With Lungs Like Gills (Merman!Brothers x Reader)

Chapter 3

My fingers tapped furiously across the keyboard as a foreigner chattered my ear away through the phone handset, the blocky receiver shoved between the right side of my face and shoulder. I could understand English very well, and was employed to help be a translator if a Western tourist group came through the office. With a short and clear 'thank you for hiring us' before hanging up the phone, I stretched my arms above my head after I put the receiver back on its dock, reaching back down to finish filling out the digital paperwork of the diving tour that the woman had scheduled for in two months.

Glancing up at the clock to see the minute hand tick over my scheduled clock out time, I sent the reservation to the main business calendar and logged off the computer, punching out quickly and grabbing my swim gear bag from my tiny locker. The swimming fins were always kept in a neat rack within the employee locker room, and I made sure to grab my own pair before leaving the office and saying farewell to my coworkers and boss.

"Oh, hey (l/n). Are you going for a swim?" A masculine voice called out in the lobby as I walked through. I turned and kept a smile on my face as I locked eyes with Genki Iemon, a man that has been starting to get on my nerves recently. There wasn't anything wrong with what he was doing, but his overly friendly comments and gestures were starting to lean towards the 'I like you but I'm a nice guy, so I won't say it' kind of attitude.

"Ah, yeah, Genki," I respectfully answered with his surname, despite multiple attempts to get me to say his first name, "I was hoping to catch up with the high tide before some of the schools leave the closer reefs."

"That's nice. Have you seen any new species?" Genki followed me out the front door, lowering his sunglasses from his head to his face, completely covering the toxic green color they had.

"Not recently," I was honest, and angled my hand over my eyes to create a temporary shield from the nearly setting sun, "I have noticed that the coral closer to the shoreline has been started to show signs of bleaching, but hopefully that'll go away by the time the tourist season comes around."

"It usually does," There was a pause in his voice as he reached over and propped a hand in front of the railing I was about to cross, forcing me to stop or run into it, "Listen, (l/n). You don't have to keep going down to the beach to swim. Haven't you heard the rumors of sharks coming in close?"

"Yeah, and they always leave when the water warms up too much for them," I looked back up at Genki's sunglasses, "You don't have to be worried about me."

"I know that, and I know you can take care of yourself. I just want to make sure that you're taking precautions to stay safe," The pretense in his voice completely dropped as he moved in front of me, cutting off my exit down the building ramp, "You don't have to go today."

"Maybe, but I want to," I dropped my hand that was shading my eyes, "I understand your worry, but until we have reported bites on our local beaches, I'm not going to worry about it."

"Can I come with you? Just in case?" He shifted from one side to the other and I saw my opportunity.

"No, thank you," I wiggled my way past him and held onto my gear tightly, "See you tomorrow at work, Genki."

----

I maneuvered around the large rock outcroppings near the tide pools, walking between the towering water-beaten walls and making my way towards my usual dive site; a nearly submerged boulder platform that had been ground down flat by the pounding of the waves and sand, leading to a steep 3-meter drop off. It was an easy entrance with my fins, and no one was really around to take whatever my underwater find was that day. I pinched my nostrils closed with the nose clip and sat down on the edge of the rock, putting my fins on and sliding into the cool water. When the water was up to my shoulders, I put on my goggles and dove completely under, submerging myself with the underwater world.