Felix wakes because he's shivering. He thinks he shouldn't be shivering anymore, he's stopped shivering sometime during his descent into the deep.

The next thing he notices is that he's dry and instead of water and ice there's soft fluffy things around him. Maybe the science documentaries lied and clouds aren't wet, but fluffy instead, and he has grown wings and learned to fly. Then he notices he has legs, and his feet are wrapped in fluff, and he's shivering but the air he breathes is warm.

"You're safe here," a gentle voice tells him, and Felix opens his eyes sluggishly. There's a man, and he's smiling at him. Brown hair, brown eyes, dimples. There's lines of shimmering scales down the sides of his neck. A merman. "How do you feel?"

Felix opens his mouth and moves his lips, but no sound comes out. He clears his throat, coughs against the salty taste in his mouth, and tries again. "Cold."

"That's okay," the man says, "are you hungry? My friend is getting food."

As if on cue, footsteps reach Felix's ears. He blinks, taking in the room. He's on a sofa, and there's a coffee table and a TV, and another merman is watching him with a concerned expression from another chair. There's bookshelves and electronic heaters whirring, daylight falling through a window. The ceiling light is a warm yellow, bright but not blinding. Two more people – a merman and a human – step through a doorway, carrying pots and plates.

"I've made more, I think we could all benefit from a snack, and none of us have had breakfast yet," the human says, depositing a pot on the coffee table.

The flurry of activity is still too much for Felix to follow, but the merman with the kind dimpled smile helps Felix sit and stays next to him, close enough Felix can feel his warmth even through the blankets. He helps untangle Felix's hands and readjusts the blanket around his shoulders.

"I'm Chan," he says, smiling his dimpled smile and handing Felix a glass of water.

Felix accepts it with an attempt of a smile of his own. It doesn't smell like salt, so Felix downs the water and coughs when he forgets how to swallow.

"Shh, it's okay, take it slow," Chan says next to him, rubbing his back and wiping his face with a soft tissue. "You got this."

Felix tries again, and this time the water goes where it's supposed to go, and not into his lungs. "Thanks," he rasps, voice breaking, "I'm – I'm Felix."

"Nice to meet you, Felix," Chan says softly. He points to the others in the room, pointing at the human first, then at the merman who had followed the human inside, and lastly the merman sitting across from him. "This is Minho, Hyunjin and Seungmin. You don't need to be afraid."

Felix isn't afraid, but his eyes widen in surprise. He knows merpeople and humans can coexist in friendship and peace, but he's not experienced it himself – not really, not without water and thick glass separating him from humans.

"Here," Chan takes the empty glass from his hands and shows him two bowls, one piled with seaweed salad, one with mussels.

The seaweed salad is covered in sesame seeds and dressing, so Felix reaches for that one first. He attempts to eat it slowly, but he's hungry and ends up barely chewing most of it. The portion is small, like they anticipated this response. "Thank you," he says quietly.

The tall merman – Hyunjin – sits down next to him with a blinding smile, showing sharp teeth. His long hair is pulled into a messy bun, strands escaping and framing his face. He has scales on his cheekbones and temples and all over his collarbones, and they're – fascinating, a play of silver turquoise and dark purple. Felix can hardly look into his mesmerising eyes.

"I'll help you with the mussels," Hyunjin says and reaches for one, expertly breaking them apart with his fingers like's done it a million times. His nails are painted pink, but it doesn't distract Felix from the food.

The mussel is twitching, which comes with the territory of being alive and about to be eaten.

Felix swallows, suddenly nauseous. He can relate to that feeling, having felt it not too long ago himself. A live mussel was also the last thing he ate. It was exactly like this, some seaweeds that were rough to chew but they filled his stomach even if they gave him cramps later, and on a rock he'd found a population of mussels. He'd eaten exactly two, and then he accepted he was going to get nightmares from the wriggling on his tongue. Needless to say, knowing you're bad at being a merman is one thing, actually experiencing it though? Worse.

Especially since after he'd been swept past the mussel population as he slept, he'd been so hungry he wished he'd eaten more. Humans had many documentaries and movies about surviving in forests with no food rations, but nobody had made a movie about merpeople and the way they live, eat and navigate underwater.

Hyunjin seems to sense his hesitation. "They're good, I promise," he says. He lifts the mussel to his own lips and swallows it whole, the way you'd eat a jelly worm or an especially delicious pringle.

Minho is walking back into the room, carrying more plates. "Hyunjin, not everyone likes their food alive, no matter the amount of love you break the shells with."

Hyunjin pouts, but breaks a second mussel, holding it to Felix's face. "Come on, you need to eat a bit more before you can sleep again."

A heavenly smell suddenly fills the room. Felix's attention is immediately caught by the pot Minho is scooping more mussels from, except these are covered in sauce and mixed with vegetables, clearly cooked.

"Would you like the cooked mussels?" Chan asks, there's no judgement in his tone, just curiosity.

Felix blushes anyway and nods, meeting Chan's eyes and blinking apologetically at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin shrugs and eats the opened raw mussel himself. "Something warm is definitely good for you."

"This sauce is really good," Seungmin tells him with a smile.

And it is. Felix eats as much as they allow him, and then he lies back down because he's still shivering and he feels heavy and exhausted.

He falls asleep to his saviours conversing quietly, about nothing significant, and to the whirring of the heaters. Every now and then Hyunjin will crack open a mussel and slurp it up, but if the way the others sigh at him is any indication, he's mostly doing it for the drama.

In his sleep, Felix draws his knees to his chest and burrows himself into the blankets. It's warm, then hot, and at some point he notices he's sweating, but he still feels cold. He's faintly aware of a cool cloth on his face.

Voices come and go around him, but they're quiet, and Felix finds comfort in the knowledge that he's not alone.

He wakes again because his nose is running, and he's sniffling.

He rubs his eyes as he blinks himself awake, pushing himself into a sitting position.

"Here," Chan hands him a tissue.

Felix takes it and blows his nose.

"How do you feel?" Chan asks. He hands Felix water.

"Warm," Felix answers. He wraps the blankets tighter around himself to hold onto their warmth.

Beside Chan, three new faces Felix hasn't seen before are in the room. One of them is currently eating fried rice, but he smiles at Felix, while a merman is asleep on the armchair. A third is muscular, human, not very tall, and smiling cutely.

"Hi Felix, I'm Changbin," the muscular one starts, tone gentle, "we looked for any more merpeople around, but we didn't find anyone. Was there someone else with you?"

Oh. Felix shakes his head. "I'm alone," he says quietly, voice a whisper. He clears his throat. "I was alone. Where are we?"

Chan hands him a plate filled with raw fish. "We're in Antarctica. We're four mermen and three humans, and we're a safehouse for merpeople who need a bit of distance from society while doing research about global warming. Minho – you remember him, yeah? – graduated from med school and then did it all again to become a vet. Changbin has a degree in marine biology and Jisung," he gestures at the other human, "has a degree in astrophysics and geology. Sometimes we get a group of backpackers, and we're in contact with other bases on this continent and the UN, who finances us."

"Oh," Felix says. "That answers all the questions I had." He looks down at his food. He's slightly embarrassed to admit he doesn't know what kind of fish it is they're serving him. It's dead, at least, unlike the mussels Hyunjin had snacked on so joyously, and the head, bones and organs are removed, body cut in half.

"Well," Chan chuckles, "when you think of questions, feel free to ask."

"What about you?" Felix asks, then backtracks. "I mean, you and the mermen. Did you also go to... university?"

Chan smiles. "No, but we all did some courses to learn about the human world. We're more on the practical side of things, so to say."

Felix nods.

"I'm Jisung, as Channie-hyung said," Jisung says after he swallows a mouthful of rice, smiling a heart shaped smile. "And that's Jeongin," he gently shakes the sleeping merman awake.

"What – oh, you're awake. Hi, I'm Jeongin," he says with a smile. He has light blue scales scattered on the sides of his neck, and blue hair.

"Nice to meet you," Felix replies and attempts a smile, too. He looks back at the fish. He's hungry again, but is he hungry enough to eat raw fish? Jisung has fried rice, and there's a pan with more in it on the coffee table. If they hand him precut fish so easily, will they share their human food with him as well?

Chan clears his throat quietly. "You can stay here as long as you like, and we can arrange for you to get back home if you want. But we need to know where you're from."

"Yeah," Changbin agrees, voice gentle, "you don't have to tell us right now. Recover, and we'll figure it out."

"Oh, I," Felix starts, "I don't have a home." He's also never met a real merperson before, but now Chan sits next to him, with scales and closed gills on his neck, even though he's dry and in his human skin, wearing baggy sweatpants on his legs.

"What happened?" Chan asks softly.

Felix carefully deposits the plate of raw fish to the coffee table, his arms shaking even though he's using both hands. He frees his arms, turns around, lifts the hair from his neck. There, on his spine, is a code tattooed in black ink.

Felix isn't a real merman. Real, ocean born merpeople can eat raw fish (and uncooked humans) and survive on saltwater when they're healthy. Felix is a merman specifically grown in a lab to not eat humans. His DNA was programmed by a computer that was programmed by a human. Ideally, he'd eat vegetables grown on sunny fields and cooked meat. Throwing him into the ocean was like letting a tiger born in captivity into the wild.

The code is a simple sequence of numbers, saying which generation of artificially created DNA he was made of, a code for his place of birth and the date he was 'born.'

The history between humans and merpeople is cruel and bloody. Creating merpeople in a lab had only been outlawed a decade ago, by which point Felix had been eleven years old. He still remembers the chaos in the facility – the dozens of mer children being confused and scared, their caretakers and teachers stressed, the angry shouting from behind closed doors. Felix doesn't remember what followed, but he was placed into a smaller, hidden facility and then, when he was old enough for no merpeople rights associations to immediately sue, he lived in an aquarium.

And he befriended the turtles and sharks. And he never saw any of the mer children his age again after that. The occasional friendly employee or intern were his companionship.

Felix gives his saviours a few moments to read the numbers before he turns around and buries himself back in his blankets. He doesn't dare lift his eyes from the dry skin on the back of his hands, his nails that are broken unevenly and that he really needs to cut, soon. He's not hungry anymore.

"I'm sorry," is what Chan says.

Felix looks up. What could he possibly be sorry for?

Chan scoops fried rice onto a fresh plate, picks a spoon up and hands both to Felix. "We went about this all wrong. Eat this. We have some instant noodles I can offer you, and more frozen vegetables, and dried fruit. Do you have allergies?"

"Your birthday is just a day after mine!" Jisung exclaims, beaming. "We're basically twins!"

Felix rapidly blinks. "No allergies," he whispers.

"Can I have your fish, then?" Jeongin asks, gesturing to the raw fish.

"Of course," Felix says, still occupied with blinking away the wetness in his eyes.

Chan hands the plate to Jeongin who swallows one half of the fish whole, humming appreciatively.

Felix turns to his fried rice. There's carrots and soy sprouts and peppers and eggs, and it smells delicious. Most importantly, it doesn't smell like fish. Felix thinks he's been around enough fish to last a lifetime, not to mention that he himself is part fish and so are his new... friends? Well, some of them are part fish, some of them are human.

He pushes that reveal to the back of his mind. They don't seem to care much, and Felix breathes easier now.

And the rice is amazing.

"Wait," Changbin says, "since you're not, uh, born in the ocean – we'll need to properly take care of your injuries."

Chan sucks in air. "We do! Felix-ah, eat your rice, I'll be right back."

Chan practically runs out of the room. Felix focuses on the rice, and Chan comes back a minute later with a big first aid kit and Minho on his heels.

"Felix," Minho asks as soon as he sits down next to him, "can you take a shower without growing a tail?"

"Um," Felix hesitates, the next spoonful of rice halfway to his mouth. "I never tried? But no, I don't think so."

Minho frowns. "Is the process of shifting – growing a tail – painful for you?"

Felix winces. "Yes, always."

Minho's frown deepens, but he nods. "Okay, I can work with that. There's salt from the sea all over you, and a quick shower would definitely help with that. But we're not putting you through pain if we can avoid it, especially now. Could you undress so I can look at your wounds?"

"Uh," Felix blinks, taking in the information Minho dropped. "Of course," he quickly shoves more rice and a large piece of fried egg into his mouth before he starts unraveling the blankets around himself. There's many, and the hoodie he's wearing is soft. Still, now that focuses on it, his injuries sting.

He's never known modesty, so he takes the hoodie off for Minho to also see the gash on his side and the cuts on his back. This one is the biggest, though it's stopped bleeding and the edges are closing already.

Minho's touch is gentle. He doesn't ask, he just takes the things Chan offers him from the first aid kit and cleans the wounds thoroughly, applying products and wrapping them or putting bandaids over them. Some of those bandaids are unnecessary, clearly just there to make either Felix or Minho feel better – but Felix stays relaxed under Minho's hands. His eyes threaten to shut. He's sleepy again, with the food and the faint ache of his wounds being muffled by whatever Minho is doing to them.

Lastly, Chan offers Felix a pair of boxer briefs and sweatpants, and hands him skin lotion and hand cream.

"The bathroom is just out that door and to the right," Chan tells him after Minho carries the first aid kit away. "Here," he holds out a small plastic container. "It's lip balm."

Felix smiles tiredly. "Apply it for me?"

Chan opens and closes his mouth, ears reddening. "Uh – yeah, of course, Lixie."

Felix parts his lips and closes his eyes. Chan leans in close, so close Felix can feel his breath on his face, and Chan cups his face carefully, swiping first a thumb and then the lip balm over his dry lips, so gentle.

Felix sighs. It's over faster than he can process.

"Go sleep some more," Chan whispers. "You'll feel better soon."

Felix lets Chan pull the blankets around him and rests his head in Chan's lap. Chan's hand in his hair is soothing, so soothing that it drowns out the fears living in Felix's heart.