Chapter Text
Techno knew the moment he got his child in the water, really in the water, fins and all, that fatherhood was going to be the toughest thing he’s ever had to do. Ranboo, like all young mer’s, was horrible at swimming. It’s hard going from two legs to a tail. Yet for some reason Ranboo sucks even more at it then any other mer child he’s seen.
“Don’t drift too far.” Techno clicks, watching as Ranboo tries to right himself in the water. Arms sprawled out like he was going to catch himself. It just causes him to start flipping over in the water.
It’s been three months of this and Techno’s starting to wonder if he just sucks at being a teacher.
“Help.” Ranboo warbles, eyes wide as he starts to get a little too far. His voice was still rough, vocal cords slowly getting used to using different sounds for communication. It’ll start to sound more confident in the next coming months, that he knows.
Techno eyes the ocean around them for predators. They were stationed at a coral reef. The perfect teaching grounds for young mer. Though Ranboo was a little big for the area, being fifteen and all. Still, Techno didn’t trust his child out in the depths yet. The shallows were the only real place Ranboo could be as of right now.
Slowly swimming over to the other Techno turns him so he isn’t facing the surface. Ranboo tucks himself underneath him instinctively. Techno huffs, moving away slightly. He needs to learn to better maneuver in the water—
“Dad.” Ranboo trills, frowning. He holds onto Techno’s arms, dull claws scratching at his upper arm. Techno sighs, moving his hand to rest against Ranboo’s stomach, pushing him closer to his chest.
Lessons over, then.
Techno swims over to his nesting sight. It was a large patch of seaweed in a divet between some rocks. It’s a sad excuse for a bed, he knows, but it’s all he’s got. He drops Ranboo into it, who curls in on himself. “Stay.” Techno orders, eyes narrowed on the teen. He makes the sign for food, so he understands where he’s going off to. Ranboo looks up at him, nods, then curls back in on himself.
Sighing, Techno runs his claws down Ranboo’s arm before swimming off away from the reef. There’s nothing nearby that could feed the both of them, so he’s forced to travel far outside the reef to hunt something worth his time and energy. High in nutrition, preferably.
He doesn’t want to talk bad about his son's appearance or body, but Ranboo’s in no way fit to survive in the ocean the way he is now. He doesn’t need to be big and muscled, not when he’s built with his mothers slim figure. But he needs to lose some of the human fat that clings to him still.
Humans have a habit of eating things that are slowly killing them. Chips, pop, chocolate. Ranboo’s guardians were probably no different. Techno doesn’t hold any negativity towards them, but he’ll feel a lot better when Ranboo starts to gain at least a little bit of muscle. He needs Ranboo to learn how to swim away from an orca, is what he’s saying.
Those bastards would fling his son twenty feet in the air for fun. He doesn’t like the odds of Ranboo surviving that, the way he is now. Once outside the reef, Techno spots something swimming deeper in the water. He grins, slowly creeping down towards it.
Ranboo misses the way things were, sometimes. Knowing what day of the week it was, sleeping in well into the afternoon, shoving his face full of popcorn while watching late night movies with his parents. Walking across the shoreline, sand between his toes as he breathes in the salty ocean air. Now he just breathes salty ocean water.
He can’t really say he prefers it though. Not after Techno’s taken him in. The ocean feels welcoming, homey in the way the land never could be. Nostalgia clung to the land, hope to the sea. They both have their ups and downs. He’s even getting better at swimming with a tail! Even if Techno’s always making faces when he seems to twist himself in a pile of seaweed.
The only thing he wished could be easier was understanding Techno. His dad is always signing to him, expressive hand movements Ranboo’s slowly learning to understand. Talking doesn’t work the same down in the water. Instead of words, they make clicking sounds in the back of their throat. Like dolphins and whales. Accompanying them are hand movements.
It wasn’t like ASL back on land. It’s a whole new thing. A mer sign language. MSL. Or WSL? For water sign language? Either way it’s something Techno’s always doing. He’s picked up the main ones. Like food, stay close, danger, go to sleep before I whack you with my tail. The more complicated ones are harder to understand, usually followed up by a vocalization to drill it in.
Ranboo still can’t tell the difference between ‘come here’ and ‘stop bothering me’. Which quickly leads him to either being cuddled by his mer dad, or put into ‘time out’ while Techno swims off to collect himself.
He still remembers the first time he got the two mixed up. Techno looked about ready to pull out his hair as he shoves Ranboo into the nest before he darted off. It hurt a lot, but Ranboo could understand it. Males rarely take care of their young, only doing so if it’s a matter of life or death. Add the fact Ranboo’s yet to meet his mer mom, he can guess it’s just Techno. Who doesn’t really possess the same nursing instincts female mers do.
Which leads to Techno Getting overwhelmed with needing to care for him so closely. Which means that sometimes, Techno has to distance himself. Ranboo’s smart enough to allow the man that. He’d be pulling out his hair if he had to watch him try not to drift too far for the past two hours, only to be turned belly side up in the water.
A sharp whistle has Ranboo looking up, eyes catching onto Techno as he swims back from his hunt. A large fish was held in his mouth. Ranboo doesn’t know what it is, he was never good at identifying fish like the teens whose parents were sailors. Techno rips the fish in half, offering up the head to Ranboo.
Ranboo grimaces as he stares at the fish's dead eyes. Techno settles in the nest next to him as he tears into his own food. He sets the head down, resting his own in his arms. He hates getting the fish head, but there wasn’t really a concrete way to say that. The first time Ranboo turned down food from Techno, the man looked like he’d been stabbed in the heart.
He goes to take a bite of his meal, despite it’s dead eyed stare, when a familiar sound vibrates through him. It’s weird, the way sounds now have a physical feeling as it travels through the water. He looks up, eyes trained to the sky.
Techno doesn’t have the same nonchalant curiosity as he shoves Ranboo’s head into the seaweed nest. His dorsal fin flares as the spikes along his tail stand on end, claws out. “Stay.” Techno clicks out as he swims towards the noise. Ranboo frowns, shifting further into the nest. Okay, boats are bad now he guesses. Good to know.
The boat doesn’t come into the reef, stuttering to a stop right at the edge. Techno stays ready to swim out of here, his gaze flicking from where the boat is to his son hidden away among the rocks. Ranboo may not understand the danger yet, but he does.
Not all humans are nice to mer’s. Especially young mers who still think they're human. There’s illegal fishing, hunting and pollution. It takes one bad human to rip the fins off his son. Techno wasn’t going to allow that to happen. He stays low in the water, twisting around coral and rocks as he stares at the boat in the distance.
It’s big, but not a cruise ship. Definitely privately owned. It had things attached to the bottom. Sonar and underwater mic’s. It’s a research boat. Techno lets his spikes fall relaxed against his tail as he cocks his head to the side. The boat isn’t familiar, but there was only one human organization that operated in these waters.
Techno swims up, head poking out of the water as he tries to spot the humans atop the ship. It’s easy when he knows who exactly he’s looking for.
“All I’m saying is, I think it would be beneficial if I get to swim in the reef.” A mop of blonde curly hair comes into view, electric blue eyes wading over the water until they land on him. “Tech—“
“I’m not having you swim in an endangered coral reef, Tommy.” Phil calls from somewhere out of sight. Sounding exhausted with his son. Techno would too, if Tommy was his own. “You can set of monitors around it with me if you want too—“
“Techno’s here!” Tommy yells, barreling over his father as he drops whatever equipment he was holding. He rushes to the edge of the boat, almost throwing himself off of it as he leans over the rails. A giant smile makes its way to the teens face. Techno rolls his eyes as he drifts so he was relaxing atop the water, dorsal fin flat against his back.
Phil comes into view shortly after. “Hey Techno!” Phil greets. He’s in his wetsuit, hair tied back into a messy bun. Before long Niki and Sam were also leaning against the railings.
“Hellu.” Techno huffs, trying not to smile as he wades around in the water.
“Where have you been!?” Tommy yells, cheeks puffing out as he crosses his arms over his chest. “You’ve been off radar for five months now!”
“You have missed a couple check ups at the rehabilitation centre.” Niki voices, standing right of Phil and Tommy.
“At the reef?” Techno answers, gesturing around them.
Phil snorts, shaking his head. “We were worried mate. You never came in so we could switch out your tracker. It died and we had no idea where you had gone.” Phil says. Techno tries not to feel guilty about the four looks that were directed at him. As much as Techno was wary of humans, he couldn’t let go of his connection to them.
As much as he sometimes wished to believe he was always this way, there was a time in his life where he had a set of legs. When Techno was known as the weird kid who always spent his time at the mer rehabilitation centre with his friend, Phil. The kid who knew nothing but the water. Despite his very human genes.
Phil was the only person he trusted to know he wasn’t of the land. The only person he trusted to see the closed gills along his sides. Phil was there when he changed in the water, a couple of middle schoolers trying to surf. They had gotten too far from shore, a storm rolling in.
Techno didn’t want to change, being eleven, he still had more time to be human. To stay with Phil. To kick rocks and throw textbooks at the school bullies. But the storm had overtaken them and capsized the both of them. Phil had gotten his foot stuck underneath the water. Techno couldn’t hold his breath long enough to help him.
So he just stopped holding his breath and started breathing.
He ended up helping Phil to shore, fins floundering in the water like he were a newborn deer. Being too young to ever survive in the ocean on his own, Phil called the people who worked at the mer rehabilitation centre. They made a deal with his then human parents. Techno stays at the centre until he’s old enough to go off on his own. So, even though Techno sometimes hates the idea of being human, he was still connected to the people he knew when he was one.
Which is why he’s confident enough to turn his back on them. “You guys worry too much.” Techno huffs. Real worry warts, they were. Like he hadn’t spent the majority of his life in the ocean by now.
“I think we’re allowed to when you’ve never missed checkups and tracker changes in the past.” Sam says, looking at him like he was some math equipment. Thank god they didn’t have any of those out here. He hates math. “Did something happen?” He asks, voice kinder then it should be.
The other three seem to get where Sam is headed, their smiles slipping off their faces. “If you're hurt, you can tell me.” Phil says, leaning closer. “You and I both know being injured out here is a death sentence—“
“I have a child!” Techno yells, splashing water at the man. Phil shouldn’t look like that. All worried and annoying like. It’s almost as bad as when Tommy gets all upset when he has to leave the centre.
The silence is heavy in the air. Not that it lasts very long. “You have a child!?” Tommy screams, eyes wide. “Since when!? Where did you leave them? I swear to God Techno if you left your baby with a drunk—“
“You should have gotten me!” Phil, just like his son. Or maybe Tommy is just like his dad? “You know the centre could have cared for them. How long ago did you leave them on land?” He asks.
Techno stares at them, then snorts. “Fifteen years ago?” He wishes he had a phone to take a picture of the reactions he gets.
“Techno.” Niki says, mouth held wide open in shock. “You're joking, right? You're thirty two.” She points out.
“I’m not here to get shamed for having a kid at seventeen.” Techno frowns, dipping slightly below the water. “I feel like I’m being shamed.”
Tommy nods, pointing at him. “You are—“
“You never told me.” Phil voices, cutting his son off.
“Never asked.” Techno shrugs. The guilt of it dies sting, but it wasn’t fully his choice. His instincts wouldn’t allow him to say anything. It’s like a jinx. You tell someone you have a kid on land somewhere, something happens and you never find them again. Techno isn’t superstitious but he wouldn’t risk Ranboo like that. Not even to his best friend. “Want to meet him?” He questions.
“Yes!” Tommy yells. Because he doesn’t know any other volume than loud.
“He’s here?” Sam questions, looking down at the water.
Phil and Niki don’t say anything, but he can tell they want to ask some questions. Probably pertaining to the fact Techno’s even with his son at all and not his mother. Instead of saying anything, Techno dives back into the water. He swims back into the reef, then over to his nesting spot.
A rock is shoved into his face before he could whistle out that he’s here. Techno huffs, shoving the rock out of his face. Ranboo’s sitting there with wide eyes, holding said rock. Did he really try to protect himself with a rock? When he has perfectly good claws and teeth? Techno would be less insulted if Ranboo bit him.
“Come.” Techno clicks, pulling on his son's arm. Ranboo lets himself be guided underneath him, Techno holding the kid close as he starts to swim back towards the boat. He can tell when Ranboo sees it, the kid clicking a few confused sounds as they swim up. Techno rubs his thumb along his son’s sternum, trying to keep him calm as they breach the water's surface.
Techno holds Ranboo close to his chest, directing the kid towards his friends. Ranboo blinks, rubbing the water out of his eyes as he retracts his second set of eyelids. Thankfully Niki, Sam, Phil and Tommy don’t immediately start bombarding them. Giving Ranboo time to adjust to being above water.
Once Ranboo seems to be adjusted, he looks around. Eyes quickly landing on the four onlookers. “Hey mate.” Phil greets, voice calm. Ranboo shrinks a bit into the water. Ear fins flatten against his head as he warbles. Ah, his son has social anxiety. The one thing Tehcno hoped to not pass on. Great.
“These are my friends. Niki, Phil and Sam.” Techno says, pointing them out. Then, because he has too, says, “Tommy kinda just shows up, he’s Phil’s kid. I’m pretty sure he found him in a dumpster.”
Ranboo laughs as Tommy grumbles, flipping him off. “Fuck you Techno! You can’t just introduce me to your kid like that!”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Niki says, waving. Sam does the same.
Ranboo looks up at him, as if asking if they were really safe. At least his instincts were age appropriate. He doesn’t know what he’d do if Ranboo didn’t look to him for safety. Techno whistles at him. “Uh…hi.” Ranboo greets back, looking up at them. “I’m uh…Ranboo. Ranboo Beloved.”
“Ranboo Blade.” Techno corects. He clicks harshly at the other to get him to remember.
Ranboo frowns, nodding. “Ranboo Blade.” He amends.
“How long have you been in the water, Ranboo?” Phil asks kindly. He could probably tell the kid was new to the ocean.
“Three months, I think. It’s hard to tell time out here.” Ranboo says, shrugging.
“So this is what you’ve been up to.” Sam voices, looking over at him. Finally understanding why he hasn’t come by.
“How do you know each other?” Ranboo asks, the question more directed at him.
Techno opens his mouth to answer, but Tommy beats him to it. “Dad and Techno are childhood friends. Techno helps out at the mer research and rehabilitation centre off the coats.” Tommy explains.
Ranboo looks from them to him, eyes slightly wide. “You said to never go near humans.” He points out.
“I did.” Techno agrees. “I never said I had to stay away from them.” Ranboo huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ranboo turns to them, a thought seeming to cross his mind as he gestures to them. “Why do you all sound British?” He asks.
Niki looks from Phil, to Tommy, to Sam and then to him. “We’re in Europe?” She says, sounding a bit confused.
Ranboo blinks, fins flaring out. “You took me to Europe!?” Ranboo yells, looking at him.
Techno swims a bit away, leaving Ranboo to keep himself adrift. The kid glares at him for it, but he doesn’t care. How else is he going to learn? “Where did you think we were swimming too from morning to night?” He asks.
Ranboo pauses, then frowns. “I don’t know!”
“Where do you come from?” Tommy asks.
“America!” Ranboo answers, looking around like the water would tell him where they were.
It wasn’t uncommon for mers to travel far to leave their kids in specific places. Sometimes mer leave their kids in their hometowns, sometimes they leave them where their friends have moved too or adopted family is. Techno didn’t have a choice in the matter. If he did, he would have left Ranboo in his hometown. But his mate wanted to leave him in her own hometown, which so happened to be in America. So that’s where Ranboo grew up.
“If you guys want, we could head back to the centre after we're done setting up some monitors?” Phil says, looking over at him. “We can switch out your tracker and even give one to Ranboo.”
“I’ll think about it.” Techno replies, watching as Ranboo ends up accidentally flipping himself face first in the water. “…Actually I think that’s a good idea.” He amends, eyes narrowed on his son as his tail flicks wildly in the water.