Chapter Text
The very first time you come into contact with a distinctly unique pair of fish, it is your eighth birthday.
You spend it alone without the presence of your family (who were busy on a business trip,) except for the nanny that comes from early morning to late afternoon, and she does not speak English. Thankfully, she celebrates your birthday with you, baking muffins instead of birthday cake, and she gifts you a small string bracelet with three charms (a sun, a moon, a star,) dangling from the middle. You immediately tie it onto your wrist, refusing help from her and insisting on tying it by yourself, despite you having to hold the strings between your teeth to do so. Not long after, the clock hits four-thirty, and she kisses you on the forehead before she leaves, reminding you about the dinner she’d cooked for you in the fridge and to make sure all the windows are closed shut and locked tight so no water would leak inside from the storm that was scheduled to hit later that evening.
And then you are alone, having just turned eight years old, and you decide that sitting at home watching Fazbear Friends by yourself is making you sad. So you get up, grab your crab-collection bucket and your crab-hunting hat, and head out the back door of your house, against your nanny's warnings.
Your backyard is a beach, and sure, the beach is other people’s backyard too, but your neighbors were all rich, snobby, and old. None of them had kids, let alone kids your age. You live by the oceanfront, without any siblings or friends who lived nearby, so you often had to play by yourself. Your favorite pastime included digging up clams and hermit crabs to bring to your home aquarium or picking up a particularly sparkly conch shell or rock to place on the shelves of the bookcase in your room.
You have no clue what kind of fish swim through the tanks at home. You’re eight, and you enjoy watching them swim around more than actually knowing what they were. Aside from the original goldfish your mother had gotten for you, the rest of the creatures within the tank were those you’d fishnapped from the ocean.
The minute you step out onto your back porch to start your adventure, it begins to rain. A drop hits your cheek, then another, and a strike of lightning brightens the sky, quickly followed by a clap of thunder. This seemingly wills the rest of the rain to come pouring out of the darkened clouds and drench your head through your ‘go fish yourself!’ hat, soaking your hair in seconds. Even your rain boots start to collect water, drowning your toes within their rubber prisons. You find yourself momentarily frozen in place before you squint up at the sky with betrayal written on your face. So much for the storm beginning in the evening.
“This isn’t a very good happy birthday!” You yell childishly to the sky, whose only response is to brighten the clouds with another crack of lightning, effectively deafening you momentarily with the booming of thunder. You huff, gripping the bucket handle tight in your small, calloused fist, then march past the fence of your backyard and out onto the soaked beach. The air smelled of salt and rain and the waves were large, rising up to a little more than twice your size before crashing onto the sand dangerously. In the back of your mind, you hear your nanny scolding you for being outside during a storm, a string of Filipino words that roughly translates to that’s how kids like you get washed away!
Yeah, right. You shove the thought of being carried away by the raging seas out of your head, stubbornly marching along the wet sand towards your favorite place. Two houses down, the line of homes end and the start of a rocky cliff formation begins. The sand on the beach stops as well, halted by large, slippery rocks ascending out of the water and littering the earth with jagged stone and crumbling pebbles.
That was the best place to find crabs, along with other creatures to add to your aquarium, and surely, the presence of more water from the storm meant there would be more crabs ripe for the crabnapping.
You are eight. And not a genius.
Still, you are also an adventurer. And adventurers always get the best crabs.
You slip a few more times than you care to admit as you try and scale the slippery rocks, buffeted by harsh rain while the waves crash ominously against the stone. The more time passes, the higher the waves seem to grow, and anxiety starts to nip at your lungs just enough to make your breath hitch. But you’ve come so far already, so close to your destination. You weren’t about to stop now.
Your reddened, injured hands grasp at a part of the rock that quickly crumbles under your touch, causing you to slip and slam your jaw hard against the cliff side. You are unable to choke back the cry of pain from the force of the impact, though the sound is drowned out by the menacing storm. You blink back tears– or was that rain water? You couldn’t tell, but you lick your salty lips, ignoring the copper taste that fills your mouth. It hurts so bad, but you’ve come too far; a little pain was something you could ignore.
A minute later, you spot it. You have to squint to avoid getting saltwater sprayed in your eyes, but the little cavern you’ve discovered was finally visible. You scramble to your feet, the rubber soles of your boots helping to prevent you from slipping (again) as you haul ass towards the tiny opening of the cave. You unceremoniously toss your bucket inside first, then lay on your belly to slither into the small hole, where it opens into a small, illuminated cave. It’s dim, but you’re able to see just enough to grab the small backpack you’d hidden against the rock wall. You quickly grab and set a flashlight down to aim at the rocky ceiling, forcing the light to bounce off the surface and bathe the area surrounding you with a dim light.
This was your home away from home. A small, slightly claustrophobic cave that you’d found all on your own a little less than a year ago, whose little pools of sea water housed many crabs and the occasional cool rock for you to add to your ever-growing collection. You sit on the stones not so gracefully, removing your wet hat and throwing it on the ground with a hard splorch sound. In a swift motion you pull off your rubber rain boots, turn one upside down, and watch as all the rainwater that collected within it rushes out and splashes onto the cool stone. You pull your shoe back on, then turn over the other and watch as the water sloshes out, and you give it one quick shake to remove the small amount of sand that had accumulated during your trek and managed to sneak its way into your boot to harass your toes. You shake it a few more times to assure there weren't any stray grains of sand before you put it back on, pleased by the lack of grains itching between your toes, then retrieving your bucket and standing up, ready to start your crab collecting. From outside the little cavern, you hear the crackling of thunder. It was getting louder, getting closer, but you feel safe in your little gremlin hole, so you ignore it to turn towards one of the shallow pools. Already, you spot a tiny crab. It’s smaller than you’d like, but you aren’t about to look a gift crab in the mouth, so you quickly use your bucket to scoop it up, grinning to yourself.
“Think I’m gonna call you… Sir Snips,” you whisper at the crab affectionately. “You’re going to protect my fish at home, okay?”
As soon as you lower the bucket to collect a few more crabs, you see it. Or rather, them. Two, beautifully sparkling fish, a few feet away from your little backpack. They lay in a particularly shallow puddle, which you don’t think looks particularly comfortable, seeing how they squirm and wriggle to try and get some more water. You begin to approach, crouching down so as not to alarm them, but the second they realize they are not alone, they freeze. One is a beautiful shade of yellow and orange, and the other is a deep ocean blue. They are fish, but they look strangely humanoid. You recognize what seems to be nubby little arms on either one, which was not something you’ve ever seen on a fish before. And you have seen a lot of fish, seeing as your father’s career focused solely on marine life.
You plop yourself down near the pool. The motion makes them freeze.
“Hi there,” you greet, and they are still frozen, as if their lack of movement could trick you into thinking nothing was there. Unfortunately for them, you are already enthralled, so you are not about to switch your attention elsewhere.
“You look super uncomfortable like that, I can help, okay?” You chirp at them, looking into your water filled bucket with Sir Snips inside, and quickly scoop the crab up and toss him back into his original wading pool, quickly forgotten. Then you cup your hands together and scoop up the orange one, causing it to squirm and writhe in your hold, face full of pure panic. Thankfully, you immediately move to plop it into the bucket, and you work even faster with the recoiling blue fish to grab and drop it in the bucket as well.
Instantly the blue fish sinks directly towards the bottom, curling up as it tries to make itself as small as possible. The other one seems to realize what you’ve given them: more water to splash around in, and it warbles at you in thanks. You hold the bucket by the rim, peering in to gaze at the strange looking fish. Way cooler than crabs.
“Hi,” you greet again, as if they knew how to speak human languages, “you look really weird. Are you fish?”
The fish are no bigger than your hand, but they fit perfectly within the bucket and are still able to swim around. You feel like a hero, rescuing the lives of two really cool looking fish.
The yellow one croons at you gratefully, leaning against the rim of the bucket, fiddling with the charms on your bracelet. You can’t help but smile at it, entranced by the way it plays with the strings.
Outside, the thundering grows louder, and you’re sure you see the flash of lightning a little too close to the cave opening. The rain is drumming so hard against the ground, a thick layer of mist and fog from outside begins to waft into the cave. You’re no longer sure it is safe to leave. Plus, you were now the caretaker of two baby fish! There was no way you were going to endanger the babies. It seems you are stuck in this cave, alone with twin fish and an unknown amount of crabs.
You gaze back down into the bucket, and the orange one has stuck its little head out of the water to stare at you. It is captivating. Its eyes are pearly white, and it had fins sticking out of its head in a way that resembled a flower. There are tiny scales that stick out near its cheeks, and fins adorning most of its body. It even has a face, an almost humanoid face. And arms. Was this a mermaid? It didn’t look like Ariel from the Bisney movies and it’s so tiny, but still…
Then you also notice that it is trembling, so you find yourself lowering your voice so it wouldn’t be afraid of you.
“Hi there,” you whisper, telling the small creature your name. You are unsure as to whether or not it is able to understand you, but it trills quietly, and the blue fish bubbles from the bottom of the bucket. Your eyes brighten at the sound as you see the blue fish swim circles around the yellow one. They are friends? Siblings, maybe? They looked like twins, kind of. Either way, you think they are adorable, and you quickly decide then and there that you love them.
You wrap your legs loosely around the bucket, leaning back slightly to slap your hands against the ground until you feel your backpack. You tug the bucket closer to you, and when you do, the flashlight rolls off of your bag and hits the ground, causing it to flicker and go out.
… Great. That’s what you get for using a cheap flashlight you won as an arcade prize.
“Well,” you start, voice low so as not to scare the fish. “I hope you’re not afraid of the dark, my flashlight just died, and the storm is getting reaaaaal bad, so we have to stay here a while.”
But almost as soon as you finish talking, your gaze slides over to the bucket, where the water begins to glow. You squint, rubbing your eyes to make sure it’s not a hallucination, but when your vision readjusts, you realize no, it’s not the water that’s glowing. It’s the fish.
“Oh my gosh ,” you whisper, eyes widening with awe. The blue fish is still blurry under the water, but you can see how its stripes and spots start to gleam. You remember this word, your dad had said it once while showing you a fish from his work. It started with a b– bio… Bioluminescent. Yes! Its red eyes are glowing as well, which is a little ominous, but the ocean is a scary place. You knew that much. The orange one glows as well, but a little less brightly. Still, it’s incredible, and you suddenly aren’t sure whether or not this whole day has been a dream. (If it was, you're not sure you want for it to end.
The orange fish chirps and titters at you again, and you gaze at him.
“What’s wrong?”
It gives you no response, just staring at you with big wide eyes. You deflate a little.
“Sorry,” you respond dejectedly. “I don’t know how to speak fish.”
You lean back, licking your lips and tasting the familiar flavor of dried blood, and you quickly dip your fingers in one of the wade pools to wet your hands. You wipe your mouth with your moistened hands, ignoring the sting from the salt getting into the wound. In the dim lighting, you see where the part of your fingers you’d used to wipe your mouth was tinted darker due to the blood. Your fingers were sore, as well as your knees and your jaw from the previous incident earlier. You only now start to feel the exhaustion from your escapade, but when you glance back at the fish, your train of thought is destroyed when you notice the yellow one is gnawing at the side of the bucket. Is it hungry?
Carefully, so as not to startle them, you reach for your backpack again and rummage through the random items within before you find a folded bag of (what was probably stale) shrimp chips and a ziploc bag of day-old fries. And, well, your auntie’s cat liked to eat fries, so maybe fishboys did too? You didn’t ponder on the thought too hard, opening the ziploc to stuff some fries in your own face before you stretch your arm out to plop one against the fish. It squishes against his cheek slightly since you couldn’t see where you were aiming, and the fish retreats into the water and stares at you as if you are the largest, most terrifying creature it had ever seen.
There are bubbles floating up from the bucket, and you recognize that they’re coming from the blue fish. He’s growling at you, angry that you had frightened his counterpart, but the sound is muffled by water. You grasp the edges of the bucket again, peering down at the twin fish, but in a split second you hiss in pain as the growling fish opens its jaw and clamps down onto your finger hard, digging in thin, needle-like teeth. Your sudden jolt causes the bucket to almost tip over, but you quickly grab it before it can spill all of its contents (yellow fish included). You’re thankful that you catch the bucket to save the second fish, but the blue one only seems to dig its little teeth deeper into your flesh.
“Ouch, ouch! Hey!” You whine, trying to shake your hand lightly to force it off, but the fish stays stubborn, attached to your digit through force of spite alone. Since when did fish have such sharp teeth?
“Ow, ow, ow! Let go, please let go!”
His grip loosens after his counterpart clicks and whines at him. And he only finally lets go when the yellow fish switches its attention toward the soggy fry that had fallen in the bucket, giving it a quick sniff before it starts to tear into the potato stick. You don’t think wet fries are particularly appetizing, but the yellow guy seems to be starving. The blue one splashes back into the bucket to watch its sibling, but it doesn’t approach the fry. In fact, it doesn’t even look hungry anymore, seeing as its tongue – which is blue and slimy– slithers out of his mouth to lick your blood off of his lips. Gross. You scrunch your nose a little in disgust, but you pick up a second fry with your non-mangled fingers and drop it into the bucket for the little fish to eat.
“You’re weird,” you tell them, but seeing as you have already decided you love these little fish, you can’t be too angry. You stick your bleeding finger in your mouth to try and stop the blood with your tongue, and it’s quiet for a moment.
“But I’m gonna give you names. I think you…”
You turn to look at the orange fish, who chitters at you. The fins on its head seem to brighten now that it’s had a little food to eat, and you grin at how it reminds you of when the sun- the real sun- is bright and shiny.
“You’ll be Sun! So that makes the other little guy Moon!”
The fish stares at you curiously, but the pleased noise that erupts from Sun’s throat sounds accepting of their newly dubbed names, so you think you deserve a pat on the back for it. Then you brighten up when you remember the gift your nanny had given you earlier that day.
“Oh gosh, wait!”
You immediately turn around, startling both fish for a moment as you rustle through all sorts of objects within your backpack. Sun peeks out of the water curiously at you, tilting his head to try and peek at what you were doing. You were strange, that much was obvious to them. You weren’t intent on harming them though, despite your size.
You squeal when you find the object you’ve been looking for, then immediately you begin to gnaw at something on your wrist. Even Moon peers up out of the water and tilts his head at your strange behavior. You are slouching over your backpack, your wrist brought to your lips as you grind your teeth in a particular way at something between them.
A minute passes when the snapping of a string is heard, and you cheer excitedly. Then you turn back to your backpack to fumble around with your things, only to adjust your position afterwards and hold out two objects in your palm.
Sun and Moon gaze at your hand curiously, thoroughly confused, and you grin, holding out your wrist and showing off your bracelet as an example. There are three strings dangling from the bracelet, but only one has a charm still attached: the star. Then you point back at the objects held out to them. The sun charm and the moon charm, separately looped through individual fishing wire to replicate the bracelet you are wearing.
“I made you friendship bracelets! I only had fishing strings, and you guys are… really small, geez, um…” you trail off, realizing they wouldn't be able to wear it, but you perk up a second later when an idea strikes you.
“Oh, but, it’s okay! You can wear it as a necklace! Here!”
You loop the bracelet around Sun’s neck first, careful to avoid jostling his fins. Thankfully, it is loose enough that it doesn’t choke him, instead dangling off of him in a silly way. It rests around his shoulders and under the fins on his neck, and the charm hangs loosely off his chest. Sun looks down at the piece with wonder, before he chirps and clicks happily, launching himself out of the bucket to twist midair and splash back inside. You beam. How cute! At least he seems to like it.
“You get one too, bitey-bitey Moon,” your eyes slide over to meet Moon’s, who eyes you warily, dipping his head back into the water to hide from you.
“Aw, no, please don’t hide! Sun likes it, you will too!”
Your small hands hold out the bracelet towards him, and he swims deeper into the bucket with a hiss at you. You find your smile fading slightly, but a warble breaks you out of your thoughts. It comes from Sun, who grabs the bracelet out of your palm with his stubby hands and pulls the piece into the water, pulling it over Moon’s head with a chirp. In reply, Moon rumbles grumpily, but he makes no move to remove the object from around his neck. You smile. It is hard not to stare at two luminous fish, especially when those same fish are the only source of light in the entire cave. You watch as Sun curls around Moon, who rests his head against Sun’s tail, keeping one eye open to gaze at you distrustfully.
“You guys are siblings, huh?” Your voice is a sweet whisper, pulling your knees to your chest as you rest your chin between them. “It must be nice to not be alone.”
Sun yawns, wide and sleepily, and you can see the glint of his sharp teeth before he licks his lips and burrows his face against Moon’s fins. You see Moon try and hold back his own yawn, and you giggle quietly as he squints at you, baring his teeth.
“Don’t worry. You can sleep— I’m sleepy too…”
You rub your eyes and glance out at the exit of the cave, squinting as you hear the repeated rumbles of the storm outside, drowned out by the thrumming of the heavy rain. It is pouring, and the crackles of thunder didn’t help you feel safe.
“I guess we’re going to be stuck here for a while.”
Carefully, making sure not to startle the fatigued fishboys, you pull your backpack closer and lay your head against it, hugging your knees closer. You glance over at the glow inside the bucket, and despite the raging storm outside, you find yourself smiling. You aren’t alone right now.
Slowly, your eyes flutter closed.
When you wake up, there is a pressure on your chest and something wet (and painful) on your arm. You open your eyes groggily, having to rub the sleep from your eyelids as you glance down at the strange sensation, and there, nibbling on your arm as if it were some sort of gourmet corn-on-the-cob, is a bright yellow and orange fish with pointy teeth.
“... Ow!” You yelp, startling as your brain processes what is happening. “Hey! Rude! That’s super mean, I gave you a friendship bracelet!”
Sun releases your arm, revealing a punctured bite mark on your flesh. You pout indignantly, rubbing the injury as he trills at you before splashing back into the bucket with a chirp. From under the water, Moon lets out a sound akin to the fish version of a chuckle. The part of your arm that Sun had bitten throbs in pain. You wipe the beads of blood beginning to accumulate on your skin before you huff, looking back out at the exit. You could no longer hear the sound of drumming raindrops, nor the crack of thunder. The storm had dissipated then? You pull your backpack on– now that your supply of stale fries has been emptied, you would need to refill your snack cache for your hideaway cave– and you crawl over to the hole to peek outside.
You come eye to eye with a seagull who stares at you. It squawks loudly in your face, startling you just enough to scramble back for a moment. Mean. Why did every animal decide they hate you today? You huff, wiping off the snot that splurts out of your nose and smearing it on your shirt. You turn to face the two fish, who are peering out of the bucket to stare at you. Moon looks smug, and Sun looks like he’s trying to pretend your reaction isn’t funny. He fails at it.
You scrunch your eyebrows, ignoring their looks and walking over to grab your damp, oversized fishing hat and pull it onto your head. Then you pick up the bucket of fishboys, peeking down at them in the water.
“Let’s get you guys out of here, okay? Back to the ocean! There’s way more water in the ocean than in my bucket.”
You expect Sun to be the more talkative of the two, especially seeing as how the only sound you’d heard from Moon so far was his hisses and his growls, but the sudden movement causes both boys to click and trill, and you gently shush at the two of them.
“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’m helping. We’re friends now, remember?”
You’re careful to place the bucket down without spilling any water, crouching down by the exit of the cave and gently sliding the bucket through the hole. You couldn’t fit through it without having to squirm your way in like some sort of worm, and you knew you definitely wouldn’t be able to fit with a bucket in your hands. You keep your hand on the handle, pushing it just enough so that both of them are able to see the sun as you position yourself to lay on your stomach. Then you slither through the hole, keeping your eyes on the bucket to make sure nothing jostled it. From above, you hear an aggressive squawk, then another, then a few more, and then you hear the alarmed and frightened clicks from the fish in the bucket, and you force yourself to squirm faster as you pull it closer to you.
In less than a minute, you quickly hug the bucket against your chest, hiding the boys from view. You yelp as seagulls dive bomb your small form in an attempt to snag the fish from you. The rim of the bucket is held tightly against you, your chest acting as a cover to keep the twins from becoming bird feed. Unfortunately, this leaves you open to the attacks of aggressive gulls, who peck at your hair, your skin, and any other part of you that they could reach.
Thankfully, the attacks don’t last forever, five minutes at most, but to your young mind, it feels like forever. Plus, now you’ve got feathers sticking out of your hair. You remove your torso from the bucket after having become a literal human shield for the tiny fish.
After sharing your fries and giving them friendship bracelets, there was no way you’d let them experience such an unfortunate and anticlimactic end.
You pull a few stray feathers out of your hair, hissing in pain when the part of your arm that Sun had bit brushed against the fabric of your sand-covered t-shirt. You were always a clumsy kid anyway, so a new scar wouldn’t be out of place on your body. Sun chirps, causing you to glance down at him. He reaches out, grabbing the fabric of your top and presses his cheek against you affectionately, and suddenly, everything you’d done for them feels worth it.
But the moment ends when Moon clicks, eyes trained on the ocean before his tail comes out of the bucket to slap your arm, as if hurrying you to let them go.
“Yeah, yeah,” you mumble, smiling wistfully. You’d only just recently befriended them, and now they had to go. “Your parents probably miss you a lot, huh? Let’s get you home.”
You have to make the trek down the slippery cliff side carefully. It wasn’t about keeping just you safe anymore, it was about the fish twins now. Taking a deep breath, you bring the handle of the bucket to your mouth, holding it tightly between your teeth. Now to figure out a way to scramble down the jagged, wet rocks without falling and cracking not only your skull, but the skulls of your new fishy friends as well.
There are a few scares when the rocks under your foot crumble and you almost slip, but thankfully when you do fall you’re close enough to the bottom that you fall directly on your ass, splashing yourself with the water from the bucket in the process. You are soaking, again, but you pay no mind as you waddle towards the shore, and Moon flicks you with his tail once more, followed by a sharp trill as he grows more restless. Even Sun, who had seemed to be warming up to you was beginning to fidget in the bucket. You smile, but a part of your chest aches at the thought of having to be alone again, even if you were only around them for a few hours. So you sit down, letting the waves rush over your legs and splash your already soaked shorts, and you tip the bucket over into the water.
In an instant, you barely see a flash of blue and yellow as they zip towards the horizon, and you scold yourself for thinking that even for a moment two random animals would be sentient enough to bid you goodbye. You stare out into the water, unable to see where the two had swam off to. At least the experience would be a good story to tell people at school.
You stand up, brushing off the wet sand from your butt as you turn away, slapping your cheeks a little rough when you start to feel tears prickle your eyes. They were fish! They had to go home. You start walking out of the sea, but before you fully emerge out of the ocean, something nips your leg. Startled, you jump and try to look down at your legs to find the offender, and are surprised to see Sun swimming in circles around you.
“Oh, you’re still here?” You ask, crouching down to grin at him, extending your hand. He swims onto your hand for a moment, giving your thumb a gentle nip before he chirps and swims away. That was probably his way of saying goodbye.
“Bye-bye, Sun,” you tell him, seeing the familiar orange fin peek out of the water. “And tell Moon bye-bye from me as well, okay?”
He does not respond, but there’s another nip on your other leg. You glance down, and there, floating in the water by the part of your leg that was bitten, is Moon. He peeks out from the ocean, his large red eyes squinting at you before he gives you a croon, then circles your form once before swimming off to catch up to his brother.
The weight in your chest lessens some as you smile, waving out at the ocean before heading back home to take a much needed shower, making sure to clean the part of your arm that was bitten during your nap. They were strange fish. The fish in your tanks are not as clever or as communicative as Sun and Moon, and you know they will be the only things to occupy your mind for a while.
The day after you meet your new friends, your nanny enters your home to see you dead asleep on the living room couch. There are bruises and other injuries– ( bite marks?) – littering your skin, and she swears that you are either going to be the cause of her getting fired or the cause of her future heart attack. When she interrogates you after you've woken up, you tell her everything. She doesn't seem to believe you, but she doesn't actively deny your encounter with strange sea creatures spoken about in old legends.