About ten years ago now, a fisherman named Mori Ougai was on a fishing trip when a young mer got tangled in one of his nets. The mer was young - looking around four years old, and after getting over the initial panic of getting yanked out of the ocean, he warmed up to Mori fast. Mori took him in and soon got him integrated into the mer domestication program, where the boy was taught everything he would need to know, and finally, after a long few months, he was officially part of Mori's family.

Now, the mer, Osamu, was fourteen years old, and after a big change at home, things were finally reaching a normalcy. See, his baba, Mori, and his papa, Yukichi, decided to add to their family, conceiving a little girl named Elise. It took a long time for Osamu to adapt to the attention shift - no longer being the youngest child, but he was finally getting used to not always being able to have his baba and papa's attentions.

That's why today, he was playing alone outside. Yukichi was at work, his oldest brother Oda, had moved out recently and is living in a dorm on the otherside of the city for college, his other brother, Ranpo, raccoon sitting for his boyfriend, and his older sister, Akiko, was out with some friends. Basically, the only people at home were Osamu, Mori, and Elise, but Mori was putting all of his attention on the like one and a half year old princess.

It's the beginning of summer, but to Osamu, it still felt unbearably hot. Mers aren't built for warm temperatures - they live in the cold ocean, after all. So, warm temperatures were hot for Osamu, and hot temperatures were unbearable. Even though it was only the beginning of summer, it felt like the middle of it to him. Even worse? Mori hadn't set up the pool yet, so Osamu couldn't cool down in it. It was fine, though. He was having fun, playing outside on this nice day. Sure, he was sweating profusely, his mouth was completely dry, he felt nauseous, and he was forming a headache, but there wasn't anything to really worry about...

....Yeah. He passed out.

Mori doesn't know how long it's been like this, but he just realized how quiet it is outside. One moment, he was hearing his son playing outside and talking to himself, and now? He hears nothing. Concerned, tells Elise to play in her room and walks outside, quickly finding the problem. There, on the ground, was an unconscious Osamu, soaked in sweat, panting, and terribly flushed. Stupid, stupid! He should have thought to monitor Osamu like he always did when he played outside alone in the heat.

He wasted no time scooping the boy up and getting him inside. Thankfully, his own classes at the domestication program when going through the process of adopting Osamu taught him how to deal with this. Mer heat stroke is a little different to human heat stroke, so they had to teach him how to deal with it since it was incredibly easy for mers to get. He runs a cold bath and puts ice into the water, and in no time, the water is mimicking the cold of the ocean. He touches the special pressure points to force Osamu's form to change back from human to mer and lowers him in the water, taping cold sponges to the boy's gills so he can breathe and making sure a bucket is at the ready if/when he inevitably throws up. Once he cools down, he'll need to get some food - probably fish since it's easiest on mers' stomachs, in him.

Within five minutes, Osamu is regaining consciousness, very groggy as he stirs awake. Mori is rubbing his arms and shoulders soothingly, speaking in a hushed voice, "Hey, baby... how are you feeling?" Mori can only feel relieved that he found Osamu when he did. If he had been even half an hour later.... "Tell me how you're feeling. Is there anything I can get for you?" He asks, leaving those thoughts for later - most likely when he's in bed tonight talking with Yukichi about what happened today. Speaking of Yukichi, he'll probably have to call him once Osamu is cooled down and in bed...