Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Azul

Azul had eight feet that he was quite proud of in terms of usefulness. Each had fine motor control. Each could write. Each could even use rudimentary single-digit sign language. Yes, despite all of the impressive feats that one could perform with so many limbs, Azul certainly seemed to end up with his foot in his mouth more often than the regular person.

The only explanation was that he’d grown so tired, his brain was giving out on him.

So far, in the same conversation, he’d managed to ignore Yuu, neglected to warn her of very obvious and painful side effects of a substance which he provided, and had even managed to tell her that he would rather juggle rabid weasels than sleep next to her—which wasn’t just untrue, it was…poorly worded.

Now, this wasn’t exactly far from the truth, but it was far enough that somehow the translation was lost. Azul was dying for sleep. He was dying to—though he really would rather juggle rabid weasels than admit it—enjoy the comfort that sleeping beside Yuu had put into his dreams.

However, it was true that he would rather be overrun with any number of diseased rodents than unconsciously put Yuu in a ‘situation’ that she didn’t ask for—again.

But why he’d said it like that—AGH! He knew it was for the best. That his misspeak would likely help her keep her distance until there wasn’t something in her addling her and pushing her to like him unfairly. However, the mortification which he felt while leading Yuu out of the grotto and toward the city was enough to make his tentacles seethe.

Who even uses rodent metaphors anyway? Perhaps he really was spending too much time on land…

Yuu swam easily next to him as he guided her through the open blue water toward the city, insisting on clinging to his hand, still, although with her lovely new tail, she should have been the better swimmer.

But she’s only had it a handful of hours…

The idea was dubious, but possible.

It was only after Yuu squeezed his hand and repeated herself several times, that Azul realized she’d been trying to ask him a question.

“Hm?”

She sighed, repeating the question for what was likely more than the second time.

“I asked what all of those guards are doing outside the crab-kin’s house,” she said clearly. “That is the one we’re heading to, right?”

“Oh….oh dear.”

Azul’s stomach sank as he saw precisely what Yuu was talking about. The Crab-Kin’s House was less of a house and more of a fortress carved straight from the coral shelf, a jagged, towering construct. The outer walls were a chaotic patchwork of barnacles, shells, and scavenged ship metal, as if the entire place had been armored for war—which, given its owner’s paranoia, wasn’t far from the truth.

The entrance was a narrow crevice, guarded by two enormous crustacean claws impaled into the seabed, and half a dozen guards on patrol.

“I see the key,” hissed Yuu, as one of the patrols of heavily-dressed lionfish swam by.

“Yes, but how do we get it?”

“How do you get it?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I’m just the distraction, Azul. You’re the one with the long, sneaky arms.

“Alright! Let’s do this! Good luck!”

“I—no—Yuu!”

Yuu really was faster than Azul. She’d darted right up to the lionfish’s face grinning and flipping over her distractingly pearly tail before him. The lionfish was less than amused.

“Get out of the way, pearly! Or you’ll find yourself on today’s lunch menu!”

The guards to either side of him chortled in their gravelly voiced.

“Ah-heh-heh, Grit. Lunch menu. That’s a good one.”

“Yuu, don’t wander off like that, you’re going to get yourself hurt!” Azul darted in before the lionfish could get any more ideas.

“This guy thinks I’m helpless!” Yuu said dramatically, flopping sideways onto Azul’s shoulder like a woebegone damsel.

“That is not what I said, Yuu,” he gritted out. “Excuse me, gentlemen, I—”

“Hey, the lady was speaking!” Grit said, suddenly on Yuu’s side. Yuu kept a straight face, but Azul could feel a flicker of a laugh in her ribcage as she turned back to the fish.

“We’re here to speak to Mr. Kalx.”

“Kalx is undergoing a crisis of significant importance at this time. He is taking no guests or contracts.”

“Ah,” Azul jutted in quickly, “But we are party to this crisis of his. In fact, we’ve brought a means to help him.”

The lionfish looked him up and down.

“I don’t see any helpful ‘thing,’” said Grit. “No guests! No entry! That’s orders!”

Yuu was nudging Azul, and gave a pointed look at the kay before pulling away from him and swimming another distracting flip.

“Azul, you don’t have the—the thing? That’s everything we needed to bring to Mr. Kalx. And he’s just GOT to have the thing to get through this!”

Azul got her meaning, and began reaching around the backs of the guards, hoping that his tentacle could nip the key before the next set of guards came looking, but unfortunately, the guards weren’t the only thing Yuu was distracting.

“Right, well, if you could better manage your, eh, forgetful partner, Miss—” Grit said, trying again to shoo them off.

Yuu chose that moment to lean flirtatiously on his shoulder, face alarmingly close to his.

“You know, if you weren’t such a menace, I might actually find you charming,” she said in his ear.

Azul, focuisn all of his efforts on the key, and now keeping them both balanced, nudged her away.

“If I weren’t a menace, you would have drowned by now.”

“So you do think I’m helpless?”

“That’s not what I—”

“Azul! You flirt with me just to insult me?” she said loudly, fake scandalized.

All of the guards turned to look at her sympathetically, which really shouldn’t have been possible. Azul saw the opening, and snatched the key, earning him a naughty smile from Yuu.

“Fine, fine!” she said dramatically. “We’ll be back, Mr. Grit. Sorry for wasting your time.”

Grit, and the other guards, muttered nasty things at Azul’s back as they swam ‘away,’ concealing themselves around the corner of the house at the last moment.

Azul gritted his teeth, whispering once they were out of sight.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Yuu.”

All smiled, Yuu swept him a curtsey. “I think I make a great accomplice.”

Azul, feeling rattled, deadpanned, “You are a public menace. Seeing my mother alone. Waltzing right up to the guards and dancing for them. Are you trying to redefine insanity, or did you just wake up this morning and decide to take stupidity for a joyride?"

She snorted, faux-outraged. “Joyride, obviously. You think I could do this on accident?”

“I had certainly hoped.”

“I live to disappoint,” she said breezily. “The door’s right over there, but I heard voices.”

“You couldn’t have mentioned that earlier?” Azul hissed, right as the familiar voice of grit called out:

“There! Trespassers!”

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“Come one!” Azul grabbed her arm, dragging her into the eclectic garden, staying low to the ground.

“In here!” Yuu tugged back on him, tugging him toward a large, open clam.

“Yuu, no, that’s—!”

Just as she’d tucked them behind the upper shell, the guards swam right by, shouting and causing a general kerfuffle as they stirred up sand feet from where they hid.

“See?” Yuu shrugged under his arm. “Not so bad. Come—”

SNAP!!!

Before Azul could so much as open his mouth to argue, the clam slammed shut over them, trapping them in a soft, fleshy, but otherwise inescapable shell.

“This, Yuu,” said Azul, remarkably calmly, considering the situation, “is the worst plan you’ve ever had.”

Yuu squirmed on top of him, and a sound escaped his mouth before he could stop it, which fortunately, she interpreted as a sign of discomfort, and stopped moving.

He kept talking, if only to keep himself distracted. This situation required calm—CALM, unless they wanted to stay in here forever.

“The clam is an ancient Atlantican relic! It reacts to its inhabitants’ emotions, so if you would just—”

She wriggled on him again, trying to see his face. His heartrate spiked, and the clam tightened again, shoving them tighter together.

“Mm!” Yuu uttered, as the clammy flesh squished her lungs. “So if I annoy you enough, it’ll crush us? Maybe I should start humming off-key.”

“Please, you already do when you swim.”

“Azul. Why is it still squeezing us?”

“The clam reacts to heart rate. Perhaps it recognizes… unresolved emotions,” he said, recalling what his mother had taught him about these creatures. What his mother had taught him, however, also included that even cecaelia were not stupid or slow enough to ever get caught in one, so he’d never paid the most attention.

He felt Yuu’s cheek lift against his. “Are you saying the clam ships us?”

“I am saying if we do not calm down, we may both perish inside a mollusk. Which is not how I intend to die.”

“Right, because you plan to die surrounded by riches in a massive business empire.”

He rolled his eyes. “You do understand me.”

The clam loosened slightly, as if approving. Yuu laughed, and Azul, flustered, refused to meet her gaze, which was already too close to his own for focus anyway.

“So,” she said, after they both took a few calming breaths. “How does one ‘resolve emotions?’”

He shook his head slightly. “It’s not just emotions, it’s also… truths.”

The clam tightened slightly.

“Truths that we don’t already know?” Yuu asked helpfully. The clam loosened, just a hair.

“I see,” Azul nearly groaned. “The clam wants entertainment.”

“Hey, I would too, if I was a clam. If we need to tell each other some secrets, well, we could trade?”

He nodded stiffly. “That would be amenable.”

She huffed against his neck, making him stiffen. “Well, I know how you feel about this sort of thing. I’ll go first, shall I? I often worry that i’ll never belong in this world. No matter how much magic I’m around, it’s not mine. I’m just… visiting."

The clam tightened.

“What, boring?” she asked, to no response. “Fine. Azul, I love your dramatic monologues. They’re absurd, but honestly, a little impressive.”

The clam loosened.

“Gotcha,” Yuu smiled again.

“I do NOT monologue,” Azul spluttered, though no one was listening but the clam. “I provide pertinent and useful information, if anyone would care to listen.”

The clam tightened again.

Azul groaned as Yuu was pressed back into him.

“Alright, alright! The truth is, clam, I hate the open ocean. You are missing NOTHING. The irony isn’t lost on me, I assure you. I just prefer walls. Structure. Places where I can control the currents."

“Way to persuade it to let us go. It's gonna think you love it in here,” Yuu mumbled. “My turn. My dad used to give me and my siblings terrible nicknames back home. The worst.”

The clam didn’t budge.

“Not enough? Alright. SOME of mine were things like: Bertiathus, Mergatroid, Ignacius, and Gertrude, to name a FEW, and my siblings were worse. Once, he called my brother nothing but a list of burger condiments, and—Azul, stop laughing—and the worst part of it all was, well, no matter what he decided to pull out of the hat, and there were five of us, we ALWAYS knew exactly who he was talking to because the flavor of ridiculous changed for each kid.”

The clam loosened a little.

“Yay,” Yuu said blandly, hiding her now very warm face in his neck. “Your turn, mastermind.”

“I….erm,” Azul floundered casting around for something suitable. The clam shuddered threateningly. “I once lost a bet and had to perform a love song live in the lounge. Written, and performed by Floyd. The best of the rhymes paired ‘enchanting eyes’ with ‘side of fries,’ and compared the target's arms to 'warm yams.' It was a disaster. Floyd brings it up weekly.”

“Can you do another?” Yuu asked from the crook of his neck. “I’m having a hard time remembering—ah—topping that one.”

“I once—ah—in middle school, a mermaid once confessed to me on a dare.”

“That’s not that bad,” Yuu argued.

“I blew a massive cloud of ink at her and swam away. She had my residue in her hair for a solid week.”

“Ooooh, that is good,” she mumbled, tapping on a lock of his trapped hair thoughtfully. “Your hair is always perfect.”

“You think my hair is perfect?” he stuttered.

He got the feeling she was glad her face was hidden, but he felt her heat up all the same.

“It’s also white. Have you ever had to get ink out?”

“Toothpaste,” he said by way of explanation. “Which, I unfortunately did not have the guts to tell the mermaid.”

“A pity. She could have been minty fresh,” she snickered.

“It’s your turn, I believe,” he said grittingly.

“This is… well, buckle up, clam,” she groaned, pulling him a little tighter, like she needed comfort to release this particular secret. Azul would be lying if it didn’t make him curious. “When I first came to Ramshackle, Grim and I hadn’t been able to negotiate for a food allowance yet, and, well… one night we just didn’t have anything, so Grim convinced me to seduce someone for free food.”

Azul went completely still, not even daring to breathe. He dreaded what he was about to hear, and was beginning to feel somewhat murderous toward the headmaster.

“So! I went to a seafood place that Grim had been eying, and the plan was to bat my lashes, sweet talk the waiter, and… well, midway through the dinner, he’d already bought us some sushi, and I thought I was winning until the waiter said I reminded him of his little sister. Utter defeat. Worst flirting day ever. Grim still calls me ‘sis,’ sometimes just to rub it in.”

There was absolute silence. She thought the clam shifted upward slightly, only to reveal enough light to show Azul’s smirking, which he hardly tried to hide.

“My, my. Were you truly so desperate dear Yuu? Tell me, do I also remind you of a brother? I wonder if your execution has improved since then.”

“If I had the room to hit you, Azul, I would,” she mouthed in his ear, sending a shudder down his spine.

“Promises, promises,” he goaded. It worked. The clam shifted open, just a little more.

At this distance—or lack thereof, he could feel Yuu’s heartbeat through his own chest. Yuu actually did better with teasing than she did with remembering the unsavory past. How convenient. They had that in common.

“You are insufferable.”

The clam snapped closed, much tighter than before. Yuu yelped, and Azul only just managed to take a breath before it did.

“Don’t lie….in the clam…” he gasped beside her.

“We are going to die in this clam,” Yuu said miserably, showing the first signs of fear, and he realized that she hadn’t been misunderstanding their situation, she’d actually held out hope… until now. “Azul, you shouldn’t even be here,” she gasped next to him.

But even though she clearly believed what she was saying, he knew that it wasn’t true.

“We’re in this together, Yuu.”

“You didn’t have to be,” she responded miserably.

He let out a short, gasping breath. “What kind of person do you think I am? Those are my teeth in your shoulder, if you recall.”

“That—” she wheezed, “That doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Yes. Yes it does,” he insisted, wondering if it was only his imagination when the clam let him have just an inch—just enough for a real breath. “You made your choices, Yuu. And I made mine. I choose to fix this, because I share the blame.”

“You did nothing but try to keep me from doing anything idiotic at Mal’s wedding,” Yuu argued, apparently with a little more breath in her, herself.

Encouraged, Azul continued.

“Yes, but, I knew what might happen if I touched that dust. You did not. I did have some control, at least at the beginning, and, I suppose, a very, very little at the end.”

“I hate, though, that so much of this wasn’t your choice—that you’ve been killing yourself over it since.”

He scoffed. “I’ve lost more sleep over exams than I have with this predicament. My species also needs far less of it than yours, so put that out of your head. Tell me really, does it sting? Is it keeping you awake at night?”

“It’s not always painful. Actually, it does the opposite sometimes,” she admitted, and he very much wanted to ask what THAT meant, but he let her finish when she said: “But it certainly did keep me awake. It lets me feel what you do…when you’re not being careful. When you’re asleep, I think.”

He paused, thinking. That made sense, even if it opened a new slew of questions he might never get to ask, and obviously, as they weren’t being crushed to death, it was the stone cold truth.

“It was also not your choice. It’s not like I warned you what it was, or what was about to happen.”

She gave a bitter laugh against his neck. “Don’t. Don’t, Azul. In a technical sense, you did exactly what I asked. I was just too… uninhibited to act the way you deserved.”

“Funny, I feel the same way.”

“It wasn’t all, erm, what’s the word for it?” she asked, a little shy.

“Overdone? The worst of timing? Coerced?”

“Those all work,” she said, still a bit breathless. “You know, I’d really rather not die in a clam… I’d rather have a chance to try… something normal, maybe, if we can keep this mark from killing me—and by normal!” she squeaked, catching herself, “I mean of course that I’m sure you want to move on with studies and forget this happened. I’ve probably set you back so far. I’ve—”

Azul shoved a hand through the fleshy part of the clam, reaching for her, until his fingertips found her face, pressed sideways close to his own.

“We’ll see what you say when the venom isn’t prodding your thoughts, hm?”

He said it, as though there would be a chance to do so, as if he didn’t already know they would eventually suffocate right here.

“Not everything was coerced, if you remember,” she responded, far more calmly than she should.

She angled her head up, cushioned on the warm pillowed surface above and below them. If this was his end, Azul supposed, then perhaps he could allow her this. Perhaps now, it might not be entirely selfish…

He pulled his head down toward hers, closing his eyes into the scent of her breath—now, familiar and warm. His upper lip might have brushed something on her face, when with another clunking, spitting SNAP!!! the clam spilled them both, tumbling and rolling back onto the sand.