Chapter Text
It was not as if today was a special day. It was just a regular Friday morning. Keith opened his eyes and then screwed them shut at the brightness of the rising sunlight in his eyes. He groaned and rolled onto his back, rubbing at his face and stretching his limbs out until one or two joints popped satisfyingly. A glance at his clock showed six-thirty in the morning. A little later than he would like, but he had stayed up reading the night before. Keith sat up - swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress - and stood, stretching his arms above his head.
His morning was began in a monotonous method he had repeated so many times by now it was just mechanical. He brushed his teeth, washed his face, made a cup of coffee and a bagel, put on some sunscreen, and then he was off to the beach.
Since moving to Ferndale with his mom and dad he had fallen into a comfortable routine. He took to the surf every morning, riding the waves in the quiet solitude of the tourist-free coves that the quiet little town had to offer. That's not to say the town didn't receive its own fair share of traffic, but it was not on the itinerary of your average traveler. It was perhaps only notable for the rustic style it kept, reminding Keith of an old western town from those movies his dad used to watch.
It was small enough that in the short months Keith had been here he knew practically everyone in town. His mom had easily grown a practice at the hospital and his dad worked as a fireman when it was needed...which wasn't very often. Surprisingly for California. Needless to say, everyone grew to enjoy the Koganes.
Well, Keith assumed they did. They liked his parents, at least. He himself was not a social butterfly, and having graduated a year before moving there didn't aid him in forging connections through school. He spoke to most people during his afternoon job at the general store, where he would work for six hours every day besides Saturdays and Sundays.
As usual, the beach was quiet, only the cry of the occasional seagull and the breaking of the waves against the soft sand was to be heard. Keith took in a deep, luxurious gulp of the cool, salty air, exhaling in a sigh of contentment as he hefted his board. He wasn't feeling particularly adventurous today, so he simply set himself up atop the board and paddled over to the coves. When he reached his destination he leaned back on the board and stretched his foot up, reaching a hand toward his toes as he stretched. Even if he didn't end up riding the waves that crashed with a distant rumble just down the beach, it was still part of his routine.
The sun was climbing steadily, and by the time he hoisted himself up again it was hanging high in the horizon, bathing him in bright warmth. Keith didn't mind the heat, he was used to it after a childhood in Arizona, but the fairness of his skin didn't very well agree with the copious amounts of sunshine he now got on a regular basis. At least in Arizona he had lived close to a gym for his exercise and avoided both the extents of the crippling heat and the sunburns. Because who in their right mind went out jogging in over a hundred degrees? Certainly not him.
Now though, he probably spent half his paycheck on sunscreen. Not that he had anything else to spend it on, he was never very needy.
His mom would laugh at his attempts to feel sorry for himself whenever he inevitably came home with a sunburn.
"Nobody is forcing you to go on the waves, Keith."
Keith smiled at the thought. Indeed, no one was forcing him to do this every day. But he had always loved the water, he loved spending time in it, and he loved the adrenaline rush he achieved from coasting on the curls. He wouldn't give it up for anything, even sunburns.
Speaking of the waves...
Keith took hold of his paddle again, resolved to at least ride one or two before his time on the sea was over for the day. And it was then that the glisten of the sun on a foreign mass in the distance caught his eye. Keith frowned, lowering his paddle and straightening his back so that he might see it more clearly. But it would seem that over twenty feet of distance wasn't exactly a vantage point for him, and he gave a small hum as he began to make his way over.
Curiosity led the way to concern when he spotted the curling thread of a suspiciously red substance in the water. Whatever it was, it would seem it was not an object, but a creature, and probably dead...or dying. Keith wasn't deterred by that fact, as while he was predominantly worried, that flicker of curiosity lingered.
Only to be stopped dead in its tracks and filled with a great, big, inelegantly summarized: "What the fuck?"
Keith stared, awed and yet utterly confused by what he was seeing. Because that...that just wasn't possible. Was it?
Was this a prank?
Keith turned in place, twisting his torso as he glanced around in vain for some hidden person with a camera. Surely it was a prank. Surely?
Keith slipped off of his board, swimming over and letting his jaw drop as he took in the great majesty of what he was seeing. Okay, yeah, you couldn't fake something like that. You couldn't fake the intricacies of the flesh of that tail, nor the way it bled absolutely seamlessly into the skin at the...the merman's hips and up his spine.
Keith had difficulty admitting the word, even in his head. But this was a merman, no doubt about it.
He was a specimen, that much Keith could garner. His smooth, dark-scaled, white-spotted tail was astoundingly long, at least six feet, maybe seven, and altogether the man was either nine or ten feet long. It was adorned with many smaller fins, and one large tailfin, silvery and almost sparkling. His skin was deeply tanned with what Keith assumed was time in the sun, shimmering as the light caught on a scale here and there. He couldn't see his face, but the mer had long, dark locks that trailed down over his shoulders.
Though the physical features, while intriguing, were not what sought Keith's immediate attention. It was the deep gash in the creature's back, curling around toward his ribs and oozing dark blood into the water. Keith swore, treading through the water to reach up and feel for a pulse at the merman's neck. He tried not to pause and marvel at the sight of gills and papery, silky fins sitting on the junction of his shoulder. Upon finding a steady beat beneath his fingertips he was wrapping an arm around the mer's and tugging him toward the coves. He didn't know as much as his mom about wounds like this, but he knew the basics. And he didn't have much to work with in open water, not to mention the inevitable attraction of various carnivorous creatures.
But Jesus! This guy was heavy! Keith was just glad he didn't seem to need air, and that he didn't need to struggle to keep both himself and his newfound companion above the surface. At least the distance was not much more than ten meters, and he was a good swimmer in any case. Not like that mattered when you were trying to lug what felt like an easy three or four-hundred pounds. Maybe even more.
Keith grunted as he approached the lip of the small slope of land inside the cove. And he took a breath as his head slipped below the surface, if only for a couple seconds. As soon as his feet touched the squishy surface of loose sand beneath the water he was heaving himself up and dragging the merman onto the sand. He left the tail to float, he didn't really want to try and hoist that out of the water, after all. He was sure it made up the bulk of this guy's weight.
Now that he was on land again he took a moment to press his hands to his knees and pant for breath.
God...
He wiped at the saltwater trickling down his forehead, straightening and taking a step toward the merman. He pursed his lips as he took in the severity of the wound, it was indeed deep, and it looked painful, if he were to count the dark bruising around the gash he would assume the merman was caught up in the storms of the past few days. Maybe he was thrown against the rocks? It seemed like a logical conclusion. The wound didn't seem like it would be life-threatening if it was tended to, and the salt from the sea would prevent any infection. So Keith surmised that his only job here was to stem the bleeding and patch him up.
Keith huffed a small laugh at the absurdity of the day, running his hand over his face, and then he blinked as a thought occurred to him. Oh...he didn't have anything to patch him up with. He frowned deeply at that, unsure if it was wise to head back home and fetch something without at least stopping the blood flow. Which was considerable. It would take him just about ten minutes to get there and another ten to get back. And he had to fetch his board, and bring a first aid kit on his way back.
He sighed and cast his glance down at his swim shorts.
Goddamnit.
Keith thumbed at the fabric, and initially dismissed the idea. It was too breathable, it wouldn't stop any bleeding. But maybe....maybe he could use it as a cinch instead of a clot?
With that in mind he gripped the edge of his shorts and tugged with all his might, almost falling off balance as the fabric gave, if only just barely. He groaned when he came to the conclusion that there was no way this wasn't getting awkward, and that he couldn't do this properly while wearing them.
"Fuck my life." Keith muttered as he tugged the garment off and ignored his own nudity in favor of tearing more precisely at his shorts. At least he could put what was left of them back on.
Once he was left with a few wide strips of fabric he turned his attention back to his "patient". He noticed belatedly and with a gasp that his right arm was missing, cut off just inches above the elbow in a jagged mess that looked long healed. Keith blinked at it, and at the flash of white hair that he hadn't seen before as the merman let out a small noise. Keith shook his head and went about wrapping the strips of cloth around the man's torso, and that in itself was quite a chore. The guy would be at least twice his size if he were human, so you could probably guess at how much more difficult it was maneuvering him. But he managed to make it work, in an ugly, half-assed sort of way.
He tightened the poor excuse for a makeshift bandage around the merman's torso with a small tug, and as a whimper escaped the creature in his care he swore softly.
"Sorry." he murmured, tying the knot with a pat against his skin. "Be right back, buddy." he said as he stood, pulling what was left of his shorts back on and running back into the ocean. He ignored the way bright blood was washed off of his hands by the water.
He must have gone to and fro in record time, because before he knew it he was paddling back with his kit in tow and a fresh pair of shorts, and a shirt, and a second roll of bandages. The guy was a great beast of a man...err-merman, at least Keith assumed he was bigger than usual, because...well he was.
Upon arriving back he saw that the mer had not moved, and he felt a furrow form in his brow out of concern. Instinctively he was kneeling beside his head and testing again for a pulse, a small wave of relief flooding him when he found it active. And though Keith didn't know if mermaids functioned the same way as humans, he swiped long hair aside from his forehead and pressed the back of his hand to it to garner his temperature. A fever was nearly impossible, as infection was highly unlikely, and he would have removed his hand at the expected conclusion that there was no fever. But he found himself taking pause and exhaling a small gasp, because....
"Holy shit."
Keith had seen attractive people before, men in particular, but...that said...
Upon seeing strong cheekbones, an absolutely chiseled jawline, long lashes that had no business being so lush and elegant, elfish ears, and a delicate draping of both black and white hair, Keith was positively starstruck. He supposed it was true what they said in mythology: mermaids and mermen alike were positively beautiful. He did take notice of the scar that bridged jagged line across his nose and tapered off on either cheek. But that only served to enhance the ethereal beauty of this creature.
Keith bit his lip and retracted his hand, clearing his throat as he forcefully turned his attention to his first aid kit. "Right. Okay." he mumbled to himself as he made quick work of the makeshift bandage. He rinsed the wound with the seawater and tried not to think about the twitch of the merman's tail and the hiss he sucked in between his teeth. He wasn't awake, but he was still feeling this. He found himself consistently murmuring sorries and wincing as he thoroughly cleaned the cut, smearing antiseptic over it and wishing he knew how to stitch it. Granted he didn't have the tools for that. He wrapped it snugly and then sat back to wipe at his forehead, studying his handiwork thoughtfully.
He frowned at the prospect of the bandages soaking through and moved to tug the mer further up into the sand. The tide was in, so the cove would be cut off from the ocean later in the day. The lip of the entrance was high enough that the water would pool in the cove regardless of the tide.
Keith sighed and moved to sit by the mer's head, watching as his brows, fins, and ears twitched in his sleep and how the gills on his neck stuttered with his stilted breath every so often. He bit his lip as he reached a tentative hand down, swiping damp strands of silvery hair from his forehead and tucking them gently behind his ear. His fingers didn't leave his skin, and he hummed as he took in the strange texture of it, similar and yet different from that of a human's.
He turned his gaze down, and he trailed his hand down the length of the mer's only arm, lifting his hand and studying the thin, veined webbing that spanned the stretch of his fingers, of which ended in sharp nails...or claws rather. "That's weird." he said to himself. He pursed his lips and then a thread of curiosity led him to carefully pull back the mer's top lip, taking in the row of sharp canines. So he was a carnivore.
He hadn't thought about what might happen if the mer woke up. He would surely be in pain, that was what Keith had brought ibuprofen for. But he would need the mer to actually eat it, and he didn't necessarily want to chance trying to make him swallow it unconscious. Who knew what those teeth could do?
Keith leaned back on his palms to purse his lips in thought, bouncing his knee against the sand and watching the mer's chest rise and fall with his breath.
His gaze drifted to the inside of the cove, studying the outcropping of rock. The sun broke through the roof in thin streams, made visible by the occasional hole in the rock above. It gave the cove a gentle glow, and the caws of seagulls in the distance helped the atmosphere grow calm and peaceful. It was nice, Keith surmised. He did wonder whether the mer would stay once he woke up. He supposed he could only wait and see. He didn't know how much mobility would be limited by the wound in his back. If the mer could swim well on his own then there was no harm in letting him go.
Keith heaved a sigh and shifted to reach over the mer's head, grabbing for his kit. And then he stilled at the shuffling of the body beneath him, turning his head to meet a piercing silver gaze. He froze in place, watching warily as those eyes blinked, darting around so quickly he almost missed it. And then he was recoiling in surprise as a hand grabbed at his hip, claws scraping skin, and in his clumsy efforts to move out of reach he tumbled forward into the first aid kit with a startled cry.
And then he let out a sharp yelp of pain as the mer sunk his teeth into the meat of his calf and bit down...hard.
"Ow! What the fuck?!" Keith yelped, twisting in place and hissing curses as he tugged against the firm, stinging hold the mer kept on him, gaze still locked on his face and looking rather pissed off. "Fucking hell!" Keith panted, looking away and letting his body sag. Every move he made only served for those jagged teeth to sink further into his leg, and he was not anxious to make his wound any worse. So he waited, panting into the fine sand and keeping his muscles as slack as possible.
And after perhaps five minutes he felt the mer relax his jaw. Keith twitched, but he still waited, because if he pulled away now he was going to go against the grain of his teeth and that would not be pleasant.
The mer finally removed his teeth, and it took every ounce of willpower Keith had not to move just yet. He exhaled long and slow, his calf pulsing with red-hot pain with every beat of his heart. He did have to wonder whether or not the mer was venomous. He didn't think so? Weren't venomous creatures brightly colored?
Keith inhaled sharply and took his chance. He rolled away, pushing to his feet and flinching at the low hiss the mer cast his way. He didn't make two steps before he dropped back down to the sand and cradled his leg to his chest.
"Jesus!" Keith winced, examining the bite mark with a wince. "Grateful much? So much for saving you." he turned a scowl the mer's way while he blindly groped around for the bandages. "That makes two of us injured now. And to think I was going to go get you some fish." he complained as he shuffled over to the water and drizzled some over the steadily bleeding punctures. The sting of the salt made him whimper pathetically and he turned his head in embarrassment when he saw the mer lean forward in his periphery.
Keith turned back to grab some antiseptic out of the kit, glancing up to see the mer watching curiously, sitting up and clutching at his own bandaged wound all the while. Keith heaved a sigh while he wound the bandages tightly over his calf, more tightly than he had done for the mer. He needed to swim back home and he couldn't afford for the bandages to come loose or his blood to seep into the water.
"My dad says I never look before I leap." Keith said, not entirely sure why he was speaking to him. Maybe to fill the silence, maybe to make himself feel better, because nursing an angry bite from some mythical cryptid wasn't exactly how he had planned this day going. "He's right, but I never listen either." he said with a hum and a smile, looking up to see silver eyes regarding him curiously, suspiciously.
"I could say the same for you. I didn't hurt you, you know." he continued, and the mer tilted his head, ears twitching beneath the thick curtain of hair cascading over his shoulders. "I get you must have been scared, though." Keith shrugged, tying off the bandage and gingerly arranging his leg against the soft sand. "I would be too."
The mer only continued to stare at him.
Keith pushed a long breath out through pursed lips and chuckled again at how crazy this day had turned out. "Can you even understand me?" he asked, looking up to meet the mer's intense gaze. "No? Yes?" he prodded, lifting his hands and gesturing at the mer, only to make him bare his teeth and hiss at him again.
Keith scoffed and pointed to his mouth, "Can you speak?"
The mer tilted his head again, teeth vanishing as he pressed his lips into a thin line. Keith pointed again, and the mer blinked.
"Can you understand?" Keith pointed to his head, and the mer only let out what sounded like a soft coo, strange for something so human-like to produce and yet fitting for a merman. "Guess that means no." Keith chuckled, "Just my luck I happen to get stuck with a merman who doesn't know English. This isn't like the movies at all."
The mer simply stared.
Keith sighed, getting to his feet with a wobble, "I'm gonna go get you some food." he said, taking a careful step on his injured leg and gasping, it wasn't bad enough that he wouldn't be able to walk, but he would have a defined limp for a while, that was for sure. "Thanks for this, nice little memento." Keith drawled sarcastically, gesturing to his leg, and the mer looked where he pointed almost lazily.
"Heh." Keith laughed again, "You're not even sorry." he shook his head as he gathered his board and stepped into the water. A low noise of distress prompted that he look back. The mer was obviously having difficulty moving, and he was panting heavily, clutching his side and looking - for lack of a better word - terrified. He glanced at the opening of the cove, and then back at Keith, desperate to convey but lacking in the means.
"What?" Keith prompted, kneeling with a wince of pain to be at eye level, "You don't want me to leave?" he asked, and the mer only stared without understanding, eyes pleading. "I'll be right back, I promise." he said, reaching down to pat the tail that floated in the water, ignoring the hiss of reproach as he did so. He raised a brow at the mer even as he left, and the mer only scowled at him as he watched him go.
Keith returned a little later than he planned, as he needed to devise a way to carry the fish back. But he settled on a cooler because it would float, it would keep the fish cold, and, well...he was hungry too. He packed a sandwich for himself, hoping it wouldn't taste like fish. He also checked his leg while he was home, and despite the fact that it hurt like a bitch the halo of red puncture wounds looked like they would heal up nicely, so long as he didn't do anything too strenuous.
By the time he got back to the cove the mer was laying on his back and staring at the ceiling, looking for all the world like he had been pouting.
"Hey buddy." Keith said as he hoisted himself from the water and dragged the cooler ashore. The mer turned to look at him, expression blank and somewhat unimpressed. "I said I'd be right back." Keith said as he opened the cooler. The mer seemed to heave a sigh as he turned his head away and fiddled with the sand, tail flicking absently in the water, the appendage was rather distractingly beautiful.
Keith shook his head in disbelief over the mer's behavior, he was acting not all dissimilar to a petulant child. Though he supposed the mer couldn't have learned any manner of decorum alongside his lack of a language. So he would give him a tentative pass on that. "Hope you're hungry." he said as he hoisted one of the snappers up for the mer to see.
The mer turned to look at him lazily before his interest was most definitely piqued, and he lifted his head, eyes wide and his lips parting in what looked like surprise. Keith smiled, standing and limping over to offer the snapper to him. The mer struggled to sit up, wincing visibly at the strain in his back muscles. Keith would have helped, but he had to assume from now on that any attempt at touch would be met with sharp teeth. The mer exhaled a sharp breath once he had accomplished his goal and then furrowed his brows up at Keith, his gaze flitting to the fish longingly.
"Well go ahead and take it." Keith lifted his hand into the mer's reach, "I am not getting any closer." he said.
The mer's arm moved to take it, hesitating briefly, and then Keith held his breath while those clawed fingers brushed against his in their endeavor to take the fish from him. His touch was surprisingly gentle, delicate even as he plucked the snapper from his hands and then pulled it to his mouth to unceremoniously take a bite.
Keith wrinkled his nose, "Eww." he muttered as he went to sit by the cooler. He fetched the second fish, watching calculatingly as the mer swallowed the head of his snapper whole before he moved on to the rest of the fish. With a hum and a small smirk Keith opened the bottle of ibuprofen and stuffed a few capsules into the gills, hoping the mer would swallow them without noticing. He turned to see the mer watching him, eyes narrowed and neck craning to see what Keith was up to.
"You want another one?"
The mer blinked at him.
Keith stood and winced as his calf throbbed with his next steps. "Here." he held the second fish out to the mer, who narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he slowly repeated the process of taking the fish. Keith almost laughed when the mer swallowed the head whole yet again, all the while watching him warily. He bit his lip as he smiled, turning in place to fetch the last fish and his own sandwich. He chanced stepping closer, and while the mer's lip curled up in warning he didn't make a move to stop Keith from laying the last fish on his lap.
Keith smiled at him while he rinsed his hands in the water and then opened up the bag that held his sandwich. He sat down two or three feet away from the mer and ate quietly, focused solely on his food and keeping an eye on him in his periphery. He did notice that after the mer had finished his meal he eyed Keith intently, and after a moment he slowly turned his head to meet those silver eyes. The mer continued to stare, and Keith took another bite without breaking the gaze.
"What?" he prompted even though he knew the mer couldn't possibly answer him. The mer looked at his sandwich, and Keith scoffed. "You want to try it?" he asked, gesturing with the sandwich and watching as the mer tilted his head in curiosity. It was...kind of cute...and also a little disturbing to watch what looked like a full grown man behave like an animal. He carefully tore a piece from his sandwich and then held his hand just barely in the mer's reach.
His hand was quicker this time, and Keith yanked his hand back in a protective flinch as the tidbit was grabbed from him. The mer cast him a looked that almost seemed amused as he began to examine the bit of sandwich. Keith watched him separate the bread from the turkey and the lettuce, meticulous and careful in his mannerisms as he lifted the bread to nibble at it. He seemed to consider for a moment before he took a proper bite of it, and then he looked at Keith before he tossed the remaining bread at him.
Keith threw his hands up with a yelp as the bread hit his chin and bounced away, laughing at the blatant rejection. "What about the rest?" he asked, pointing to the turkey and the lettuce that still rested in the mer's lap.
The mer scowled at him and repeated the tasting process with the lettuce, and Keith was surprised that he seemed to like it. The same with the turkey, though he seemed offended at the mustard, and he wiped it off on the sand before he finished it.
Keith crossed his legs and massaged absentmindedly at his calf, heaving a tired sigh, "Well, now I know what you like." he said, turning his gaze to the mouth of the cove. The tide was beginning to go out, and he needed to be in town within the hour to start his shift. He didn't really want to leave...
He turned to look at the mer, watching as he mimicked him and stared out at the open water.
"Are you gonna stay?" Keith asked, and the mer turned to him, his ear twitching. "Stay here?" Keith pointed to the sand, and the mer furrowed his brows, visibly confused. "Or go?" Keith pointed to the ocean, and the mer's eyes followed his gesture stiltedly. And then recognition seemed to flash across his features, and he lifted his hand to point at the ocean.
Keith tried not to feel disappointed. Well...if anything, he'd have a fun story to tell his relatives in the distant future, maybe be pegged as the crazy one in the family - or at the very least a liar - but hey, what can you do?
"You want to go?" he repeated, pointing again, and the mer pointed again in kind, more insistently. Keith nodded and sighed as he heaved himself to his feet. "Okay, I gotta touch you for that." he said as he stepped over, and the mer's eyes grew a bit wild as he moved to step over his tail. Keith looked up, slowly reaching down to grab at his tail, just above the fin, and the mer's lip began to curl instinctively before he seemed to calm himself. With visible effort, but Keith didn't blame him.
"Just gonna put you back in." Keith said as he began to pull, and the mer jolted in surprise as he was dragged back into the water, a lot easier than dragging him out had been, that was for sure. Keith was surprised when the mer wriggled in the water and then sank to the bottom of the cavern floor. He watched from where he stood in the sand, waiting for him to leave, but the mer only twisted in place a few times, flicking his tail and floating a little ways before he sank back down.
Perhaps he was too injured?
Keith took a step into the water, and the mer turned to look at him, his hair floating around everywhere and obscuring his face from view, but Keith hoped he would give him the benefit of the doubt. He took a deep breath and sank below the surface, swimming down with difficulty and gesturing toward the bank of the water. The mer stared at him, and he exhaled his breath in a groan as he swam back up and breached for a second breath. "Fuckin'...ugh." he grumbled as he swiped his hair out of his face and looked back down, only to find the bottom of the cove empty.
He turned in place and then yelped in surprise when the mer was floating beside him, staring at him from behind a dripping curtain of mix-and-match hair.
"You scared the shit out of me!" Keith scolded, and the mer only snuffed, nose beneath the water's surface and his brows pinched in obvious pain as he slowly twisted his tail from side to side in the water. It was enough to keep him afloat, but not enough to efficiently get him anywhere, it would seem.
"So you don't really have a choice, do you?" Keith said as he backpedaled to the bank, and the mer followed with stilted movements, his breath heaving as he rested in the shallow water and hung his head. Keith sat in the water a foot away, watching a myriad of emotions pass over the mer's face while he realized the extent of his predicament.
"Hey..." Keith shuffled over on his knees, and the mer hunched his shoulders, hissing as he laid a hand on his closest shoulder. Keith didn't remove it, and he leveled the mer with a steady gaze as he turned his head and scowled at him in offense. "You just need to heal up." Keith said with a slight smile, and the mer hoisted himself up onto his arm, trying to maneuver until he was sitting. He bared his teeth when Keith used his other hand to help, and Keith tsked and shook his head.
"Ungrateful." he muttered as the mer successfully rolled into a sit, panting and glaring at him from beneath thick lashes that really dampened the effect he seemed to be going for. Keith absently tweaked the small, pale fin that adorned the lower underside of his tail, and the mer grunted. "You're probably going to have to get used to me touching you, buddy. I'm going to need to change those someday." Keith gestured vaguely to the bandages wrapped snug around his back and belly. The mer followed his gesture and then thumbed at the gauze.
Keith briefly worried he would take them off, but the mer seemed to understand that it was meant to help, so he only huffed and leaned back on his single hand. Keith frowned as he remembered the time, and he bit his lip as he turned toward the ocean. The tide was heading out, and he would have a much harder time of it if he didn't leave soon. He was loathe to do so, because despite their rocky beginnings he was starting to enjoy the mer's company.
"Hey." he tapped the mer's tail, and he turned to look at Keith expectantly.
Keith pointed to himself, and then to the cove entrance, "I need to go." he said, and he could swear the mer's pointed ears drooped, his eyes growing sad. At least he seemed to understand Keith's intentions well enough. "I'm sorry, I'd stay if I could." Keith said, standing and fetching the cooler. The mer watched him all the while, his tail swishing to and fro in the water and his shoulders hunched to his ears in a pout.
"I'll be back later." Keith said as he entered the water, and the mer's eyes grew wide as he began to leave, as if he couldn't believe he was actually going. Keith gasped as the silky flat of his tailfin thwacked into his side, but looking back he saw no malice, just a frightened creature that didn't want to be alone. "I promise." Keith said, and the mer only turned his head to sigh at the water.
Keith made his way home and eyed the jet ski they hadn't fueled and tuned yet, it had been sitting in the winter waters for a while. Perhaps he would fix it up in the morning and use it for his visits to the cove. It would be quicker and he wouldn't need to worry about dragging the heavy cooler along.
He took a quick rinse in his shower, dressing in some jeans and a t-shirt before he grabbed his wallet and keys and headed to his motorbike.
'We really need to find a way to communicate.' he thought to himself on the drive to town. And all throughout work he wondered what the mer would be up to. He wondered if the mer thought he wasn't coming back?
He made a mental note to buy some fish so his dad wouldn't notice they were missing...and a few extra so the mer could eat.
The mer...
Keith frowned as he stocked a shelf with canned beans. He also needed to figure out a name for the merman, it was growing tiring not having anything to call him. He didn't suppose the mer had a name of his own? What with not having a language and all. Maybe he could teach him? He would be there for a while, after all. At least a few weeks, judging by how severe his injury had been.
But what would he name him?
Keith was fairly distracted by that question, and his coworkers kept nudging him when he started to trail off in thought. Luckily he wasn't manning the register, otherwise he might have irritated a few customers. He was trying to name the mer after some aspect of his body almost like one names a pet. Though he did shoot down Spot right away, he wasn't that unoriginal.
He chuckled at the thought.
"What're you laughing at?"
Keith turned to Pidge in surprise, shrugging his shoulders, "I think I got too much sun today." he said with a lopsided smile.
"I'll say." Pidge gave a grunt as she hoisted herself up onto the counter where Keith was working. "You're usually so efficient. You've been ditzy all day. You got a girlfriend or something?" she chuckled, and Keith scowled.
"Definitely not." he said with a wrinkle of his nose, turning away and returning to his task of sorting the chips.
Pidge raised a brow at his reaction, "Ohhh...boyfriend then?"
Keith flushed and scowled at her, "Again, no."
Pidge smirked, "Oh please, that's the face of a liar." she crossed her arms and studied her short nails.
Keith sputtered, "I'm not...lying!" he exclaimed, blush only intensifying at the way his voice cracked.
Pidge chuckled, "If you say so. But I'm onto you, Kogane." she said as she pushed off the counter with a wink.
"Little gremlin." Keith muttered.
"Heard that! Now I'm going to hack into your phone and find out!"
"I don't. Have. A boyfriend!!"
Keith shook his head with a fond (if a little irritated) smile and returned to his task, thinking about the strange shock of silvery hair that adorned the mer's forehead, always spilling across his face and practically sparkling in the sunlight. He lifted his head and then pulled his phone from his pocket, looking up names that held white as a meaning. He frowned at the names he found, scrolling absently and not liking a single one.
"Maybe I'll figure one out later."