Mellac reached for the unconscious human held in his brother's arms, completely content to end his life. His fingers began to wrap around the male's neck even as his brother growled in disapproval. He could disapprove all he wished, but as soon as his little human infatuation was dead, he would be much better off.

"Nn-No."

"I'm doing it for you. You don't need a human of all things. All it does is make you weak."

His hand was swatted away by Callem, but Mellac just rolled his eyes and snagged the collar of Parker's shirt, yanking him right out of his brother's lap.

"Just a small snap here..."

He rewrapped his fingers around the human's neck and was just about to jerk his hand to the side and end the annoying man's life when Callem suddenly bit down on his arm.

"What are you doing?"

His little brother barked but quickly backed away, licking blood off of his lips from the injury he'd just inflicted. The look of disbelief on Callem's face was the mirror image of what was on Mellac's at that very second.

"You... attacked me."

Callem whined, looking down at his feet as he stood against the cold cement wall.

"Callem? Is this, this disgusting human worth more to you than I am?"

Mellac threw Parker into the closed shift door, making a loud banging noise echo in the room before stalking over to his shivering brother. Oh, he knew he was stressing Callem out, but his little brother just protected a damn HUMAN.

"Well, Callem? Answer me."

Another whimper made the older mer bare his teeth in warning.

"Do not make me repeat myself. You can obviously talk for that human rat, you shall talk to me."

~Jayson

"Mellac, back off."

It was a stupid move, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut as I ran into the keeper area. Was I a bad friend for lying about taking the pain meds so I could get a cab and follow Parker, knowing that something like this was bound to happen? Probably, but now wasn't the time to think about that. I stopped by the dividing door, realizing too late that it wasn't locked. Mellac had noticed too and slammed the door open as I tried to fumble with the lock, sending me stumbling backward seconds before I was shoved up against the back wall, my neck in his left hand, feet dangling uselessly several inches off the floor.

"M-Mellac."

"Shut up, human. You will die, then your friend will swiftly follow. You are holding back my brother from living his life the way a mer should."

I felt his hand begin to tighten and thrashed against the hard wall, but there wasn't much I could do in terms of attacking him when I was being held off of my feet to begin with.

"You are the... one... hold... ing him... back..."

He dropped me like I had burned him, hissing loudly in anger.

"What did you just say to me, human? How dare you. I have taken care of him since our parents and sister were murdered by sharks. He lost his ability to speak that night and refused to hunt, but even though family means little in our society, I took care of him anyway."

It took me a moment to respond since I was coughing while trying to get my voice to work again, but when I finally managed it, I growled my response as much as he did.

"So why does he speak for Parker and not for you?"

I had obviously struck a nerve because the mer actually flinched and glared over his shoulder at my unconscious friend, then back to me.

"He tricked him. He made Callem think he wanted to mate him."

"Because he fucking does!"

Quiet overtook the room except for the repetitious soft sound of licking from Callem as he tried to bring Parker back around, though I'm pretty sure licking his face repeatedly wasn't the best way to do it. Oh well, might as well keep him busy with that since Parker still looked like he was breathing just fine. I returned my attention to Mellac, knowing that he was definitely the more deadly of the two right then.

"As I've just said, Parker wants to uh... mate him."

I couldn't help but make a face at that, drawing a sneer from Mellac which I just ignored.

"I've been trying my best to get his attention recently, but ever since Callem came into the picture, he's been chasing your brother like a damned puppy."

His head tilted, brows drawing together before he bared his teeth and hissed, "What is a puppy, and why is it following my brother?"

Oh come on! Of all the words he doesn't know.

"It's a stupid dog that falls in love with one person and gets too attached to them... so that when it's time for the person to finally leave them, they just don't want them to go."

He still looked confused, but hey, his fingers weren't around my neck and I wasn't getting my head bashed in. It was a good day. I watched as Mellac turned around slowly, eying his brother while he continued to lick Parker's face.

"Um... can I go check on my friend? He's been hurt by Callem so much recently that he may need some help this time."

His attention turned back to me when I spoke, but instead of letting me go to Parker, he reached down toward my neck again.

Not a chance.

I grabbed his hand with both of mine, pushing as hard as I could to try to keep him from getting ahold of me. It literally took all of my strength just to keep his hand a few inches from my face.

"Mellac, stop it."

Surprisingly, he did, but immediately afterward, he turned and stalked back toward the open door separating the keeper area from the enclosure.

Park.

I jumped to my feet and stumbled forward, unsteady but determined to save my friend. Of course that determination just led me to do something stupid, again. What that was? Well, it was wrapping my arms around an extremely deadly merman from behind.

Holy muscles, Batman...

A rumbling snarl made me tighten my hold, though I doubt he felt it with that insane eight-pack on his abs.

Possibly exaggerating, but damn.

"Let go, human."

"No."

"I could kill you, too."

Pressing my right cheek against his warm back, I sighed and loosened my arms slightly.

"Then why aren't you?"

Silence took over again as we stood there. I chanced a look over at Callem and noticed that he had switched to cradling my tired friend, who was now awake.

"Park."

Mellac took a sudden step toward them, easily dragging me, though I knew I wasn't that light.

"Don't. P-Please."

He stopped as Callem growled up at him. I'd never seen the brothers at odds, and Parker even looked shocked that Callem was standing up to his older brother for him.

"Parker Callem's. No brother."

"Brother..." Mellac whispered, seemingly lost in thought. Callem pursed his lips and nodded, hugging Parker tightly against his chest.

"Parker Callem's. Fish to Parker, Parker fish to Callem. No to brother!"

I would have loved to hear the rest of that odd little conversation, but the click of a dart slipping into a barrel made my head snap around.

"D-Don't shoot."

My body moved on its own accord as a woman, who I assumed to be the curator based on Parker's description of her, lifted the gun toward Mellac. I think I was on a stupid streak, but I couldn't help myself as I jumped up, hugging his body when he began turning to snarl at Mrs. Smith. I felt the dart slam into the left middle of my back and grunted from the impact. The drug was cold as it flowed into my body and slowly forced my arms to loosen from around him until I fell to the floor, unconscious.

~Parker

I wanted to scream at her for shooting my friend, but my energy level was still extremely low from being hit with Mellac's screech earlier. My whole body was numb and tingling as it tried to get back to normal with slight movements and deep breaths. Things seemed to be playing out in front of me as a cloudy scene that I wasn't allowed to participate in. Mellac was mad, but I wasn't sure if it was because she had shot Jayson with a dart meant for him, or... wait, what was I thinking? It was obviously because she was a human and alive. He was flaring his gills and remembered that meant that he was about to shriek again.

"D-Don't... please... he's already hurt... his head..."

Jay might have been able to come with me on this trip, but his head was still healing and I had no idea how an extremely loud screech would affect the damage Mellac had already done. He looked down at Jay on the floor, then back up at the curator. I thought he might ignore my plea to knock her out for an easy kill but then he quickly jumped over my friend and ran for Mrs. Smith. She was smart enough to not bother loading another dart in the small enclosed space and instead jumped out of the keeper area and slammed the door shut, sliding something heavy into place that stopped Mellac from being able to get the door open. He quickly figured out that we were stuck and turned again, walking back over to Jayson and kneeling next to him.

"..."

Please don't kill him.

Callem must have felt how tense I was because he hugged me a little tighter and began lapping at my hair gently. When Mellac didn't attack Jay, I chanced a look up at Callem and smiled when he licked my cheek and barked quietly.

"Hey there, Callem."

He hummed and rubbed his nose against mine, making me chuckle.

I swear he is just like a child sometimes, but in other ways, he is completely grown up.

Callem suddenly growled as he glared over my shoulder, making me look behind myself to see Mellac walking over with Jay in his arms. When he sat down a few feet away, I carefully squirmed my way free of Callem's arms and crawled over to check on Jayson. It looked like he'd banged his head again when he'd fallen, since his bandage had a small spot of blood forming on it, but at least it didn't seem to be spreading too quickly.

"He needs medical help, fast."

I tried to reach over and tighten his bandages a little, but Mellac's loud snarl made me jerk my hands away.

"M-Mellac? He needs help."

The older mer was sniffing a lot, nose lowering toward the bloodied bandages.

"Mellac? What are you—?" Another aggressive growl cut off my question, so I just sealed my lips and watched him carefully. At first, it was just sniffing, but then it turned into licking. Before a full minute had passed, his right hand was clawing away at the bandages so he could gain easier access to the injury.

My heart was beginning to pump like crazy in my chest as I watched Mellec get more and more into licking Jayson's injury. If he actually liked him, I might have thought he was being affectionate or perhaps even worried, but when his lips began to trail down toward his shoulder, I felt my blood begin to run cold.

"Don't, Mellac."

I wasn't fast enough to stop the initial bite. Mellac tore into Jayson's left arm right before I managed to grab the mer's hair and yank, hard. I stole his attention away from Jay, but now Mellac was on top of me, biting at my own arm. The pain was excruciating, but it ended almost as quickly as it had begun because Callem was there, suddenly tackling his brother into the steel bars. The fight quickly became a mix of flailing limbs and snarling. Blood coated the floor in seconds, freezing my body in place with fear as I watched. I thought they would honestly tear each other apart, but then the door to the keeper area slammed open and both of Mrs. Smith's guards from before ran in aiming dart guns at the fighting mers. It only took them seconds to zero-in and fire each gun. For once, I was shutting my mouth about their treatment of the brothers, too, knowing that if they weren't darted, they could injure each other further within moments.

The darts hit home in both mers, though Callem took the first shot, letting Mellac get in several extra bites before he was finally darted and dropped a minute after his brother. Mrs. Smith appeared once both mers were out cold, but I really didn't like the look of the rifle she held pointed toward them.

"What are you doing with that gun?"

She only glanced at me for a second before raising the weapon just enough to aim at Mellac.

"I saw what was going on through the observation cameras, and I've decided it is best to euthanize the more aggressive of the two."