wilford and he knew the mer didn’t want to leave the enclosure.