Chapter Text
Objectively speaking, Percy knows he doesn’t have it all that bad.
Officially, he got rescued, taken out of the tiny aquarium his previous owners had kept him in and brought to a large centre for wild animals that offers much more space and far better conditions than anything he had before. However, why releasing him and returning Percy to the ocean wasn’t a more apparent option is still a mystery to the merman.
Percy knows he’s not the only merfolk living in captivity, and that there are still a lot of his kin living in zoos that treat them awfully, but even his large container cannot compare to life in the open sea.
Percy is much smarter than his keepers give him credit for. He understands that they don’t free him because he is what brings enough profit in to keep the rest of the centre running, the main attraction, and a part of Percy understands that many of the animals that are kept here really have no better option. They’re old, hurt, or have never known anything outside the walls of their aquarium. Unlike Percy, they don’t know, or don’t remember, what is out there. The rescue centre is their sanctuary.
For the most part, Percy has arranged himself with having to stay for the greater good… what really bothers him is that no one gave him a choice in the matter.
Aside from the circumstances of his living in the centre now, things are much better now than they used to be. The best part about being here though isn’t the large aquarium that actually allows him to get some exercise, or the fact that they give him things to chase and play with, or even his trainer Will who Percy has grown rather fond of. No, the best part, Percy has found, are the visitors.
There is nothing that can give Percy more joy than seeing the tiny, chubby faces of curious children pressed against the outside of the cool glass, trying to spot him in the dark. Nothing better than the way they shriek in excitement when they see his scales glint when he rushes past or how they jump and squeak when Percy stops just short of the glass and whirls up the sand around him before he disappears again. Nothing better, but their teacher.
The first time Percy noticed the man was during his first week in the exhibit. He was more moody then than he is now about the whole ‘rescuing means putting me into a bigger tank’ business, which meant for the most part of the day, Percy would be lurking in the darkness where the many passing visitors couldn’t see him. Percy would have been content with keeping things like that until the end of days… That was until the soft sound of someone tapping against the glass echoed through the water.
Percy’s hearing in water is excellent, and even above the surface surpasses the skill of a human by far. It hardly took him a second to figure out that the tapping wasn’t random, but a repetitive rhythm. Percy listened curiously, slowly floating closer to the glass wall where the noise came from. Then, it had been years already since Percy had been in the open sea for the last time… years since Percy heard the echo of ships communicating with one another, but Percy would always recognise Morse code.
The light from above caught on one of Percy’s fins - glittering green in the dark when his scales reflected it. Percy’s sight, like his hearing, was more advanced than a human’s, more adapted to life in the dark of the ocean. While they could barely make out anything but the outline of his tail fin so far, Percy was already able to spot the first small faces pressing their noses flat against the barrier between themselves and the water.
The tapping continued, small pauses between each repetition now, but none of the children was doing it. Percy could see them clearly then, each of them too transfixed on trying to sneak another glance at the creature hidden in the darkness.
Percy grinned, sharp teeth flashing white, as he finally spotted the source of the noise: At the very left of the crowd, a tall blond man leaned against the glass, eyes darting between the kids he was obviously watching and the tank. Again, his fingers tapped out the one word against the glass.
Not wanting to scare the man or the children away, Percy approached the glass slowly. This man was the first person to actually seek out contact to him apart from the keepers and trainers Percy had over the years, and Percy couldn’t deny feeling more than a little delighted. He didn’t miss the way the children gasped before they all fell quiet as soon as Percy got close enough to actually be seen, and even the man’s eyes widened considerably. One of the boys reached for the man’s hand, another child, a girl, hid behind his leg even though she was still peeking curiously at Percy. It almost made Percy smile and, on a whim, he decided to wave at her before closing the distance to the glass wall. It was eerily quiet outside the tank now, the only faint sound Percy could hear was people’s breathing, and he reached out to tap the glass where the man’s hand was still resting against.
Hello.
The blonde’s eyes flitted between Percy’s face and his finger against the glass, and Percy’s smile turned a little smug when he realised he had shocked him too much to even react. Percy waved at the little girl again, who seemed much braver than before, pressed against the glass with the widest grin on her face, then he pushed himself off the glass and rolled back, disappearing back where he was hidden with just one curl of his tail.
It’s been three months since the first day, or at least that’s how much time Percy thinks has passed, given that it is a little hard keeping track for. Percy has seen the man often since then, and even though Percy doesn’t always come to say hello, he always takes the second to humour the children the man is overseeing. The man is always taking groups of children to the aquarium, that’s how Percy guessed he must be a teacher, and their reactions never get less excited. Each time they squeak and point and jump and laugh, sometimes one of them will try to take a picture only to stick their tongue out at Percy when he’s escaped just in time.
For some time now, a handful of workers have been tempering with the top of Percy’s aquarium. Before they started whatever it was they were doing, there was hardly enough space above the surface of the water for a grown man to stand, except for the space around the door his keeper comes through every morning and evening. The constructions meant that Percy got to spent a lot less time with Will than he usually does though, who only could drop by to feed Percy, not to play or talk to him.
Since then, the children had been the only thing to keep Percy entertained, and they did for a while.
When Percy wakes up this morning though, the workers, their grates and their bars are finally gone – and along with them is the ceiling.
Percy pushes himself off the floor excitedly, rising to the top as fast as he dares to still be able to stop before he’ll hit the wooden plates. When he breaks the surface of the water though, the barriers that stopped him from jumping out of the water are gone.
That was what the men had worked on, Percy realises suddenly, and a grin starts to spread on his face. For the first time, he can see the sky above, if only through a glass dome spanning over the largest part of his tank.
Excitedly, Percy dives back down, going as deep as he can before he shoots back up, rising out of the water and turning around once before he hits the surface and goes back under. Not once since he had been out in the sea had he been able to do this. It fills Percy with a rush of adrenaline, and he repeats his little jump three more times until his chest heaves with every breath; he is not used to this kind of exercise.
The door to the side creeks open and Percy uses his new freedom to meet Will at the edge of the platform surrounding the dome. The blonde is smiling brightly when he sees Percy’s excited face, and for once, Percy doesn’t even splash him in greeting.
“You like the changes we made?” Will kneels down right at the edge and empties the bucket with Percy’s breakfast into the water next to him. It’s a sign of trust, that he is coming so close, Percy has learned that early on. Pulling Will into the tank and under water would be laughably easy, but Percy knows better than to risk his privileges like that and anyway - he likes Will far too much to want to hurt him.
“We wanted to give you some room to play, and some sun.” Will goes on and points to the dome overhead. Percy had stolen glimpses at it before, but up until that morning, almost everything above the metal bars had been hidden with wooden plates lying on top of them. There’s no trace of them now, Percy is glad for it. The only thing that has stayed the same is the platform running once along the edge of the tank - minus the side facing the windows through which the visitors can look inside. There’s another one above water too, Percy hadn’t seen it before, but now he can make out a walkway just on the other side.
With an excited noise, Percy goes back under, making sure Will is watching when he jumps back out and performs his little trick just for Will again. When he comes back up at the edge of the platform, Will is grinning even brighter.
“I knew this was a good idea. You’re going to show that trick to your friend too?” At that, Percy looks away, a little flustered and with heat rising in his cheeks. Will just snickers and gives his hair a pat, before he gets back to his feet. “I’ll be back later, okay?”
Percy pouts at Will instead of nodding, a human mannerism he has adapted in his years of captivity, but Will only laughs once more and waves at Percy before disappearing out of the door.
It’s only late afternoon the next day when Percy sees the teacher again. Like every time before, the man taps a hello against the glass to alert Percy of his presence, but this time Percy doesn’t take it slow when he swims right up to him. He’s a little excited, even though Will teased him for it, and Percy can barely wait to show the man what he can do now that he has the space.
The children jump back from the glass when Percy approaches fast, sprinting right above the ground before he pulls up to the glass at the last second, but it doesn’t take a lot of reassuring from their teacher before they take the chance to get a glance at the merman instead. Percy is smiling, barely able to hold still and points upward, hoping the man will understand without Percy having to explain.
“Come on kids, I think he wants to show us something.”
Percy nods excitedly when he hears the muffled voice of the man through the glass, wagging his tail in a way that makes clouds of dust swirl in the water. Percy watches from a small distance while the man guides his group up the stairs before he disappears back into the other corner of the tank. He waits another moment, as long as he can manage, really, before he sprints to the surface and catapults himself out much higher than before, arching his back and diving back in more elegantly than he had thought he would manage. Maybe he wants to impress his friend a little after all…
Coming back up, Percy hears a soft chuckle from behind him. He had been too transfixed on watching the children clapping and jumping, and the impressed (maybe fond?) smile of their teacher to hear Will coming in, so when Percy turns around to face his trainer, he’s blushing even darker than the last time Will brought up Percy’s friend.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Will asks, his smile just teasing enough for Percy to know the man isn’t serious, but he sits at the edge of Percy’s tank nevertheless and, as always, pets his hair once when Percy comes close enough.
“He’s quite the looker, can’t even blame you.” Will muses and waves at the children over Percy’s head. It’s not a sight many visitors get, Percy knows that, after all, this is only the second day this window is open. Percy cocks his head to the side though, not quite understanding what Will is trying to say him, and the gesture earns him another pet.
“I meant that he’s handsome.” Will explains, expression amused when Percy nods a little too enthusiastically. For a second, Will looks conflicted, then he tears his eyes away from the visitors and leans a little closer to Percy.
“I’m not supposed to tell you.” He whispers, and Percy perks up, pushing himself a little more out of the water to hear Will’s words. “But… his name. It’s Jason.”