TnB Bunny of the Sea 19

Instead of returning to the tank at bedtime, Bunny laid down next to Kotetsu and snuggled up to him, still wearing one of Kotetsu's shirts. Though it had been a while since Kotetsu had slept next to anyone it felt natural to put his arm around Bunny and settle down for the night.

Still, long after Bunny's breath evened out, Kotetsu found his mind unable to relax in order to sleep. He kept thinking of what he would need to make Bunny pass for human; clothes, shoes, glasses, fake IDs, a name... Not to mention making Bunny speak without being bribed, even with kisses easily accessible.

There was also the fact that the renovations to the tank should be finished tomorrow if the workers got everything done on schedule. Kotetsu and Bunny wouldn't have all day for lessons like they did today and that could make it take longer for Bunny to learn to speak and thus longer for Bunny to get home.

Morning came too soon and, out of all people, Mr. Lloyds came to the room bearing Kotetsu's breakfast but, unlike Karina, he was not content to leave it by the door. He insisted that he needed to come in to "check on things".

"I am busted, I am so busted," was the chant in Kotetsu's mind as he asked Mr. Lloyds to "Hold on a sec" hoping his boss would assume he was straightening up a bit and not hiding evidence. Kotetsu hid all of Bunny's practice writing in his night stand and chucked the dictionary to the side of the room before stripping Bunny of his shirt and helping him back into the tank, doing his best not to look below Bunny's chest and, if he had to look, to keep his eyes trained on Bunny's feet.

Though Bunny had made it into the bed on his own, Bunny was not very stable on his feet. It wasn't as though his legs were weak like a newborn animal, his legs looking rather well shaped; possibly the muscles transferring over from his usual fin. Rather it seemed it was an issue of not knowing how to balance. They were going to have to practice if Bunny was going to pass for human at some point.

It was awkward but Bunny had to sit butt first in the tanks for the moment he got wet, wherever the water touched that was normally fin, immediately returned to being such. Despite the rush, Kotetsu felt to let Lloyds into his room, Kotetsu could not help but watch as pale flesh turned into the shimmering blue of Bunny's merman tail. Oddly there seemed to be ore pink specs then before, or had he just not noticed them?

Hoping he hadn't forgotten to hide anything away, Kotetsu nearly ran to the door and unlocked it to let Mr. Lloyds into his room.

"Good morning Mr. Kaburagi," Mr. Lloyds frowned, possibly annoyed at having to wait, which made Kotetsu nervous. "How are you feeling today?"

"Much better sir," Kotetsu took the food tray Mr. Lloyds offers him and stepped aside to let him in as he thanked him.

"And how is your house guest?" Mr. Lloyds carried a bucket of two fish over to the small tank. Kotetsu could swear he heard the frown deepen in Lloyd's voice when he asked, "He hasn't lost his appetite now has he?"

It took Kotetsu a moment to that Mr. Lloyds was looking at the buckets of uneaten fish that Karina had been dropping off for the last couple of days, only half of his normal amount having been devoured by the merman.

"Oh that," Kotetsu tried to make it sound like it was no big deal, waving it off ad he went to sit on his bed. "Bunny has been eating a lot of what I've been eating since we've been cooped up in here. He likes oatmeal."

Taking that as his cue, Bunny started to stare at the food Lloyds had brought Kotetsu. It was a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, already having something Kotetsu knew Bunny didn't like. Along with the bacon, Kotetsy doubted Bunny would enjoy the egg either.

Tarring off some of the bread, Kotetsu gave it to Bunny, doing his best to watch him rather than Lloyd's for a reaction. "And bread, but normal fish eat that too right?"

"Indeed," Lloyda said slwly, making Kotetsu wish he was better at reading body language and tone. "But don't give him too much; we don't want to make him sick."

"Yes sir," Kotetsu watched Bunny nibble on the bread a bit longer before looking up at Lloyds. "How are the improvements on the tank going?"

"They're coming along nicely," Lloyds turned his attention away from Bunny as well. "It's one of the reasons I came to see you."

"You want me to help transfer Bunny back into the tank?" Kotetsu asked.

"No, at least not yet," said Lloyds, looking at Bunny a moment, as if wondering how much the merman understood. "Since he seems content here I was hoping you would be willing to keep him a little longer. We could do more with the tank and bring back the painters to do the mural without worry of Bunny ruining it."

Though Kotetsu pretended to think about it, he knew he would say yes. It would give him more time to work on Bunny's "human" lessons and plan on a way to get Bunny out of the aquarium entirely.

"I don't mind," said Kotetsu after a moment and added, "As long as I get my day off."

"I hope we'll be done by then but if not I don't see a problem with it as long as you don't mind Karina and Ivan being here to keep Bunny company," Lloyds agreed more quickly than Kotetsu did.

"That's fine with me," said Kotetsy.

At that point Bunny decided he was still hungry and grabbed one of the fish to devour whole. By the looks of Lloyd's face, he had never seen Bunny eat up close and the sigh of Bunny seeming to unhinge his jaw made Lloyd's look a little green.

After Lloyd's excused himself, Kotetsy ate his own breakfast before getting up to relock his door. He then retrieved the dictionary before returning to Bunny's lessons.

To be on the safe side, Kotetsu had Bunny stay in the tank, just practicing on learning new words then writing for a bit. This was made difficult by the fact Bunny still wasn't much interested in making many sounds, even when bribed. Without any sort of confirmation or test, Kotetsu couldn't be sure that Bunny understood any of the new words. Plus he probably wasn't the greatest teacher. He was probably learning a bunch of these words right alongside Bunny.

Pushing forward, Kotetsu would read a word, spell the word, give the meaning of the word and use or show an example of it if he could. He wondered if he should get a white dry erase board so he could write the word and draw pictures for examples.

The lesson continued until lunch when both Ivan and Karina came to eat with him and Bunny. They were fascinated by the way Bunny swallowed up his fish, showing the difference between scientists and people like Kotetsu and Mr. Lloyds, even taking notes to give to Doc Saito later. They were also intrigued by Bunny wanting to try Kotetsu's food, the merman refusing to take any of Ivan's offerings of unfamiliar food but actually taking an offered salmon roll straight from Ivan's hand.

"Why is it, that he is so attached to you," Karina wondered out loud. "We've known him longer."

"You'd have to ask him," said Kotetsu, hoping he wasn't blushing. "But you guys are getting along better now, aren't you?"

"That's because of your influence Kaburagi-san," stated Ivan, offering Bunny another sushi roll.

Though Bunny took the sushi, he looked at Kotetsu in a curious manner.

"Influence?" asked Kotetsu but Bunny didn't react, "Kaburagi-san?" When Bunny looked intrigued he explained, "Kaburagi is my last name, and 'san' is a Japanese honorific, sort of like saying 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' in English."

When Bunny's curious face did not fade, Kotetsu tried to explain further. "Humans have first, sometimes middle, and last names. It helps distinguish us from each other, especially on paper since there are so many of us."

When Bunny still looked curious, Ivan jumped in, "Kaburagi-san is Japanese, which means he's from the Eastern country of Japan. 'San' is part of the Japanese language. There's also 'chan' for girls or informal nicknames. And 'kun' for boys and-"

"Ivan, I think you're overwhelming him now," said Karina, pointing to Bunny whom has sunk down as Ivan talked, now just above the water.

"Sorry," Ivan stammered softly, lightly blushing.

"That's alright, Ivan," Kotetsu sighed. "I guess there's a lot more about the human world that Bunny doesn't know then I realized."

"At least now that he understands us better it will be easier to teach him," commented Karina, making Kotetsu want to curse. He hadn't meant to reveal how well Bunny understood them. If Lloyds found out the zoo owner Maverick would probably want to open the merman aquarium to the public, making Bunny's escape all the harder to accomplish.