Chapter Text
1. Tech
The pod was life. The pod was everything.
But that didn’t mean the same pod you were born into was where you had to stay forever.
Tech let his gaze trail from one mer to another, all three showing various levels of excitement and nervousness.
He too felt the same and why shouldn’t he? They were barely past the sub-adult stage and what they were planning to do was exceedingly uncommon among their kind.
Tech’s eyes returned to Hunter as he recalled that night, many moons ago, when they’d been swimming side-by-side and the off-handed comment Hunter had made that had started this:
“You ever wonder how much more is out there?”
Tech didn’t know if Hunter had done it on purpose but once it had been said out loud, it never left him. Tech already knew everything there was to know within their pod and their territory. Even the pod’s visits to the trade spire had started to feel repetitive. The suggestion that there was bound to be an infinite amount of knowledge outside his birthpod made him uneasy, the urge to learn all that and more like a hunger he couldn’t quell.
Additionally, Tech had been aware for quite some time that their little group of four wasn’t the most popular in their pod for various reasons, which only fed his restlessness. When Hunter had once more brought up the idea of leaving, Tech had agreed then and there. It was the most logical option; their departure would ease the tensions in the pod and the four of them could live without the daily scrutiny.
“Everyone ready?” Hunter asked, his voice calm despite the tenseness of his shoulders that Tech was quite certain was excitement.
Again, Hunter looked rather handsome, especially surrounded by the shafts of sunlight, filtered down from the surface, something Tech had noticed quite often lately.
It was something he’d have more time to inspect now, Tech decided, as he, Wrecker, and Crosshair followed Hunter out into the open sea.
2. Crosshair
Hidden among the rocks and kelp, Crosshair kept an eye on the fast-approaching shark. Behind the big white bellied beast, Wrecker and Tech were herding it toward the waiting Crosshair by swimming circles around it, thwarting any escape attempts with fast, precise movements.
Testing his grip on the spear, Crosshair tensed as the shark twisted, almost slipping away. The big creature turned sharply around when Echo surged up from the depths, having hidden down below, and the surprise drove the shark right where the mers wanted.
Kicking his tail, Crosshair shot through the water while thrusting his spear forward. The sound of tearing flesh was followed by a plume of blood as the sharp blade of Crosshair’s spear impaled the shark right between its gills. The force of the impact was jarring but Crosshair withstood it by gritting his teeth together.
By the time the shark was dead and Crosshair had pulled his spear out, Hunter had joined them, too. He had been the one to lure the shark out of the open sea before flushing it toward the ambush.
With the whole pod now together, Crosshair followed along with a small, private smile as his podmates worked together to strip the carcass into smaller parts, conversation flowing easily between them.
He snorted when Wrecker stole bits of liver but fed half of them to a distracted Tech, who was busy inspecting the size and quality of the teeth, who accepted distractedly the morsels between every few words, even as the goggles-wearing mer continued pointing out the best teeth to an amused Echo, who clearly had no intention of interrupting Wrecker, even drawing his attention further by asking questions.
While Wrecker and Echo pampered Tech, Hunter busied himself with gutting the rest of the shark, his moves efficient and precise. When he found the shark’s stomach, he drew Crosshair in by challenging him to a guessing game to identify what the shark had eaten.
All this, the hunting and taking care of each other, made Crosshair feel content deep within himself. At peace, even.
This was Crosshair’s pod and he knew with certainty that he’d do anything for them.
3. Hunter
Sighing, Hunter rubbed his face against the base of Crosshair’s dorsal fin, lips brushing the white markings behind it. He could feel Crosshair shift, a little shudder running through him and it made Hunter smile sleepily. When Crosshair reached back to scratch Hunter’s hair, he let out a pleased rumble before raising his head to check in on his other podmates.
Behind Hunter, Tech was fast asleep, resting his folded arms on the long-haired mer’s back, his breathing slow and steady.
Echo had taken the spot behind Tech and was lying on his undamaged side, watching them with half-lidded eyes. Wrecker was leaning against Echo, sound asleep with his worn-out sea bunny under one arm, while Crosshair was using the big mer’s back as his pillow.
With all of them cuddled together in a cozy ring like this, and the steady heartbeat of his podmates filling his ear fins, this was something Hunter would treasure for the rest of his life. Hunter lowered his head and let his eyes close with a smile as he let sleep claim too.
4. Echo
It was one of those days.
The kind that had Echo seriously reconsidering his choice of leaving his birthpod after his injury. Sure, he would never be able to visit certain parts of their territory without losing himself to the grief, but that wouldn’t be so bad.
At least there he’d have been surrounded by mers who knew when to move and when to ignore a challenge thrown at them.
Alright, that was a bit unfair, Echo admitted to himself with a wry smile as he recalled some of the mischief the younglings Echo had grown up with had gotten into. Himself included.
Still, Echo mused as he watched Hunter try to de-escalate a potential fight between Crosshair, Wrecker, and a pod of dolphin mers, this wasn’t even close to anything he’d ever done as a youngling. The dolphin mers, despite the obvious size difference (a bold move, Echo had to give them that), were goading Echo’s current podmates into a fight, swimming in circles around Crosshair, Wrecker, and Hunter.
Even though Tech was staying on the sidelines instead of making mock charges like Wrecker, he still kept making rather loud and pointed comments on what dolphins as a species lacked compared to orcas.
Echo couldn’t help but wince when Tech calmly, almost as if he merely was talking about the current’s strength, mentioned how nonsentient orcas sometimes hunted the dolphin mers’ counterparts for food.
Unsurprised that this comment gained Tech some extra attention, Echo dragged his remaining hand over his face, praying for strength from the depths, before he decided it was time to join in. Just in time too, because Echo yanked Tech out of the way of what would’ve been a very nasty tail hit by one of the dolphin mers had aimed at him.
Echo’s podmates could be so reckless at times, but they were his podmates.
And the pod was everything to an orca mer.
Even when they should’ve known better and just ignored the squeaking starfish munchers.
5. Wrecker
If anyone asked Wrecker, he’d say that they had already been a pod for several seasons before they left. After all, they were four calves born during the same season, and all four of them were unique in their own ways. Maybe that’s what had drawn them together in the end, that sense of difference from to the rest of their podmembers.
(Sure, it had taken some time for Crosshair and Hunter to truly warm up to each other, which was a little funny compared to how easily Crosshair and Tech had bonded.)
The roles in their small pod-within-the-pod had practically mirrored the adults of their birthpod: Hunter was the pod leader, Wrecker and Crosshair were their main hunters, and Tech was in charge of their equipment.
(The only role no one had really filled was the scout but once Echo had joined them, their little pod was perfect.)
But no one asked, so Wrecker kept it to himself.
(Besides, the idea that he had known something so obvious before the rest of them was rather hilarious.)