This is a sequel to my old one shot, Skin To Skin, but you do not have to read it first.

Prompt: She watched as the fish swam around the tank. She knew exactly how it felt to be enclosed, with people staring all day

There was a faint hum coming from somewhere in the facility. Where, she wasn't quite sure, but it was constant.

Morning and night, it was present. Echoing inside her head, never ending. It was like a headache she couldn't get rid of. The hum rippled through the water, reaching her every second of every day. Although, she wasn't exactly sure what time was night or day or even how many days she'd been in this hum-filled facility. There were no windows and any doors that opened, only opened into more metal framing and stainless still contraptions.

Several feet away, enclosed behind another immensely thick pane of glass, albeit a lot smaller, a dozen bluegill fish swam frantically around the tank. She watched as the fish swam around the tank. She knew exactly how it felt to be enclosed. 

Everyday, ever since she'd been captured and brought here, men dressed in bazar clothes would circle the round and tall tank she was in. At first, they wouldn't dare go close to the tank. Instead, they sent metal things down into the water, to which she didn't react too kindly too. They now sat, broken, at the bottom of the tank.

She couldn't figure out what these odd people wanted with her but she did know she just wanted to go home, back to the sea which they had taken her from. This place wasn't home. It was cold and lonely and dark.

In protest of the capture and her treatment, she'd attacked everything and everyone that had ever entered her isolated tank. Except the fish they'd tried to feed her. They still swam peacefully by her every once in a while, not minding her presence. It helped that none of the beings could handle the water like her, all choking when she pulled them into the tanks.

That is until he bravely dove into the tank with her that day. He hadn't drowned, he hadn't come at her with sharp objects. She learned then that they had their own way of breathing under water and taken it from him. Unlike the others, however, he didn't panic. He wasn't scared of her. Even when he needed the mask, to breathe, he hadn't an ounce of bad intentions within the depths of his dark eyes.

Following the encounter, she'd waited constantly to see his face appear on the other side of the tank again. When he finally did reappear, she was delighted that he came directly to the tank, to where she sat on the rock bottom.

Outside of the water, changed into less frightening looking attire, he looked much different. And handsome. His dark hair was long and messy but his eyes still remained the same and were as kind as ever. A little more excited to see him than she'd realized, she pressed her hand to the glass. He smiled, placing his hand on it as well.

She realized, then, that all this time, she had watched the people around her walk on their two legs, do strange activities, make weird noises, but never had it seemed as fascinating as when he did it. A part of her longed to know what it felt like to experience life such as he did. To follow him with those weird flat things and pointed objects, to laugh with him, to talk to him.

When he finally returned to the tank, this time in swimming trunks and a downsized pair of goggles, she couldn't help but flit to the top of the tank, curious to see him up close again. He wasn't wearing the mask he'd had before but neither did he dive lower into the waters, further away from the surface. He lifted his hand and waved before holding the hand out towards her. She returned the gesture without hesitation, relishing the warm his touch brought.

Above them, just outside the surface, blurry figures of the other men moved about. She noticed them and frowned. There was something dropped into the water and he reached out and caught it before it sunk. It was silver and shiny, metal. Her eyes flitted over the object, wondering why he needed it.

He stared at it as well, his mellow eyes looking cold now, unlike his usual kindness. Looking up at her, he shook his head, squeezing her hand, and letting go before swimming back to the surface.

"I can't do it," Sehun said, bursting from the water. Chanyeol rushed over to pull him out and onto the ledge.

"The hell you can," Junmyeon hissed. He shoved several assistants out of the way.

Sehun yanked the goggles from his head, swiping a hand across it to remove the dripping water. "I am not just going to dissect her like some frog."

Pushing Chanyeol, who was trying to offer Sehun a towel, out of the way, Junmyeon squated down beside Sehun. "A week ago you were dying to get in on this and discover this species along with the rest of us. You can't just go soft on it because it didn't kill you the first time around."

Sehun harshly jerked the flippers off his feet and stood. He pressed his face closer to Junmyeon, stooping to his height. "She is not an It and this discussion is over. You can find someone else to do it—"

Suddenly, Junmyeon's tight grip was on his arm, yanking him back. "You walk away and that professional diving career you've always wanted? It's gone."

"You can't do that," Sehun said, voice dangerously low. Around them, other biologists and assistants pretended to be interested in the temperature of the water or their shoes.

Junmyeon's grip tightened painfully. "All it takes it one phone call, Sehun."

Sehun gritted his teeth, glancing at Chanyeol who looked like he wanted to split. Then his eyes trailed over to the water. He could barely make out the orange hue of her, swimming and waiting just below it for him. Ever since the night he'd dove into the water with her and seen so clearly that she wasn't all that different from him and everyone else in the room, he'd been plagued by guilt. This was supposed to be the ultimate discovery, his name would be known world wide.

Then Junmyeon told him their plans for her. 

There was no way he was going to be a part of them dissecting a person, tail or not, for the name of science. A living, breathing, innocent person. It was basically like kidnapping a child and deciding you wanted to dissect them to see how the inside of a child looked. He could not, would not, do it. He didn't even want to be a part of the first stages of extracting tissue samples. The dissecting was actually far off as they wanted to keep samples fresh and run experiments, even learn how to breed her, but it would happen and he didn't want to be there when it did. 

" you, Junmyeon," Sehun spat, throwing the flippers and goggles into the water and stalking off. 

He hadn't even noticed Chanyeol following him until he was in the locker room, toweling off.

"Are you seriously doing this right now?" he asked, leaning on the lockers. "You're going to give up your desired career because she held hands with you?"

Throwing the towel inside the locker and stripping off the trunks and trading them for his jeans, Sehun scowled. "She's not just some fish or insect to be discovered. She actually thinks like we do, Chanyeol."

The older one chuckled. "How do we know that for sure though? What if she's just some kind of evolved species that looks kind of like us to fool us into thinking they're like us so they can kill us." Sehun paused to throw his friend a look of annoyance before continuing to dress. "Look, I'm not saying to throw your morals out the window but think about what you're doing for a second. Junmyeon will have you banned from any marine research facilities in the country, maybe the world. He'll make sure no one gives you proper diving license, ever. Are you really going to give that up because you feel like that fish