The commanders and Whitebeard were sitting in their meeting room, planning to discuss the recent events that happened during the storm. They had already covered the reaction time of the crew and the, luckily only minor, injures that occurred. Right now they were estimating the extent of the damages to the ship, which repairs have priority, which ones can wait,...
However, their discussion was interrupted by the ringing of the den den mushi of the meeting room. The den den wasn't often used, but it was very convenient to have. Even while in a meeting, the commanders and captain could be contacted if needed, of course this should only be used if whatever was wrong, can't wait to be fixed until the meeting is done.
Most often it was used by specific divisions like the infirmary, after a battle they would call in the number of wounds/casualties. The commanders and everyone could then take it into account during the rest of the meeting. This was also what happened right now, only the call was not about their own crew, but about their unexpected catch.
On the mention of the boy, Marco's mind wandered to the events happening a bit earlier, but he was quickly snapped out of his thoughts by Bay's voice.
"-'s still unconscious and is hurt pretty badly, but he'll live." Bay answered in a serious voice, the woman never let personal emotions get in the way when reporting things like this, no matter how severe the situation.
"That's good news already, daughter. Could you tell us about his current state and recovery?"
"While never having had the chance the operate on a merman before, I am under the impression that most of his wounds will completely heal. He shouldn't have any lasting damage, besides maybe some scaring, though I don't know how this would translate on the lost scales, if they grow back or not."
The commanders let out a collective breath of relieve, glad that the boy would be okay even if it was with scarring.
"Now, while he should recover, it will take some time before he will be fully recovered. And Since he has some pretty nasty wounds on his tail, I do think we should keep him on the ship. He can't go back in the ocean like this. I would want for him to be kept in the infirmary for now. Nex-"
"If I may?" Namur interrupted Bay
"..." the den den stayed silent so Namur decided to do his say.
"I do agree that he cannot go back into the ocean for now, he would attract predators to himself because of the blood. And with the wounds that you described, it would be impossible for him to outswim any danger and catch food. BUT, for fishman, seawater helps to speed up the recovery of their more fish-like body parts. So even if it is not safe in the sea, I would suggest we find some way to still submerge his tail in water at some points during the day. Depending on how long his recovery is, which will probably be awhile, it is also important that he keeps his tail moving to keep all the muscles active.... Ow and about the scales, on most species they grow back, though it does take time."
"Alright, thank you very much Namur. Would you be willing to have a talk with me after this, we could discus some results and I would like to see what else you know about him, to be able to properly treat him?"
"I'll come to your office after the meaning."
"Thank you. Now lastly, there's one more wound that concerns me."
"Headwound-yoi."
"Ah so you saw, yes, on the left side of his head, he has a pretty deep cut. There was some debris in there, so my best guess is that while trapped in the net, the merman got hit in the head by a stone, which also caused him to be knocked out."
Many winced during the explanation, besides all the tail wounds, that gotte have hurt.
"Just like the tail, I have stitched it close. We also did a scan of his head and the internal damage seems minimal, maybe a light concussion, but we'll only know for sure once he wakes up. On that note, it seems like the merman is starting to show signs of waking up so I have to go, but I've mentioned about everything I had to say, so I'll be taking my leave if you don't mind."
Pops thanked Bay before putting down the Den den mushi. "Let's finish this meeting up shall we."
---------
Not even 15 minutes later they finished up the meeting, they had luckily already discussed most before the call. Marco decided to check up on the merman, Bay had said the kid was waking up. Namur would also join in a little while, having asked Marco to tell Bay he would first go to his room for a moment, having a book of fishman anatomy somewhere. It wasn't specialized on merman, them not being very social creatures, plus with them not living with them, caused a lack of research, but it may have some useful info either way.
During his walk, he thought back to the moment he found the merman.
-----------------
Flashback
Starting to remove some stones from the guy's legs.... or ......... the place where there were supposed to be legs... Marco was slightly stumped because those were certainly not legs. Instead, greeting Marco's eyes were bright orange scales.
"... a merman...."
Shaking his head, he quickly discarded the thought and went back to removing the debris. That wasn't important now, what was important was getting this person free and into the infirmary.
The torso was already not a pretty sight, covered in scratches, some deeper than others, and lots of dark bruises. He however grimaced the more and more of the tail was revealed. While at the waistline he could see the bright orange scales, further down you couldn't even recognise a colour besides red. With every stone removed another big gash seemed to appear, but what really made him gasp was something at the side of the tail, almost at the bottom. A big piece of coral was sticking out of it, you could literally see the tail bulging where the piece entered, making it obvious the piece was embedded, and fairly deeply at that too. He went to reach for it when Bay yelled for him and pushed him aside.
"DON'T TOUCH IT! Removing it could make him bleed out in seconds!"
"Thank you, commander, for getting him out so quickly, we'll be taking over now." Another nurse said to him kindly but with an urgency in her voice, before she went to kneel next to Bay and tended to the merman.
The team worked very efficient, binding off the tail right over the huge wound, wrapping the worst of gashes, while other were readying the stretcher. Together the team carefully but fast, rolled the merman onto the stretcher, making sure to not aggravate any wounds. Quickly patching some wounds on the chest before they were running back towards the infirmary.
Marco prayed that the merman would be okay, he looked so young. He seemed to be in a bad condition, wounds filled with pieces of stone and dirt, covered in his own blood. But he knows Bay and her team would do everything they could to keep him alive, he could only wait and hope for the best.
In the background he could hear others discussing what could have happened, one of the conversations standing out in particular and reaching his ears, even while focused on the retreating form of the kid.
"-ven for sea creatures storms like this can generate a lot of hard currents to conquer, the thing must have been pushed in the trawl and was then unable to get out thanks to those same currents and the amount of debris getting pushed around."
"But why is he so wounded, you think he was attacked?"
"Yea, attacked by stones that is. I've seen it before, in my old fishing days, we were also forced to leave the nets out due to a sudden storm. A big shark had become trapped in it, we felt it pull on the ship, but we couldn't help, not without leaving our post and getting the ship in even more danger.
At one point it stopped so we thought it had escaped, but when we hauled the nets up, it was still there. Totally beaten up, pieces of coral and rocks the size of my fists stuck in it in several places. Poor thing didn't stand a chance, even with it being the biggest predator in the area."
"Ow man, and -"
Flashback end
-------------------
A crashing sound brought Marco's attention back to reality. -That came from the infirmary!-
Within seconds Marco was inside looking for the cause. What he saw however what not what he expected.
The merman was curled up in a corner, hissing at a not so far off Bay. And while the merman was trembling, seeming to be afraid, he was showing a lot of teeth and had sharp looking claws ready to attack anyone that came close.
Carefully Marco took a few steps forward and made his presence knows "What happened-yoi?
"I scared him." was the simple reply.
"How-yoi, I thought he had already been awake for a while"?
"I said there were 'signs of him waking up', not that he was up."
"Alright alright, please forgive my insolence. So, why is he hissing at you like you tried to give a cat a bath?"
"Har har Marco." With a sigh Bay explained what happened. She had apparently been trying to get a blood sample from the merman. But of course, that was also the exact moment the merman decided to wake up. Thus, in his eyes he had woken up in an unknown environment, to some strange womans trying to stab him in the arm. Or that's what Bay thinks is the reason the merman is now scared of her.
During the explanation Marco had been inspecting the merman, he seemed to not only be hissing at Bay, but also any movement from her team behind her. Raising a brow, he turned to Bay once her explanation was over, "He doesn't seem to be hissing at me though.... Why is he scared of you and your team, you're the only one who tried to 'stab him', right?"
Sighing Bay brought a hand to her eyes, "Yes, but I think he noticed that we're 'together', maybe it's the uniforms or just because they were here to back me up when he fought his way to the corner, but yes, he doesn't let me, or anyone of my team close. And with those teeth and nails, I am not risking forcefully grabbing him. Do you think you could grab him, you know, you can heal and all so it doesn't matter if he scratches you?"
"I thought you said I wasn't allowed to use my powers outside of battle-yoi? Or you were going to, what was it again, 'pull out my feathers, roast me in my own flames, and serve me like Christmas turkey'?" He said smugly with an eyebrow raised up.
"You.... fine, you can play around outside of battle too. Just please get him back in bed, or at least calm him down somehow, he needs to rest."
With one victory in his pocket, Marco turned to the merman, thinking of how to approach this. A small puddle of blood was already forming under the merman's tail, so he had to be careful to not scare the merman more and aggravate the wounds.
The first thing he did was send Bay and her team outside, their presence wouldn't help right now seeing how the merman reacted to them. The moment they were gone he could see the merman already became a lot less tense and had stopped hissing, even retracting his nails a bit. - huh, neat, didn't know they could do that-
He tried taking a small step forward, but the mer immediately tensed up again, though not as much as before. Slowly crouching down to the merman's eye level Marco spoke softly, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
"Hello-yoi, are you okay?"
"...."
"Don't you want to sit on a bed instead of the hard floor?"
"..."
"You're on the Moby Dick, our ship-yoi. I am Marco, first division commander. I'm sorry about Bay, she didn't mean to hurt you, she wanted to take a sample from your blood, to see if you're healthy."
"..."
The merman only looked at him suspicious and confused. -... Does he even understand me? ... Only one universal thing that could do the trick if not- Marco got up and went outside for a few second, upon his return he held some apples. -Thatch will forgive him for raiding the storage unit, he hoped, it is for good cause after all.-
Passing by the sink he also grabbed a cup from the infirmary, filled it, and went to the merman.
The merman's face brought a small smile to Marco's face, the boy seemed more curious about the items, especially the bright red apples then of him.
Slowly he went back into a crouching position, placing an apple and the cup on the floor, before carefully pushing them towards the merman, after that he backed up a bit.
The merman was studying the items very thoroughly. After a while he looked up at Marco with a confused expression.
-He doesn't know what it is?-
Reaching for another apple he had with him, sue him for getting one for himself too, he showed the apple to the merman.
Once he saw he had his attention he pointed to the apple before pointing to himself. "Apple, you can eat it, it's food" he said slowly before bringing the apple to his lips and taking a bite.
There was a glint of recognition in the merman's eyes before he was looking between Marco eating his apple, and the food in front of him.
After a while the merman slowly inched forward, cautiously reaching for the apple while looking directly at Marco. Marco just kindly smiled back, and before he could blink a hand had snatched the apple and the merman was back in his corner.
The mer stared at the apple, smelling it, turning it around in all possible direction, before carefully taking a bite.
The moment the merman bit into it was also the moment his eyes seemed to come alive, sitting up straight and looking to Marco with wide eyes, he viciously devoured the apple. -poor apple didn't stand a chance-
By now Marco had already finished his apple and had gone to get himself a cup of water. When he sat down he saw that he had the merman's attention again, just like before he showed what to do. Carefully putting the cup of water at his lips before tilting it over and taking a sip.
The merman, this time more eager, reached forward and grabbed the cup before mimicking Marco.
There was a bit of surprise on the merman's face before he ........ splashed the drink on his tail. -Well... I guess that's also an option-
Getting up Marco went over to the sink once more and took a... he doesn't know all the fancy equipment names, some bigger type of cup with measurements on it, he didn't know what it was used for, but he knew everything was always sanitized and it was close to the sink, so it must be safe to use. He filled it up with water and brought it over to the merman. This time the merman reached out for the cup before Marco could even put it down, so he carefully handed it over.
The merman repeated the same actions as before, taking a small sip himself before splashing it over his tail. -Really need to inform Bay of this, it seems Namur was right about the water-
Now that each had finished an apples and a glass of water, they were just staring at each other. Marco not immediately knowing what to do now, he kind of had the merman's trust, he thinks.... but if he were to suddenly try and pick him up, he was sure the merman would try to get out and bite him. He could heal and all, but that didn't mean he liked to get bitten thank you very much.
Also, the merman still hadn't said a word himself.
Inspecting the merman, he noticed that he was looking past him, to what was he looking? –aah, there's more apples- Laughing inwardly he reached behind to grab some, ready to give them to the merman.
When he turned around, he was suddenly face to face with the boy. Marco didn't dare move, not wanting to scare him, even though he had come closer of his own.
They sat in silence while the merman seemed to be inspecting his every knock and cranny, already smelling him in different places, poking him, slightly pulling on his hair, which the merman had immediately stopped when Marco had given a hiss at a hard pull.
After a bit tough, Marco remembered the apples and took the risk to bring it forward, holding it up at the merman's chest hight.
It got the merman's attention and he immediately went to grab it, before suddenly stopping and looking between the apple and Marco. He pointed to it before pointing to Marco and then to himself with a tilt of the head. -Cute... No, Marco, not the time, later-
Marco just brought the apple closer to the merman's hand, and pointed to the merman himself "for you."
The merman got the brightest smile he had ever seen, he grabbed the apple and happily ate it, a bit slower this time though but still messily enough so the kid was covered in juice and apple bits, he was going to be sticky later. Marco followed a trail of apple juice dribbling over those well define- -NO Marco, damnit, get your sh*t together, you're not a teenager swooning over the first handsome boy you see-
In his internal struggle he failed to realise that the merman had stopped eating, and was now moving himself forward, grabbing onto Marco's shoulders and pulling himself straight into his lap.
"Wha-"
The merman was making some kind of clicking noise and was rubbing his cheek over Marco's own, essentially nuzzling into his face. He didn't know what the clicking meant, but in combination with the rubs, well, he could guess that it was a sign of being happy... or something.
Feeling his face heating up a bit Marco patted the merman on his head "ehm... no problem-yoi. I am glad you liked the food."
The merman remained sitting in his lap while happily finishing the remaining apples. After a while the mer had fallen asleep in his lap. It was normal, he was still recovering. -Well, this solves the question of how to get him back into bed.- Marco picked the sleeping kid up and carried him to the bed before he called Bay and her team back in. Marco had made sure to be there when the Merman was waking up, not wanting to risk another scare.
---------
A few days later Marco was sitting next to the merman with some food. Luckily after the scare a few days ago, Marco was able to somehow explain, or better, show the merman that the nurses didn't mean any harm and hadn't meant to hurt him. He was still a little bit warry, but didn't pull away or hiss at them anymore. He was, for some reason, reasonably comfortable with Marco close by. -Maybe because he was the one who has given him food?-
While slowly munching on his share of food, he inspected the eating merman. He hadn't said a word to them yet, but he could see that the merman was always watching those that were speaking, even if it wasn't to him.
And if Bay had said something about pulling blood, which the merman now knew wasn't to hurt him, he would lift his arm before he even saw the syringe. So, even though he doesn't speak, he must understand them, right?
After they finished their lunch he would ask, or try to ask, maybe he could even figure out his name, they couldn't just keep calling him 'the merman' or 'boy'.
A little while later Marco saw the merman passing his plate to him, taking it he put it to the side before turning to back to him, the boy's attention was immediately on him, normally Marco would now leave to bring the dishes to the kitchen, so him staying was new.
"You can understand me, right?"
"..."
"You don't have to speak-yoi and I won't force you either, but could you nod, like I am doing right now, if you know what I am saying?"
Receiving a slow nod from the merman in return, Marco smiled at him. "that's nice, that makes this all a lot easier."
Sitting up straight he turned his full attention to the merman. "Do you have a name?"
He received a tilt of the head from the merman in return, -did he not understand...? I thought he just said he di- aaah maybe he doesn't know what I mean-
Pointing to himself Marco said "Marco-yoi, my name is Marco."
Moving his hand, "The lady working with your blood, her name is Bay. The lady standing a bit further, at the cabinet, is Tate. Her name is Tate."
Now holding his hands towards the merman "and yours-yoi? Name? What is your Name?"
The merman looked over a few times to the different people Marco pointed out and then pointed to himself with a still slight confused expression.
"Yes yoi, your name. How do you call yourself?"
After a moment of silence the merman opened his mouth "... A-A... A"
Marco looked on hopefully, he just realised he hadn't actually asked if he could speak... Just if he could understand them. This however gave him some hope that he could do that too. The merman however didn't look very impressed with himself, seeming to not get the word out.
After a few tries the merman gave a deep sigh and lifted his hands to put them over the base of his neck. -Why would he do th--
"A-Accc-ccee, Acccce."
"Ace? Your name is Ace?"
Receiving a nod, Marco smiled brightly at the merman, "Then, nice to meet you Ace-yoi."
Once again Marco received a nod, but this time added to it was also a small smile and some soft clicks.
They didn't know each other for long yet, but for some reason Marco knew that they would be able to get along.
Long notes ahead, a bit of extra info which I don't know how to incorporate into the story, (especially since Ace doesn't really talk and can't explain it!), but this will give you some background on my thoughts of Ace's upbringing/situation.
Namur exists as normal, but I am making it so mermen don't live on Fishman Island. And they generally stay by themselves. That's why the Whitebeards aren't offering to take Ace back home to the island, since they don't really stay in one place, you can compare them to nomads.
Normally the parents raise their kid until they are a bit older, and once they are old enough to protect themselves and can gather food, they just leave them alone. Abandoning their child without remorse, so cruel life is.
But because they did raise their kid, until a certain age, mermaids/mermen can speak and have knowledge of different things, since their parents passed it down. But Ace is different, of course he is, we can't give Ace a nice childhood now can we? So Ace his parents already left him somewhere as a small toddler. By luck he was able to survive, mostly because he was in a safe part of the ocean with lots of corals and seaweed around to survive off. Because of this though Ace lacks some general knowledge and never learned how to read, write or talk. The only thing he ever really learned and remembered from his parents was his own name, 'Ace'.
He has learned some extra basic things over the years by following ships and spying on people at beaches, and so can mostly understand people when people speak. He just doesn't know how to form words himself properly (and well writing is out of question in the sea).
About reading, Ace can't read, but he can recognize stuff. For example; "Marine". He can't 'read' this, but he recognises it from all the passing green ships with a stone bottom, and onboard from the logos on all the not-fish-humans their clothes, and so Ace knows that 'Marine' points to those guys dressed in blue and white. So, it's more of like how you can recognize shapes and can group them together, but that doesn't mean that you know what the shape actually is/means.