Elly left and was gone for hours after they shared brunch. Aizawa grew anxious awaiting her return, especially because several of the other people that had been there when he woke the first time showed up. Kan was not among them, and though he was thankful - he didn't trust the big human, as he learned they called themselves -- he didn't really care for anyone else, either. They definitely looked at him like a curiosity and not a person. There were far less questions than when Elly was with him and more of an insistence, as if they couldn't be bothered to treat him as an equal. One even offended him by trying to measure his tail without asking!
Aizawa startled him by shaking his head and telling him he didn't like that quite firmly. The man may have been more deterred by his angry red eyes or sharp teeth, but he liked to think his guttural hiss of "<i>no!</i>" played a part as well.
He was fed that night by someone he didn't see, a few fish tossed into the pool while he was taking a nap. Disgruntled, he didn't eat the offering and went back to sleep in the hopes that when he woke she would be there.
When she showed up the next morning he was more than relieved. Her gift of the pretty shell necklace bounced on his chest as he pulled himself up out of the water closest to her. Feeling like a fool, he wished her good morning in both languages and could barely control his ear fins wiggling with happiness.
Elly was just as happy to see him. She'd spent an awkward evening worrying and a sleepless night, so much that her eyes resembled his. Aizawa's darkness underneath was from a pattern of scales, however, not dark bruising from being over-tired. When he flung himself out of the water to greet her, she watched the water run down his sculpted chest, past glittery scales and hardened flesh.
Realizing she was staring she tore her gaze away and busied herself with getting breakfast set up. There was fruit salad and grilled fish instead of the raw ones out of the bucket for him. She frowned when she sat and noticed the fish laying uneaten above ground.
"Aizawa? Was there something wrong with the fish last night?" She paused to point at them since he looked confused. "Bad fish?"
He sighed in the middle of biting off the head of the strange new crispy one she'd brought. "No." He shrugged. His depth of the language wasn't that great after only a day, yet he tried. "No bad fish. No... Ches."
"Yeah," she murmured. "I had to go home last night or I'd have been a mess." She thought of how lonely he must have been and stared disconsolately at a grape before stabbing it with her fork. She thought, too, of how she barely got any sleep for thinking about him. "No Aizawa for Ches, either."
<i>Ah, so she missed me as well</i>?
He finished the fish and patted her hand. "It's okay."
She smiled. "We can work on more words today after we eat." He nodded and sniffed curiously at her tub of fruit. Elly picked up a piece of watermelon and handed it to him. "Try some, if you want."
The fruit went over much better than the lesson that day, which was the English alphabet. Aizawa had memorized a few words already but she felt if he could read it would be the best way for him to begin learning on his own.
By the end of two hours her tablet was running low on battery and a couple of the flashcards had bites taken out of them. She walked over to the desk to charge it and bring a fresh one out.
Aizawa grunted crossly and picked up a bitten card with a picture of a fish on it. Though he knew what it represented it had taken awhile to remember the word.
"Fish," he muttered. He glanced at another one, a circle of color, and shook his head. He didn't know their words for colors yet. Frustrated at the slow progress he was making, he laid his chin on his arms and stared thoughtfully at the gate that led to the ocean. He wondered if Kayama had followed him and what the mers in the area were doing right now.
Mers in the area...
<i>If that insufferable guy were here, he could help me talk to her</i>. Aizawa's ear flaps perked up. <i>That's it!</i>
"You okay?"
"Yes." He could at least answer a few basic questions by now.
She tried to say "good" in mer and he chuckled. At least he wasn't the only one having problems with a new language! He helped her with pronunciation and she gradually began to learn how to make some of the lower-pitched growling sounds.
Time flew by and soon it was getting dark out. Aizawa became nervous again, circling the concrete pool in laps, and asked in his halting grasp of their language if she was leaving all night again.
"Not this time, no." She left the tablet with him and tapped the front, which showed the movement of some red symbols. "The timer will go off when I'm coming back."
They'd used the timer before, and though he wasn't good with numbers yet, he understood when the countdown stopped it meant the time was up.
"Good."
"Yes, good." She smiled. "I think it's better if I stay with you for now, huh? I'll rest easier, that's for sure."
He sank down into the water, watching her until the door closed. When she was gone he went to the gate, unhooked it and slipped out. The little connecting area was little more than a stream, but big enough to allow him to swim down into the main body of water. He sighed and looked around, gathering himself for a moment.
"Kayama." He didn't know if she would be in the area, but it wouldn't hurt to see. He used more force, clicking harder. "<i>Kayama</i>."
She rushed at him out of the shadows of a nearby dock, dark eyes flashing with worry. "Quick, over here!"
"Hey." He swam casually over but tugged away when she grabbed his arm. "Calm down, I wasn't stolen. I was injured and they let me recover in safety." He showed her the nicely healing bite on his tail.
"How did you escape?!"
Aizawa sighed. "I'm not - look," he rubbed at the back of his neck. "I didn't <i>escape</i> because <i>they never locked me up</i>."
"Then it must be a trap to you to lead them to more of us!" She hissed in alarm, her eyes blinking wide. "Freshwater! We have to move!"
"Kayama," he scolded her mildly. "There's no need to swear. I'm staying in this vicinity for awhile. You can tell the others I'm fine."
"What?" The merwoman scrunched her nose at him, confused. "Why? You're healed enough. Why stay with walkers?"
"They call themselves humans."
"Well. What did the hyu-man female do to you, then?" Her eyes narrow, she flicked her tongue out to taste the water. "You smell different." Then she paused, realizing. "You're wearing a Gift!"
He swam up, startled, his fingers automatically touching the shell around his neck.
Kayama was completely baffled. "Where did you find - did they have another mer trapped in there with you?" She circled around him, excited.
"I told you I <i>wasn't trapped</i>."
"Then please tell me you did not accept a Gift from a walker!"
"Human," he corrected absently. "What if I did? Their customs are different. This -" He held up the pendant, "doesn't mean the same thing to them it does us."
"Sure," she sighed, unconvinced. "Sure. You never accepted Gifts but now you have one. Does it mean nothing to <i>you</i>?"
Aizawa glared at her and instead of answering her question he asked for help. "I need a favor - ask Yagi if he'll come. He could be a huge help."
"Really?"
"Tell him it's to further human-mer relations. I bet he'll come."
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