Blue

It had been three months since Exhibition 3, an aquatic research group, came back with the subject known as 456. A simple series of numbers given to a creature that no one had a name for.

The aquatic creature was kept in an underwater facility in their Atlantic Research Center off the coast of Florida. It was an enclosed glass area built underwater where the researchers could see in from a large window in the lab.

Not that it was much of a lab these days. Not since the scientist known as Blue was brought in to gather what information he could on the creature.

Outside the Atlantic Aquatic Center, Blue is known as one of the best, and it was said he would be the one to bring the AAC their greatest breakthrough.

The hype of Blue being there lasted all of one week, ending when the other scientists learned that Blue had taken over the observation center where they kept the strange creature and had moved all of their equipment out into the hall.

One of the scientists on Project Great Wave, which referred to the group of people who were aware of 456’s existence, had found the equipment in the hall that morning and was now leading the charge as the rest of the scientists also on Project Great Wave stormed down the hall towards the observation center where Blue was holed up in.

“Blue!” Sullivan knocked against the door, disgruntled from being locked out of his own laboratory. “We must speak right now!” He raised his voice but was careful to not yell, god knows he would never let Blue tell him once again to keep his voice down because he was ’interfering with their progress.’

He even spoke like him and the creature were one! Like they were old friends working on a project together!

Well, this was his project, and once Blue admitted he was really accomplishing nothing behind this closed door, it would be his project once again, and it would be a relief for all of them when Blue, the oddity he was, was gone. Hopefully he would go back to bothering their Pacific location.

Sullivan would write the Pacific Aquatic Center himself if it meant getting Blue out of their hair.

“Blue!” He was just a notch from yelling, a group of angry muttering scientists were at his back, and the longer Sullivan went staring at this closed door, the more he was willing to just break it down.

He was just about to knock again when there was a series of small beeps and the metal door slid open.

“Doctor! You’re creating a ruckus,” Blue stood in the doorway, his legs crossed over each other and one arm holding him up against the frame.

His glasses were low to his nose and lowered father when he leaned his head forward, speaking quietly like he was trying to tell Sullivan he was doing something stupid without embarrassing him to his colleagues.

Sullivan pursed his lips, straightening up and running his hands over his white lab coat like just the appearance of Blue had ruffled him.

“I’m not a doctor” He muttered, clearing his throat. He leaned to the side to try and look past Blue into the lab.

“Really?” Blue asked. He tilted his head to obstruct Sullivan's view, grinning easily when he gave Blue a disgruntled look. “Then what was all that stuff I threw in the hall?”

Sullivan inhaled sharply, he had to grit his teeth to keep his voice level, “That stuff was very high grade research equipment. I’m a scientist, Blue, not a doctor. Maybe you ought to come back when you know the difference”

Blue took a step forward, obviously backing Sullivan out of the doorway so the door could close behind them. “Come on Sully, I know the difference. What do you say about lunch?” He moved from the doorway and started walking down the hall, ignoring the muttering crowd of scientists trailing him.

Sullivan made an affronted noise, rushing to keep up with Blue, “Hold on a minute Blue! What was that expensive equipment doing in the hallway? You better have been careful with that!”

Blue turned so he was walking backwards so he could face Sullivan, “Of course I was Doc, I always am. As for your equipment, I’m afraid you’re going to have to keep it somewhere else. It’s distracting to Finn”

Sullivan stopped in his tracks, several people stopping behind him to keep from running into him.

“What are you talking about?” He asked sharply.

Blue held his hands up defensively “Sorry, I mean, 456,” He referred to the creature’s scientific name, he said it in a tone like a child mocking their parent's voice, “It’s distracting” he shrugged.

Sullivan scoffed, blinking dumbly as he asked, “You call the creature Finn?”

Blue snorted like Sullivan had just come up with it himself “It’s pretty good, right? I’m not going to call him creature. You think I’d make any progress like that?”

Sullivan tripped on his words, trying to ignore all the things he wanted to say to instead ask, “And have you? Have you made any progress with the creature?” He leaned forward, pressing the question in both anticipation and the expectation that Blue hadn’t actually done anything at all.

Blue brought a finger up to his face to tap against his cheek thoughtfully, “Well– we came up with his name, and he definitely likes it” He nodded, though Sullivan stared with his mouth popped open in disbelief.

“W-what are you saying?” Sullivan wasn’t sure he even wanted the answer, he was sure what Blue meant by that was exactly what it sounded like, which was nearly nothing.

“You came up with that name. Why, that’s not progress at all!”

Sullivan took a sharp breath, turning suddenly so he could walk the other way down the hall back towards the observation center, “Well! Why don’t I, an actual researcher, take a look at what you’re doing” He ignored whatever smart remark he was sure Blue had as he forcefully typed the passcode into the keypad.

“Uh– wait a moment, Doctor”

Sullivan paid no attention to Blue as the keypad flashed red, his code incorrect.

He risked a glance behind him to the other scientists who were eagerly waiting to see with their own eyes what was behind the door.

He cleared his throat and typed in the code again, slower this time, but he was surprised when the keypad flashed red again.

Blue chuckled lightly, though a little awkwardly, “I’m sorry doc, I actually ended up having to change the passcode. Privacy and all that. But, I promise we’re making some real headway in there.”

Sullivan felt completely embarrassed about having been made a fool of in front of his colleagues. He ran his hands down his coat and cleared his throat, trying for all things to remain as calm as he could in Blue’s presence.

“Well, according to everything I’ve seen, you’ve done nothing but made a mess” He gestured down the hall where their equipment was now cluttering.

He tilted his head up trying to look down his nose at Blue, though it was difficult as Blue was so much taller, “We’ll just see how long this continues” He sniffed indignantly and turned his back, with all the dignity he had he led the charge of scientists back down the hall, leaving Blue outside the Observation Center.

“Man,” Blue sighed when they were gone. He turned back to the door which led inside. He typed in 1111, the new password he set. It was simple enough that he assumed Sullivan would never guess it.

The door slid open and closed after Blue as he walked into the now empty lab. Before, it had been an entire ceramic floor of wires and beeping equipment. It was crowded and bright and noisy, it was really no wonder they hadn’t been making any progress with Finn.

It wasn’t that Blue had been making much progress himself, but he hoped now that the floor was completely empty, just him looking out past the glass into the sea where Finn was, he might feel more inclined to say hello.

The wall to his right, which showed out into the ocean, was less of a ‘window’ as it was described to him before his arrival, but the entire wall was made of glass, looking out into the ocean.

It was obviously strong enough to hold up against the water, but it had kind of freaked him out at first with how ominous it felt.

The glass looked out into the enclosed bit of ocean where Finn was contained. The area was lit up with lights that lined the glass– they would go out later at night to respect whatever need for sleep Finn had– and Blue kept the lights in the observation center out so that only the light from the water lit the room.

It cast a deep blue lighting over the empty room, and it actually helped to settle Blue after being interrupted.

He sat down on the ground, the ceramic was cold and sent a chill down his spine but he leaned back on his hands, bathing in the eerie blue light filling the room like Blue was in the ocean himself.

Blue kept his eyes closed until he was relaxed enough that he wasn’t thinking of anything at all. His mind was clear and he felt close to falling asleep, only then did he take a deep breath and on his sighed exhale, he spoke to the empty room, “They didn’t like your name,” he softly chuckled, still keeping his eyes closed. “I’m not surprised. Stubbornness can never appreciate genius and all that. I think it’s genius, after all…” he trailed off, the ending implied between the two of them.

Blue inhaled again slowly, and on the exhale dared to crack open his eyes.

There was Finn. He was close to the floor, against a rock he laid down on with his arms crossed, his chin propped up against them. He was lying languidly, like he was a scarf draped over the rock, just barely holding himself to keep from drifting away with the current.

Behind him, draped around the side of the rock, was his magnificent shining tail, seeming to glitter like diamonds when it reflected the lights around him. It was several shades of blue, too many to give individual names, the shades seeming to change with every shift of the light.

It moved occasionally, sometimes drifting slightly with the current or with little whips like a cat’s tail.

Iridescent fins– his namesake– flowed down the sides of his tail, so translucent sometimes they just looked like a trick of the light, but when they caught the light they shone like pearlescent gold.

Just like the very first time he saw him, shivers raced down Blue’s spine, little steps running over his spine as his heart felt like he had just fallen over a cliff.

Seeing with his own eyes Finn perched over the rock– he made sure not to blink, not daring to let even the smallest thing disturb this moment.

Finn didn’t move when he saw Blue watching him, he only ever seemed to come out in these moments anyway. He never came out when researchers were gawking and pointing, he made it clear he wasn’t something to gawk at, but, in these moments he was something to be marveled at.

The only movement between the two of them came from Finn, he tilted his head to the right against his arms just slightly so he could part his lips, an air bubble escaping his mouth and traveling up to the surface. He did it twice more then stared at Blue in a way Blue decided said, ‘Cool, right?’

He agreed. The other scientists asked what he was doing all day behind closed doors, and this was the answer. For hours he would just watch Finn. He never did tricks or tried to communicate and Blue wasn’t trying to make him. They would both just be in front of each other, neither doing anything but watching the other, and it felt like enough.

What else were they expecting? This was perfect, it was all he needed it to be. What else could he expect? Finn wasn’t something to be watched like a zoo animal, and just watching him, Blue knew Finn would never do a trick for an audience.

He wouldn’t even show himself in front of Sullivan, somehow always able to disappear from sight in front of anyone else.

Blue was the only one to really see Finn. The crew of Exhibition 3 were the ones to discover him and capture him– which, he wouldn’t lie to himself, was exactly what they did– but only a select few had really seen him, to the rest he was just a ghost story.

No one else knew just how magnificent the details of Finn were because no one had been in this spot, face to face with– what Blue called a merman, though scientists would disagree. Hell, they really called him 456.

“No one who’s seen you would dare to call you something like 456” He spoke aloud, though he kept his voice so quiet he could barely hear it, afraid the disturbance would suddenly make Finn disappear.

Although Finn seemed to have heard him, his tail flicking slightly, a thousand shades of blue exploding from the one movement, and his head tilted again. Blue kept perfectly still as he noticed a beginning of a smile peeking out from behind his arms which he had his face tucked into, though the smile seemed a little more like a smirk.

“You know that, though, don’t you?” He hummed, still speaking so softly it was like he was talking to himself.

Finn’s smirk softened into a sweeter smile and he tilted his head the other direction, almost playfully, before he gave the slightest nod of his head.

It was almost painful how Blue suddenly realized Finn could hear and understand him. The researcher in him almost flinched for a pen to write down his observations, but he shoved that urge, that part of him, far far down, and forced himself to remain still, he didn’t want to give any indication that he was going to do something untrustworthy.

This was more progress in seconds than he expected, but he couldn’t spook Finn and ruin whatever prompted this.

Even from behind the glass, even inside the water, Blue could hear just the whisper of his voice. Hearing= immaculate. He silently noted it in his mind.

“You don’t think that’s a little arrogant?” He asked, tilting his head in a similar manner. He was unable to help himself from asking, hoping for an answer.

Finn didn’t nod or shake his head, but he did slowly blink and flick his eyes up and down Blue in a gesture he read as, ‘Who are you to talk?’

It was as good a response as any, and it sent his heart racing against his chest.

Blue was about to say something– possibly snarky– in response when he noticed Finn’s hands, which were lying still against the rock, begin to move. On his right hand, his pointer finger began to tap against the rock. He tapped in steady movements, one after the other, steadily speeding up.

Blue was immediately thinking about what it meant, what he was trying to say. Was he really trying to communicate? Was it a code? Did he need to bring down some kind of specialist?

Suddenly, he understood. As Finn started tapping twice at a time, like he had just made out the correct pattern, Blue realized he wasn’t saying anything, but mimicking a sound.

The sound of his heartbeat.

He realized as his heart sped up, so did Finn. He seemed to be watching as Blue figured it out, tilting his head like he was asking what it was he was hearing.

Blue slowly brought his own hand up to where his heart was beating hard against his chest.

“It’s my heart” He said.

He tapped against his chest with his hand along with his own heartbeats.

Finn’s finger was still tapping as he watched Blue curiously. He parted his lips and looked like he mouthed the word ‘heart’ repeating what Blue said, though he couldn’t be sure, bubbles came from his mouth and floated above him.

Blue watched in fascination as Finn brought his own hand up to his chest, though he didn’t lift much off the rock so his own arm was tucked close to him, and he smiled suddenly, sharply, if the sudden sharp teeth weren’t a trick of the light, before all the surrounding lights shut off at once as the room Blue was in and the entire expanse of water went dark.

Blues eyes shot up, staring out at the darkness desperately, he scrambled to sit up and he all but ran to the phone on the wall behind him, calling up to the Laboratory the floor above them.

The phone clicked and someone said, “What’s going on?”

“Why did you turn off the lights?” Blue asked fiercely, unbelieving that with so much progress they would just shut them off. He was still here after all.

“Well,” The man said sarcastically, “It’s already late at night, we all got to sleep, creatures included.”

What’s more, Finn smiled like he knew the exact second the lights would go out. It bothered Blue more than he’d admit that the merman had outsmarted him.

“Turn them on!” he demanded.

“Listen, buddy,” There was a rustling over the phone followed by a crunch like someone was eating something, “It’s time to go, we all can’t work around your schedule, Blue.” Great, so they knew he was down here, they just didn’t care.

They didn’t care, because they couldn’t ever imagine the wonder of seeing Finn. They couldn’t care because they’ve never seen what keeps him down here– but that’s Finn’s fault.

He growled into the receiver in frustration and slammed the phone into the wall.

He could only see outlines in the dark now, but he spoke into the darkness. “Goodnight, Finn” There was no response, but Blue still huffed out an incredulous laugh as he left.