Archive of Our Own

Azul retreated into his octopus pot, hiding away for the night. Once he was sure everyone was asleep, he wept. He was so lonely. All he wanted was a friend. Someone who he could talk to. Someone who wouldn’t make fun of him.

"Why do they have all these friends and I dont have one? It’s not fair… All I want is one friend…” Azuls sobs continued until he fell asleep, crying.

** *

“Hello? Hellooo? Are you okay?” 

Azul’s eyes fluttered open, squinting as he looked around. Just where was he? Azul looked around from where he rested his head. He was no longer in his octopot much to his horror. Furthermore, he seemed to be curled up in the fetal position out in the open ocean. It’s like he was begging to get eaten. Azul jolted up from the white sand, wincing at the sun that shone directly in his face. Was he in the shallows? Why was it so bright, and empty?

“Woah!” Azul froze again, momentarily forgetting someone else was there. He was shaking. Were you here to laugh at him too? Apprehensively, he turned around, preparing himself mentally to hold back any tears. Opening his eyes he saw… a human? How were you underwater?

“Hi!” The child said, giggling. “I’m Yuu! And you are…?” Yuu stood over Azul with a bright smile on their face. He hesitated for a moment before shyly muttering out his name. “I… I’m Azul.” “Nice to to meet you Azul.” The human looked around them, eyes twinkling in fascination. “Woah… the waters sooo coool!” 

A gasp makes him peek through his fingers as he sees Yuu standing over him, eyes wide. “Did you just change color?!” The kid beamed. “That’s so coool! How did you do that?!” Azul was taken aback for a moment, before uncurling himself. His tentacles shifted back to their normal color and spread out. “I um… I’m an octopus… and uh... we can change color to match our surroundings…” Why did he say that? Why did he tell them? They’re gonna laugh, call him a nerd! No one thinks of an octopus when they think of cool or mermaids. Yuu voice snapped him out of his self-deprecating thoughts.

Yuu waved their arms, allowing themself to float off of the sea floor, giggling the whole time. This was strange, creepy even to Azul and even more so confusing. Where was he? And what was a human child doing here? Azul had so many questions but was too scared to ask. What if you laughed at him or called him stupid? His inky body shifted color to match the white sand below him, trying to hide from everything. Azul put his hands over his face, hoping to disappear, this was just a weird dream or nightmare.

“You’re an octopus? Wait… Are you a mermaid?!” Azul swore this human couldn’t glow any brighter. “Woaah! We don’t have mermaids in real life! It’s sucks ‘cause I always thought it would be cool. Having fun at the beach and stuff…” Yuu ended up rambling and talking his ear off, asking him all kinds of questions about being a mermaid, ranging from innocent to ridiculous.

It was strange at first, then a warm fuzzy feeling washed over him. He was being treated as a person, a normal kid! Not the dumb, fat octopus everyone known him for. A wobbly smile rose to his face as he answered, the conversation trailing off into much more normal territory. What do you like to do? What’s your favorite dinosaur? What about your favorite color? Wanna play a game? How am I breathing underwater? Is it because its a dream? Such basic questions made Azul wanna tear up from joy that he’s being treated so normally…

But all good things come to and end, and this was no exception. “Aww man. I feel my body waking up… I don’t wanna go back to the real world! I wanna stay here!” Yuu cried out, shaking their body upsettedly. Azul frowned in realization that they are just a figment of his imagination, a dream and nothing more. It was still strange though, seeing how his dream was aware of it being a dream. Please don’t let this end so soon, please.

"Bye-bye Azul… I hope we can play again soon…” Yuu stretched out their tubby arms for a hug, one which Azul returned, wrapping them up with all his tentacles as well. “Can you promise me we’ll see each other again? Pleeease?” Azul stammered a bit, “I promise.” And with those words he woke up alone his octopot, tears running down his face.

***

Dream about a friend once, that’s just sad, have the exact same dream again, now this is weird. He honestly wasn’t expecting to see Yuu again, he was pleasantly surprised though. Azul woke up in the same shallow waters he was in before, a familiar voice calling to him.

“…end ….friend… Best friend!” Azul woke up to Yuu floating over him, air bubbles coming out of their mouth as their large-eyed looked at him with such comforting familiarity. “You’re awake! And you kept your promise! We can play again” 

From there started a strange trend, one that he would take to his grave. He can’t imagine telling anyone about such pathetic dreams. However deep in his heart he loved it. He looked forward to every nap time and bedtime he got, if it meant to see Yuu again.

***

Not all dreams were good dreams. The bullies at middle school were especially mean today, and he hoped to sleep it all away. However, it seems that his torment follows him even here. Curled up in on himself and crying, Azul refused to look up. He say there on the sand as the other mer surrounded him, pointing and laughing. “He’s not even looking at us.” “He’s inking everywhere!” “He’s a crybaby, even here.”

“Please…” Please just leave him alone. Please please please please please. He just wanted to crawl up into a ball and die right now, maybe then will this all end. “What the fuck is wrong with you guys?! Leave him alone!”

Azul peeked through his arms to see Yuu, hands on their hips with a determined look on their face. “Azul is an amazing person, he’s cooler, smarter, and stronger than all of you! He’s better than all of you!” Azul wanted to hide even more. Great, now his one friend sees how much of a baby he is. He can’t even defend himself.

Azul froze when he felt arms wrap around him in a protective hug. “C’mon Azul, lets get out of here.” Azul allowed you to drag him away. It was a good thing that Yuu was in front of him, dragging him away, at least like this they wouldn’t see how pathetic he looked with inky tears rolling down his cheeks. The dream world was awfully blank, just shallow water and sun, where was he being led to? Yuu suddenly stopped, eyes closed, and concentrated hard. “…Yuu?”

Suddenly, a room rose up from sand, a blank white box with a simple door, smaller than most, perfect for a kid. “Hehe, I did it! I knew I can dream it up! In here...” Yuu twisted the doorknob and opened the door, pulling Azul in. Azul whimpered and choked back a sob along with his tears, which he wiped away. Looking around he found himself in a bedroom. The decorations and bed-size made it apparent that room for a young kid, perhaps a tween. His eyes ended up landing on the bed, in particular a cartoony octopus plush that lay on it.

Yuu tilted their head, and then their body relaxed in realization. “Oh him?” Yuu sat down on their bed, inviting Azul to sit with them. Azul sat, and hugged his tentacles to his chest. The human picked up the plushie and offered it to Azul. “Here, take it. I went to the aquarium recently and my parents got it for me. I found it near the octopus exhibits. He’s really squishy.” Azul took the plush, and examined it, taking note of the lopsided dent in it probably from all the affection it receives along with its cartoony eyes and smile.

The octopus held the plush close to him, squeezing it before burying his face in it and sobbing. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry!” Azul's cries were muffled by the plush. “Eh? What’re you apologing for, Zul?” Azul’s breath hitched. “I must look so stupid, crying like this! I’m just a stupid chubby crybaby that can’t do anything right! I can’t even stand up for myself and you… you had to do it for me!”

Despite the muffled cries, Yuu can tell their friend was in hysterics and gave a sad smile, even knowing he couldn’t see it. A warm hand laid on Azul’s back, rubbing it, their voice soft. “You have nothing to apologize for. It’s what friends do, plus those guys were real assholes. I'm sorry you had to go through that.”

Some time passed and Azul’s sobs dwindled. “There, see? Doesn’t it feel better now? I remember as a kid my parents would say that its okay to cry, ‘cause the quicker your done crying, the better your day can be. It takes a rainy day to know the sun or something like that…” Yuu trailed off and cleared their throat. Azul spoke up from the silence, voice croaky, “I ruined your plushie…”

Yuu let out a chuckle and wrapped an arm around Azul. “It’s okay, I can dream up a new one,” they said, examining the ink stained plush. “You know… I named this after you. Actually I’ve really been getting into marine life, especially octopi cuz of you.” “R-really?” The octopus’s voice was laced with hope and bewilderment. “Uh-huh. And also, I think you look nice. You’re pretty great just the way you are…” Azul held onto Yuu, all ten limbs squeezing tight as he buried his face in their neck.

"We can take as much time as you need.”

***

“Wait you guys have magic too?! Your world sounds so much better than mine. We don’t have anything! Heck, we don’t even have nice oceans, they all have plastic!” Azul chuckles a bit as Yuu pouted, finding how their cheeks puffed out to be endearing. “So uh… your ‘world’ doesn’t have magic?” The human shook their head.

“No! I wish it did! I wanna be a wizard like the ones from that one game I play!” 

“Which game?”

“Wizard101!” 

"I dont know what that is.”

“Oh I have an idea! You can teach me magic!” “Huh?!” Azul eyes widened as he stared at Yuu. “You’re really smart, you’re also really strong, and you know magic. That kinda makes you a wizard.” “I um…” Azul looked away flustered. You think he’s smart? And strong? He still wasn’t used to how kind Yuu was, surely they would have gotten bored of him by now.

“Yes. I will.” Azul felt bad about lying, if what they said was true about their world not having magic, even if this was a really realistic dream, you shouldnt be able to cast magic. For now however, he will teach his friend the theories. “You can only use magic in this world,” Azul would say, every spell Yuu would cast, however, came from him. It was worth it to see the smile on their face. He would continue this lie for many years to come.

***

“Do I look… good?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ever since I started losing weight, I’ve got all these…” Azul gestured to the stretch marks on his stomach, barely visible due to the pigmentation of his grey skin.

“Nothing wrong with those, you know? Plus you’re losing a lot of weight, it’s gonna happen, wear ‘em with pride.”

“Is that so…” Azul frowned and sighed, crossing his arms in attempt to hide his form.

“Hey man, no need to hide it. Stretch marks are kinda cool. Free lightning stripes.” Yuu gor up from where they sat and waltzed up to Azul. “‘Sides they tell a story, and a really cool one at that.”

Azul huffed a bit before chuckling. “Thanks, Yuu.”

***

Many years have passed, and Yuu was still there in his head. Surely he would’ve grown out of it by now? Azul could hear the laughter of others already. The crybaby still has his imaginary friend after all these years! How pathetic…

Maybe, just maybe, it was something. He hoped it was. Checking out a few books he began his research into strange dreams. Maybe they were something more. A spirit stuck in time. A kid who was cursed. Something. Maybe he can help Yuu, bring them here.

***

“Don’t you think it's time we, you know… grow up?” Azul looked away, not being able to meet their eyes.

“What do you mean? Aren’t we grown up already? You’ve even been in college for a bit now, right?” Yuu frowned, but in their eyes was genuine confusion. Such soft, kind eyes, ones that he could not bear to look at right now.

“I mean… I’ve been having this same dream ever since I was a kid and wanted a friend… I have some real ones now and have gotten older, I have no need for imaginary friends anymore, Yuu. I need to let you go” Self-sabatoging as usual, he never grew out of it.

“What? I…” Yuu’s eyes widened, searching Azul’s face for answers, before looking away and thinking. “I mean… I guess it has been odd that I’ve been in this dream for a while. But there’s nothing wrong with it right…?”

“Yes there is! I’m a young adult with an imaginary friend! Do you know how dumb that sounds? Plus you’re just in my head… And I think its time for you to let go too.”

Yuu’s eyes became watery, the tears floating to the surface. “I. Wow, okay… Uh…” Yuu chuckled in disbelief, “I never thought my imaginary friend would be breaking with up with me, especially after all this time…”

“For the last time, you’re not real! I made you up in my head when I was a sad, stupid kid that had no friends! I’m not that stupid, fat crybaby anymore! I’m grown up now, I don’t need to keep holding on to this.” Azul snapped, tears of frustration in his eyes, he turned around, refusing to look at you. “Goodbye, Yuu.”

“… So that’s how it is, huh? After everything? … I see. Goodbye, Azul…” Their voice cracked, “it’s been fun… so much fun…” Yuu crumbled and sobbed, a rare sight for both of them, usually, it was Yuu comforting Azul. Yet now, when Yuu needs it, Azul isn’t there. Azul’s tears fell down as he ignored the cries. Guilt and frustration built inside of him, he made the mistake of turning around instead of waking up.

… Yuu was gone. Azul stared, he was no longer in the shallow, bright ocean he was used to. It was just a void. Nothing. No sign of Yuu at all. This was for the best, he tells himself. You’re not a kid anymore. Yet he hopes to see Yuu again deep inside,

***

It has been a year, maybe two, since Azul has dreamt of Yuu. He should be happy, estatic even. He got what he wanted. He grew up. So why? Why was he so sad?

Pushing the thought away, Azul got ready. It was that time of the year when the entrance ceremony started. He must look perfect. Donning his robes, he began his makeup along with the welcoming party that would ensue. He was sure Jade, wouldn’t disappoint him.

***

“Where is the headmage?” a student spoke “Probably didn’t show up” another replied.

"Ahem! I was not late!” Headmage Crowley retorted, slamming the door open. “One student missed orientation, and because I am so kind, led them back here, now go. Everyone was waiting for you.” Crowley held onto a weird creature, struggling against its binds. “I have your familiar.”

The student huffed “It’s not mine, it was just there, I dont know whose it is!” Azul tensed up at the hooded figure’s voice. It sounded… familiar. The student walked up to the mirror, their hood now out of their face. They looked just like…

"State your name.”

"I am Yuu….” Azul's eyes widened slightly. No way. This had to be some crazy coincidence. You aren’t real.

“You’re soul is…” Please be Octavinelle. Please. “Unclear to me.” What? “You are not from this world, nor this dimension. Your soul is unreadable, therefore, no dorm suits you.”

“How is this possible?” Crowley demanded. “The carriage brought in a student from another dimension, never in all of my years…” He trailed off. The cat he held in binds spoke up, “Me! Let me take their place!”

Even the way they closed their eyes in annoyance was the same. When they opened, they locked eyes with Azul. A flash of familiarity came across their face as they turned to look at him. “… Azul? Is that you?” 

Azul couldn’t help the expression that crossed his face, surprise followed by a forced calm as he presented his usual persona. It was them! It was really them! Things were gonna get much more interesting from here.