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It was so early that fog still obscured the tips of the cedars lining the shore.
Well, early was relative - 8 am would be late had it been any other day you’d have to get up and prepare for work. But here and now, on vacation, it was fairly early, especially considering you had, naturally, planned to sleep in every other morning. Theoretically at least.
And yet here you were, comfortably toasty in soft, fluffy clothes, stuffed into a big red wetsuit, head topped with a thick beanie and with excitement in your heart.
The little boat, driven by one of the guides knowing the area like their pocket, didn’t look too reassuring; it dipped and swayed in the little waves that licked at the pontons, shortly below the main tourhouse up half a flight of sun-bleached wooden steps.
Half a dozen other people milled around the waiting area as well, all without exception holding cameras.
You felt around one of the outer, non-waterproof pockets of the thick suit - yep, your phone was still there.
Not to think what would happen if you’d take the expensive digital camera out on a boat ride like this, only to have an unexpected little wave knock it out of your hands and plunge it into the bottomless depth…
Your phone was an acceptable substitute, especially considering how you hadn’t come here to take pictures, but to make memories.
“All aboard!” Came the hoarse cry from the driver. Anticipation washed over the group.
You would really do it. All these months of work and saving everything you could, for this vacation, for this boat ride - to drive out to the open ocean, to see wales.
The excitement made your hands quiver.
On your way out of the safe haven, a sound nestled into the embrace of the coast, you caught he guide throw a few questioning glances at the sky. They only paused minimally in their telling about bald eagles sitting in the trees and how everyone was on watch-duty to spot them. The fog stayed behind with the trees as soon as the driver turned towards the open ocean, past a formation of rocks that were covered in seals. One of them lazily lifted one of its flippers and waved.
“Alright folks, so we might have to cut this tour short today - we’ve been getting reports there’s some heavy rain coming in, and we don’t wanna get hit with that on the open waters. But so far it’s looking good, so, eh, we’ll see.”
Someone asked about experiencing a storm in this boat, and the guide gave them a lopsided grin.
“In this old thing? You’d be lucky if you came out alive. Nah, you best sit out a storm safe on the shore. Better, in a warm cabin with someone to keep you company and a good drink in your hand!”
Cheers and laughter.
A little way further out the driver slowed the boat so everyone could take a good look at a sea otter that was just floating between the waves, disappearing now and then before coming back up and cleaning its little head. Not long after that, the walkie-talkie crackled and an almost not-understandable voice spoke something.
“Folks! We just got news of a whale sighting not too far from here. Hang in tight, we might end up seeing some today after all!”
The murmurs and approving words didn’t last too long, after the clouds started to look a little darker grey, hanging a little low. But then another tour-boat came into sight, and you caught a glance of a rounded back with a minimal fin and every doubt you’d had about anything else was swept away.
The salty breeze blew into your face, left a hint of the ocean on your lips as you followed the others and stood from the bench in the middle of the boat.
Two whales were gathering food, the driver narrated, explaining there wouldn’t be sights of a tail fin until one or both decided to dive deep.
For a while everyone took pictures and admired the parts they could catch of the large animals mostly hidden below water.
Then the other boat started to move, the crackling of an incoming message disrupting the otherwise very peaceful mood. Something like the sound of something big rushing over the water, still far away, reached your ears. Confused by its origin you turned in your seat.
In moments the wind picked up. The breeze from before, salty, suddenly smelled like rain, whipped the long hair of a fellow passenger next to you around and had the boat gently swaying from side to side.
“Everybody sit down and hold on to the boat, the rain might have come earlier than expected - if everybody holds on, we should get-”
You momentarily stopped listening as a boy, surely younger and nonetheless taller than you, rudely shoved his elbow into your back.
“Hey, watch it.” You grumbled, annoyed at how disinterested the other was concerning his surroundings. Another shove that brought you to the edge of your seat, literally, and you turned around, ready to raise your voice when a small wave hit the side of the boat, the top of it spraying water on the passengers. Some of it got into your eyes and you blinked at the sudden sting.
Raindrops began to fall, the water like a wall pushing itself over the ocean.
Mind focused on the primary problem at hand - not being able to see without mild irritation in your eyes - you didn’t see the second wave coming, larger and wilder than the first.
It hit, unexpected, and your butt slipped off the seat completely, forcing you to stand to hop back up. In the short moment in which you still tried to find your balance in the swaying, now moving, boat, a third wave collided with the vehicle.
The edge of the boat had seemed quite high.
And then suddenly it wasn’t, and you couldn’t muster as much as a noise of surprise before the sky and the ocean switched places and you plunged into the water.
Everything got very quiet suddenly.
And cold.
It was cold, so, so cold, and you dimly remembered the safety instruction, some hour ago, and how the person had mentioned that the suit would automatically fill with water. What had been the next step in securing your survival in the water…?
You opened your eyes.
The pain was all but forgotten as you looked out through the surprisingly clear water, saw the whales - three, not two - move under the surface.
They turned and twisted, and their songs reached your ears through the water.
Peaceful.
Something glinting on one of their flippers caught your attention. Narrowing your eyes at it, they almost immediately widened again at the sight.
Someone was swimming around the gigantic animal, their hands rubbing over its skin. A silver grey tail shimmering behind them.
The salt began to burn in your nose.
Nothing changed, and yet the person - was it a person? Were you seeing things? - let go of the whale and paused.
Your thoughts started to grow sluggish in the treacherous cold of the sea.
The person was incredibly fast in swimming around its larger friends. Within seconds large hands reached for you and intelligent, dark eyes, found yours.
“Humans…” Mused a voice, so clear in your ears as if they were speaking above water. “You always forget the most important parts when falling into the ocean.”
A broad smile brightened the boy’s - or was he a young man already?- brightened the face in front of you as quick, nimble fingers worked to tighten the loops around your arms and legs that would halt the flow of water into the suit.
You could do nothing but stare.
Short, dull brown hair flowed with every movement; pearls and other small stuff delicately woven into it, shimmering and glinting now and then.
You tried to speak but the boy was quick to press the pad of his finger to your lips.
“Hush, human. Your voices were made for the air, not the water. Save your breath.”
Breathing.
Only then did you realize your chest hurt.
“Hmm? Human, what’s the m-” His wide eyes travelled up to your own gaze after lingering on your lips, where his finger was still mushed against. Then he noticed your hand, weakly clutching at your chest.
“Oh. I see.”
His eyes seemed to search for something above before reconnecting with yours, and for the first time you thought to see something like mild worry in them.
The bewilderment reached through the haze that settled over your oxygen deprived brain as the boy moved forward, one of his hands on your jaw, the other holding you close, and then pressed his own lips to yours.
There was no leverage to hold on to, or to push away the stranger, and your fists weakly connected with his chest.
His hands only held you tighter, your heart beating faster in a rising panic.
With the shock it was easy for him to tilt his head and open both of your mouths together in what turned out to not be a kiss. Instead, he gave you air, and even though your head still swam, the pressure on your temples lessened.
“Let’s get you back up, you don’t belong here.” Were the last words you could hear before you felt the water pulling at you as the boy swam forward.
Shortly before you could break the surface you went limp in his hands.
You came to as the boat docked below the tourhouse, wet to the bones and shivering.
It took three mugs of steaming tea, an abundance of warm blankets and a donated hoodie and pants you were ushered into in favour of your soaked clothes, until you were somewhat clear in the head again and your hands weren’t shaking anymore.
After the head of tours had apologized, along with the rude boy from before that had definitely been a big part of the reason why you’d fallen, you sat on a bench above a heater, overlooking the haven and following the raindrops that raced down the glass.
Outside the storm was fully raging, and the opening through which the boats entered and left the haven was hidden in the rain.
The young man with the fishtail wouldn’t leave your mind.
Had you hallucinated him? The combination of the shock from the cold water, the salt, the lack of air…?
You had almost asked about it, after the guide had helped you ashore, the small team from the tourhouse already waiting to get you inside to dry and get warm as soon as possible.
There had been something like a silent exchange of words between the staff, at least it had seemed so. Or maybe the guide had just quietly accepted their fate of being beheaded later.
“How are you feeling, dear?”
As if sensing your thoughts were circling back to one topic and one topic only, the friendly woman from behind the counter slipped around it and towards you, hand already extended towards your mug in a questioning manner.
You nodded and smiled, politely declining the offer to get another refill.
“Better.” You sighed, then. “Can feel all my toes and fingers again.”
The woman pursed her lips but refrained from apologizing once more.
“You had the unfortunate luck to be our one-in-a-hundred case… Good thing you remembered the safety procedure.” She lifted an eyebrow, and you dipped your nose back into your mug to humm in agreement.
Except you hadn’t, hadn’t remembered, had been frozen in fear and if it hadn’t been for-
“Well, I guess, the kayaking tour this evening will have to be postponed to tomorrow… doesn’t look like the rain will stop anytime soon.” As if on cue, thunder clapped in the distance. The woman frowned. “Yikes. Stay as long as you’d like, okay? I threw your clothes into the wash, they should be good in an hour or so.”
You set the mug down on the windowsill quite suddenly as a thought fell into your head.
“The wetsuit… did you find a phone in it? I remember putting it in one of the outer pockets…”
The apologetic look on the woman’s face was saying it all.
“So sorry. There wasn’t anything in your suit after we helped you out of it. It must have slipped out when you fell.”
“Damn.” Your eyes fled outside the window, and resignation tugged at your heart.
This long awaited trip had, within only its first two days, gone from the dream of your dreams to a very unfortunate collection of mishaps.
“But there’s good news too; The weather’s supposed to get a lot better in the next days. It’s not much, I know, but it’s something, hm?”
After your clothes had come out of the drier, as fluffy and warm as they had been before, the friendly woman from the counter lend you a sturdy, bright yellow wax coat to keep you dry on your way to the hostel, and you took your leave.
On the way there you stopped by one of the many cozy, tiny restaurants.
The salmon soup and the freshly baked bread that came with it somewhat soothed the loss that your missing phone had left in you midst; replaced with food it was bearable for now.
It still sucked, but that was out of question.
The afternoon was spend in the common room of the hostel, overlooking part of the harbour and the sound.
There was a guitar sitting in a corner, and someone picked it up and began plucking calm tunes that mixed with the chatter of the two handful of people milling in the beautiful glass house addition to the main hostel.
Wrapped in a blanket with your book the time passed easily enough. The rain was still pouring and you decided against going out for dinner. Instead you raided the ‘up for grabs’ section of the hostel kitchen, and later slept in with a belly full of noodles and sauce you had cooked up from the bounty of the free shelve.
The next day dawned bright and early, warmer than the ones before and without a single cloud in the sky.
The sunscreen you had packed suddenly didn’t look as obsolete anymore, and you generously applied it before leaving the hostel to finally explore the small town.
It was already past noon when you stumbled through a patch of forest, the trees unkept and the barely there path overgrown. The tote over your shoulder held a sandwich of a respectable size and two cans of lemonade, and your belly had been loudly requesting them for a while.
You had been looking for a good place to sit down and rest for about the same time. As the trees thinned out and gave the view free on an old walkway that reached into the water, you felt relief washing over you.
The place for lunch had been found.
It felt awfully touristy but along with your food you had bought a simple straw hat. Sitting here on the edge of the walkway now, it made the burn of he sun bearable.
Your toes barely touched the water below as you dangled your legs over the edge, leaned back on your hands and just resting after wolving down the sandwich.
The sun was glistening on the surface of the waves. A few seagulls passed by overhead.
It was very quiet here, the trees in your back doing a great job at filtering the noise from the street beyond them and shielding the seclusive lagoon from prying eyes.
Sat here the awful events from yesterday were almost forgotten.
Almost.
Until…
“Hi.”
The voice startled you. There was noone on the wooden planks behind you, noone on the shore; it took your searching eyes a moment to move to the water. “I’m- I’m down here.”
There was humour swinging in the words but you inched forward on your hastily pulled back legs, wary. You spied over the edge and sighed.
A head was bobbing shortly above the waves; the same wide, brown eyes staring up at you now that had so curiously taken in your face yesterday.
Here, in the sunlight, his skin had nothing of its ghostly paleness from below water anymore. Indeed he was quite tan, although his hair was still much darker. The pearls in it blinked.
“Hi?” You answered, not entirely sure if you had fallen asleep in the sun and were experiencing a very realistic dream.
“Hey. You’re the one from the tour yesterday, aren’t you? I found this after I brought you to the surface, it was just sort of… drifting. This morning it wouldn’t stop making noise, Yuta said it was probably yours?”
His words didn’t make much sense before he lifted a hand out of the water, droplets of the liquid running over the skin that blended into scales on one side of the appendix. Clutched in his fingers looking almost entirely human, was your phone.
“My phone!” You repeated, hastily taking it from the boy and drying it with your shirt. The screen lit up after you pressed a button, and even though one edge of the display was of a slightly distorted colour, otherwise it seemed to be fine. You looked back at the boy, still floating in the same spot.
“Thank you so much!” You blinked, and lowered the device until it rested on your thigh. “Thank you. Not only for my phone but…you know. Saving my life.”
The previously rather passive expression on the merman’s morphed into a big grin. One hand ran through the wet locks, messed them up a bit. Already they were drying under the sunlight.
“You’re welcome. Taeil was worried when they saw you fall.”
“Taeil…?”
“My friend! One of the whales you saw yesterday.”
“Right.” You furrowed your eyebrows. “I-”
“Sorry,” He interrupted you, and you fell silent immediately. “Would you mind if I came up and sit with you? It gets super exhausting to keep talking up to you like that.”
“Um, sure.” You shuffled over to the left until there was more than enough room for one more to sit. After hastily stuffing the sandwich wrapper into your bag, you gave a thumbs-up to the guy below.
In the next breath he was already pulling himself up, arms flexing and tail splashing a fine mist of water over you before he settled down next to you.
You ran both your hands over your face and lifted your hat to brush back a few strands of hair. When you opened your eyes again you suddenly had to look up.
The guy was taller than you while sitting, his friendly face smiling down on you.
It was a fleeting thought in your head before your eyes travelled down and latched onto the same, glimmering, grey tail that had caught your attention yesterday already.
Up this close it was incredibly beautiful.
The scales overlapped, creating a shimmering slick surface that was able to follow every move the strong muscles did below.
It narrowed where it vanished in the water, the end concealed in the depths. The occasional single scale was brighter that the others wich, under a closer look, ranged from dark grey, almost charcoal, to a silverish concrete grey. The ones around the boy’s hips were overall lighter than the ones closer to the water, but the brighter scales dotting the whole tail were more noticeable there.
You realized you were staring and turned your head in the other direction, feeling a heat that had nothing to do with the clear sky entering your cheeks.
“First time seeing a mermaid, huh? I get it, we can be quite breathtaking.”
“Oh jesus christ.” You let out, glaring at the smug grin on the boy’s face. “At least introduce yourself before subjecting me to such horrible… horrible puns.”
The laughter, waiting to boil over beneath the cold surface, finally broke free after looking at the other’s face a little longer.
“You really think it was terrible, hmm?” He grinned, hands folded in his lap. “I’m Yukhei. What’s your name?”
“_______. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh please, the pleasure is all mine.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and you laughed again.
“Do you do that often?” You asked, after taking a sip from your drink. Yukhei made a small noise of question and turned his head. Your eyes were trained on the horizon melting into the ocean in the heat. “Save people who fall overboard.”
“Oh.” He huffed, following your gaze. “No, not usually. I mean, usually, people don’t fall in, and usually, on the rare occasion they do, they’re busy helping themselves.” He shrugged.
“Guess I owe you big time, then.” Your eyes dropped to where your legs dangled next to Yukhei’s tail.
The other watched you for a moment.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it. Many people forget everything as soon as they join us in the water. It’s not your fault.”
Your eyes briefly met with his and got stuck on the empathy in them.
The fingers in your lap, circled around your phone, tightened.
“Still. If there’s something I could do for you - it’d make me feel better.”
Without asking, Yukhei’s hand stole behind you and grabbed the unopened can of lemonade.
“Well, if you put it like that…” He took a sip of the drink, paused, and looked at the label. “Ah, this one’s good. Um. Yeah, if you really want to, I’d love to get some licorice. The good, german one. Think you can get me a pack of those?”
He lifted his eyebrows over his drink, hopeful smile half hidden behind the metal.
“Sure.” You laughed, incredulous at his odd request. “I think I can manage that.”
Yukhei’s smile was a radiant as the sun above. “Great! Thanks.”
A moment of silence in which you both sipped your lemonades in silence. Then he spoke up again.
“So did you get a good photo of my friends? That’s why you were there, right? To take photos of the whales?”
You shook your head, eyes leaving the deep blue of the ocean for the brown of Yukhei’s gaze. “No. I have a good camera but I didn’t take it out to the tour - looking back it proved to be a really good decision because I was- Well I wasn’t anticipating taking a dive but the possibility was there. You know? I mostly went to see whales and make memories.”
“Huh.” The mermaid sipped his drink, lazily swishing his tail through the water below. “That doesn’t happen too often. Mostly it’s just ‘Oh I gotta take a picture of this! Oh I gotta take a picture of that!’.”
“Tell me about it…” You sighed into your can, eyes squinting at the glistening water once more. “This is a super beautiful tiny town, I’m just glad not more people are as crazed to ban everything they get in front of their lense on photos. It’s the worst when they stop in the middle of the walkway and if you don’t pay attention you just smack right into them!”
Exasperated you dropped the hand that had gesticulated wildly back on your leg. Yukhei watched you with interest, taking in every word.
“So you’re not a tourist-tourist?” He asked, tip of his finger running over the top of the can in his hand.
You shook your head.
“I mean, I do take pictures as well, but at least I try to… Not inconvenience anyone else while doing it. I wanna have keepsakes that I won’t just throw away after they gather dust on some shelve.”
“That’s a good approach.”
The time seemed to fly by the longer you sat on the walkway with Yukhei, even after you had both finished your drink. He was a great listener and soaked up everything you told him about the town you usually lived and worked in, about the town just behind the line of trees that the merman had obviously never seen.
Before long you glanced at your watch and had to hurry to excuse yourself because the kayaking tour you’d signed up for would depart soon.
“Kayaking?” Yukhei’s eyes glinted. “Maybe I’ll come.” His smile was mischievous, and you worried your eyebrows.
“But- That means people would see you.”
“You saw me just now?”
“Yeah but-”
“Relax, I won’t swim next to your boat or something.” He grinned, entertained by your exasperation at the prospect of having a mermaid trailing your boat. “But maybe you’ll catch glances of me in the distance - keep an eye out on the horizon, baby.”
He winked, with both eyes, and clicked his tongue suggestively. It had you breaking into a laugh before you shoved him back into the water. He went in with a great splash, hovering in one spot and beaming up at you.
“Meet you back here at sundown? With my licorice?” His eyebrows curved on his forehead in an adorable way, and you weren’t entirely immune to those round, hopeful eyes he gave you.
“Sure.” You laughed again, hoisting the tote higher up your shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”
You waved with the hand still holding your phone, and then had to run to still make the kayaking trip.
In the evening you went into one of the shops and eventually had to ask one of the clerks there if they had what the mermaid had asked for.
With a small package of ‘Haribo Rotella’ in your sunburned hands you returned to the thick patch of forest you’d been wondering by noon. The store had had a select few packages of other Haribo sweets as well, smurves and something colourful, too, but you’d stuck with the ‘Rotella’ stuff since it was purely licorice.
Another two cans of the lemonade you’d bought before were in your bag now, and as you made your way down the hill to the walkway you could see something bobbing in the water next to it.
Yukhei was waiting already when your feet touched the wood on the construction, hair dripping water on his shoulders and droplets glistening all over him.
He waved enthusiastically as you approached, hopping in place and reminding you very much of an excited puppy.
“Did you get it?” He almost shouted, and wordless you held out the sweets. “Omg yass!”
He tore into the package and fished a coil of the black stuff out, munching on it excitedly.
“Did you just say ‘omg’?” You remarked with a smile as you smoothed down the fluttery fabric of your summer clothes to sit next to the merman. He grinned at you.
“So what if I did?”
“I didn’t know that was something merfolk - do you call it that?” Yukhei nodded patiently. “Didn’t know merfolk used such words.”
He shrugged. “You pick up a lot, you know? I mean, I do speak your language as well, so.”
“Oh yeah you’re right.” You looked at him with new interest. “Where did you learn it? Do merfolk have school as well?”
He was on his third of fourth coil now and not showing any signs of stopping.
“Your parents teach you, mostly. And the human children coming to the sea sometimes.”
At your astonishment he chuckled, plopping another piece into his mouth. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Mermaid’s a fairy tale right? Except for the natives living by the coast. They know they’re not. But you can’t really trust anyone else.”
Uncomfortably touched you looked away. The sky was a dusty orange dulling into greyish blue the lower the sun, just out of sight already, sunk. The breeze was still warm, but the freshness of summer nights began to circle on the area.
“But… That means… You trust me not to tell anyone I saw a mermaid.”
You looked back at Yukhei who, after more than half the pack, had seemed to finally slow down. The sweets were momentarily placed aside as he leaned forward, his elbows on his tail and holding your gaze with an unfamiliar intensity you hadn’t seen before.
“It’s less trusting and more desperately hoping. Of course, nobody would really believe you if you told them you’d seen someone like me… The locals who know will say you got a bad sunstroke and the glittering on the light on the water fooled your eyes. Nobody will carry word outside this town except you, maybe, but we hope you don’t. That wouldn’t be very nice. Not only because I saved your life.”
Stunned by the calm sincerity in his voice you just sat next to him for a moment. The bubbly, loud demeanor from before was entirely gone and there was something intense in his eyes the longer you looked into them.
“I won’t say anything. I promise.”
“Good.” He leaned back, smiled, and the tension dissipated.
His broad shoulders relaxed and he sporadically took out another piece of licorice, going back to the somewhat mindless chatter he’d filled your conversation before.
It felt a bit strange, to have the bubbly, open, happy version of himself back so suddenly, and it made you think twice when regarding him.
His looks were easygoing and borderline cheeky again, but now you could see something simmering beneath it.
When you had parted ways that evening, the night sky dotted with stars already, and finally lay in bed, your thoughts wouldn’t let go on how much he had risked in the gamble of not only saving you but also returning your phone.
It was currently charging at the port inside one of the small lockers that had come with the room. The discoloured corner would probably remain, but after a few hours stuck in rice you were positive the rest would work just fine.
Before you knew it, the first week of your vacation ended already.
Almost daily were the visits to the ocean, to the little, hidden walkway. More often than not you could see Yukhei already waiting, swimming between the wooden pollers keeping the walkway up, weaving in and out of them. After a few days he was laying with his arms and upper torso on the wood, baking in the sunlight.
As you approached your meeting space today you found him laying completely out of the water, with only his fluke hanging over the edge.
To see his tail in all its glory brushed all conscious thoughts from your head.
The boy seemed to sleep, his eyes closed and face relaxed as you crouched next to where his ankles would have been.
The glint of his scales was inviting you to reach out with a hand, to touch it, but you refrained and stuck to only watching how it slowly moved from side to side.
A sheen of moisture sparkled in the sunlight.
When a cloud pushed itself in front of the radiant orb in the sky the temperature went from scalding to bearable, waking Yukhei.
He scooted forward until he was on one height with you, at the edge of the walkway, yawning and pouting a bit.
“Why the long face?” You playfully jabbed an elbow into his side.
“You should have woken me up when you arrived! I don’t want to waste time I could spend in your company.”
It was difficult to suppress the fond smile spreading on your face.
“You looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb you. Sorry.”
He shook his head and placed it on your shoulder.
“You were looking at my tail again, weren’t you?”
Now it was your turn to pull a pout. “Don’t call me out like that. Yes I was. It’s a very pretty tail.”
“You can touch it if you want, you know?”
You lifted your head and turned it to look at him. “You sure?”
He hummed affirmatively, lashes fanning over his cheeks as he watched where his appendix sloshed in the water below.
Hesitation made your hands heavy. But curiosity won.
With a single finger you poked the skin, on the height of where his knee would have been.
He giggled at the way you leaned down to inspect it better. The scales where smooth and covered in a thin film of slick, and it was almost like petting koi. His smile was still wide and the twinkle in his eyes still glinting when you leaned back after your thorough inspection.
The slick rubbed off and stuck to the palm you had hesitantly stroked Yukhei’s tail with and you were a bit grossed out at how it coated your skin.
The water wasn’t too far down and so you switched your legs hanging over the edge for your torso, reaching down to wave your hand around the water, hoping the sheen would dissipate. It didn’t, at first, and you went on to rub the fingers of the hand against each other before outright wiping the palm on the wood of a pillar. Still hanging with around half your body over the edge you collected your strength to pull yourself back up, before-
“Watch out!” Yukhei suddenly called, his hands jerking to your sides as you startled at his voice.
“Wh-!”
The blue came a lot closer and the next moment you were sputtering and coughing, treading water to hold yourself up while attempting to blink the salt out of your eyes.
“Yukhei!”
The merman was cupping the lower half of his face in his palm, trying and obviously failing to hide his laughter.
“You idiot!”
He cackled at that, head tipped back and with an arm wrapped around his middle to hold himself together while you glowered at him from the wetness.
Grumbling you went to the rusted steps of an ancient ladder mounted to the wood meant for this exact occasion.
The water clung to your clothes, dragged you back, and you needed to strain your arms to heave yourself up - were almost out of the water when two strong hands clamped over your hips and pulled you back in.
His name got half swallowed by a mouth full of saltwater and again you were coughing and glaring at the face of one all too happy merman.
He was effortlessly floating by your side, staying out of reach of your moving legs.
“Hm?”
He was giving you the doe eyes again, the fake-i-am-so-sorry-pls-don’t-hurt?-ones, and you shoved water at him. It didn’t yield much result as all it accomplished was soaking his hair, but the smile on his lips widened a little.
“Aww come on!” He circled you once, coming closer and tugging you towards him afterwards. With his arms around your middle it was easier to stay up, and the immediate fear of being pulled underwater by something vanished.
“We always sit on that dumb pier and talk, how about we play a bit now? In the water? Pretty please?”
All by themselves did your arms come to rest on top of his shoulders, after wiping the strands of hair from your face.
“You could’ve just asked instead of shoving me in!”
He was pouting now.
“You were slipping in already! I meant to save you!”
“The hell you were… you’re a really fishy person, you know that?”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.”
He released you as you made attempts to get to the ladder, his expression now a little dulled at you continued lack of excitement.
“Don’t pull a face, Mr. Fish, I’ll come back in, I just need to take off my shoes first.”
He was beaming up at you again as you came back from stowing away the shoes, bag and other valuables you’d brought in a shaded spot under a tree, where it was unlikely to be spotted or taken. This place was pretty reclusive as it was already, but better safe than sorry. You’d already lost your phone on this trip once, you weren’t keen on that or worse happening again.
That evening you slept in early, tired as can be.
It had been fun, playing with Yukhei where he was most at home. The shallow water in the hidden lagoon had been a lot warmer than that out on sea, but even with the hot temperatures that had settled in after the first days it was still taxing on your body. Not to mention the exhaustion the physical exercise brought.
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The next evening you brought your polaroid camera down to the hidden beach.
Yukhei in the light of the dying sun was something you didn’t want to forget.
It lit up his skin in touches of caramell and gold, caught in the pearls and glittering stones woven into his hair and the droplets of water on his skin.
You made sure not to aim at anything of his lower body, so to anyone who didn’t know, he just looked like a boy fresh from the surf, shirtless and with salt-swept hair.
There were soft scales running along parts of his upper body too, but to anyone who didn’t know what they were, they would just look like a funny reflection.
Yukhei hovered over your shoulder, asking to see the selfies you’d taken on your phone, gasped in amazement as you handed him the polaroid one and told him he’d have to wait until the image showed.
You laughed a little at how he spend the next few minutes sitting hunched forward, the small picture cradled in his palms, eyes fixed on the developing image.
“Look! Look, it showed up! It’s us!”
“I know.” You smiled at him and stabilized the shaking piece of paper and plastic he held out to you. His fingers didn’t let go and together you watched on as the final details showed up.
“You look happy.” You commented, peeling your eyes away from the keepsake and looking up at the merman.
“You too.” He mirrored you, squinting against the last rays of sunlight falling from around your back into his eyes. The smile seemed glued to his face the past days.
“Can I keep one as well?” His voice was a bit smaller than usual, his hands gripping the other in his lap.
“Mhm- Yeah, I think I could print one of the selfies and laminate it, so the water wouldn’t soak it. I’ll see what I can do tomorrow, okay?”
Satisfied, he nodded, slinging an arm around your side and tugging you into a hug.
“Thank you. I’m so glad I pulled you from the water. You’re a great human.”
You smiled and leaned your cheek against his shoulder and hugged him back, but when the sun had vanished completely and the darkness pulled over the sky on your way back to the hostel you were reminded how your vacation would end soon.
It was still several days, and yet…
The end drew closer with each sunkissed day you spend in this sleepy town, with Yukhei by your side.
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He picked up on the somewhat gloomy mood you’d fallen into, asked what was wrong with a concerned expression and his head ducking down to meet your line of sight.
You told him, throwing tiny pebbles you’d picked up by the waterline back into the small waves lapping at the wooden structure.
He grew silent after that, and it seemed you weren’t the only one who had temporarily forgotten there was a clock ticking down.
You hadn’t explored nearly as much of the town and the surrounding area as you’d originally planned, and that was okay because there was Yukhei, but part of you knew the people who knew about your trip would nag you endlessly if you came back and told them you’d only seen a fraction of the scenic area.
For a while both of you stewed in silence.
Eventually your thoughts cleared a little again and you were able to focus on nicer things, but when you turned to Yukhei and wanted to ask him something he was already squinting his eyes into the distance, hand shielding his face. Shortly afterwards he turned and met your eyes, an apologetic look on his face.
“-Sorry, whatever you wanted to say, do you think you can keep it ‘till tomorrow? I think I have to go back, I’ve kind of been neglecting my duties these past days to come hang out with you and I think they caught on to me.”
You nodded in understanding.
“Will you be here tomorrow?”
He shrugged, already slipping into the water.
“Don’t know.”
And without saying more, he was gone.
You came back the next day, finally with the laminated selfie he’d asked about. You’d taped off the edges to make it even less likely for water to get to the image safe between the sheets of plastic, had put it into an envelope, even.
But Yukhei wasn’t there.
You waited, more than an hour. The waves and the gulls overhead were the only things keeping you company.
Back up on the hill you looked down one more time; at the spot on the walkway you knew was the envelope with a stone on top so the wind wouldn’t blow it away. You hoped Yukhei would find it, if he came by later.
The rest of the day was spend walking the town and finally crossing some things off your checklist.
It was nice, to see so many other people, to hear different voices and laughs and bathe in the general, light-hearted mood, but the disappearance of Yukhei yesterday nagged at the back of your head and wouldn’t go away completely.
As the sun lowered and you came by the path through the small forest, familiar for your eyes already, there was a moment in which you hesitated. Should you go look, see if Yukhei had found the photo? -But he hadn’t been there in the morning, he’d said people had caught him slacking off, maybe he would be banished to work extra now.
Your feet hurt and your shoulders too; Forgoing to put on sunscreen just because you wore a light button down with short sleeves over a tank top. But the day had been warmer than expected and so you’d taken the shirt off eventually, forgetting about your unprotected shoulders.
A cool shower and a snack and then bed would be nice.
A bird flew past you, keckering and complaining in the still evening air, and brought you back from your thoughts. No. It’d be best to just head back for now. Tomorrow you could come by again. And the day after, and then another day, and the day after that… Maybe you could say goodbye before catching the bus back. Maybe. Hopefully.
The moon hung over the ocean, big and bright, casting silver light on your path and dipping everything in mystic touches.
There were light clouds coming in from the sea over the following morning. By noon they had thickened, rain beginning to fall.
The earth smelled rich, the scent of the water on hot stones surrounding you.
The hostel had provided an umbrella as you’d mentioned you had forgotten to bring your own, and now you were huddled below it, barefoot and in shorts to get as little of your clothes wet as possible.
The path down the hill was slippery and you had to focus on every step in order to not take a tumble over the rocky patches of grass.
Mud squelched between your toes as you stepped onto the sand finally. The pier was deserted.
Still you walked the length of it, the raindrops washing your feet clean while you moved.
There was the stone you had left behind.
A sigh escaped you as you crouched down, gently lifting the weight. The envelope had turned to off-white mush, the last, dry spot it had had under the cover of the stone quickly soaking.
Among the dissolving paper was the selfie.
“Well, at least I know it’s waterproof now.” You put the stone back, deciding against taking it with you. Maybe if Yukhei would come by, maybe he would find it. There was a lot of maybe and you weren’t ready to accept he might have just left like that.
The inside of the restaurant was warm and dry and nobody gave you dirty looks for coming in like you had.
The sky was still covered in clouds when you went to bed, afternoon spent exploring the local museum and art gallery, but the rain was that of a summer day, not pelting down too harshly.
It trickled down the window in the dorm room and whenever the wind came in just right you could hear the waves crashing in the distance.
It was still dark when you sat up.
Hands reached for the water bottle by themselves until your thirst was quenched and still you didn’t feel like lying back down. Moonlight shone through the window and painted rectangles on the floor, patterned by the half-drawn blinds. No sound came through the cracked window, and none came from the people sharing the room with you, either.
For a moment you froze in your place, not daring to breathe.
It was like the world was holding its breath alongside you, was waiting for something. Anything.
The breeze came back, gently carding through the long grass below the window. Someone turned on their other side in their bed, the wood creaking. You relaxed, shoulders dropping. Whatever it had been seemed to have passed.
The pillow settled around your face as you lay down, drawing the blanket up higher as a shiver in the still air crept down your back. Even with eyes closed your ears remained wide open, sensitive to any sound.
Sleep began to reach out its hands towards you once more, until-
The world spun a bit, so fast had you sat up.
There it was again.
Whatever had woken you before, there it was again, and it was… Music?
A song?
On quiet feet you stole towards the window, opening it a little wider.
The wind turned and the singing voice couldn’t be heard anymore.
Your phone proclaimed the time to be one am as you plucked it from its charging place, shrugged into a cardigan and slipped into a pair of shoes.
All the clouds had left the sky and it stretched endless into every direction, littered with stars.
There were so many more than you were used to, empty spaces filled in by more glowing dots than you could count, and every time you had to pause, wait for the wind to carry the song to your ears again, you stared up at the dome with wide eyes and wonder.
The patch of trees came into view and your steps sped up.
You really hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be a dream as you pushed through the bushes, eager to get to the other side, stumbling once and only barely regaining your footing as the slope began to dip further.
Next to the walkway floated Yukhei.
With steps as quiet as you could muster you inched over the wood, towards the mermaid drifting close by the edge. A small rectangle on his chest was a ghostly white and you didn’t know what it was until you stood next to him, saw the tape around the edges.
But by then his singing had picked up a note, had won in intensity.
He didn’t need instruments to accompany his voice. It was so rich, so deep and yet so melodious that anything else would have only interferred with the story he wove with the words that you couldn’t understand.
There was an ache in your chest growing as Yukhei’s song went on, his notes becoming more desperate until there were tears in your eyes because you knew Yukhei was calling for something, something out of his reach, but you didn’t know what and it brought pain into your heart.
His voice grew hoarse on the next verse and he broke off, closing his lips and swallowing once.
The silence filled the air around you, made the cool summer night heavy. Breathing was difficult and you hoped, longed Yukhei would continue.
But his eyebrows furrowed, creasing the skin between them, and he stayed silent under the stars, only drawing a slow breath every once in a while.
“What were you singing about, Yukhei?” You asked, crouching on the wood, cardigan wrapped around your legs.
The merman startled so badly he caused a small wave that swept over him, got into the wrong pipe and made him cough.
Bobbing upright in the water his wide eyes stared up at you, as if you were the mythical creature bathed in the light of a million stars and not him.
As if the moonlight didn’t put silver between his strands, place a silver glow over his shoulders.
“You’re here.”
You nodded, still looking down on him in the water.
“You- You came.”
Again you moved your head. Yukhei seemed at a loss for words.
“You weren’t here yesterday.” You picked at a loose thread on your knitwear, averting your eyes. “I see you found the photo.”
He stilled in fiddling with the rectangle, flattening it to his chest instead.
He remained silent.
It must have been the longest time you hadn’t heard any sound coming from him before he gently laid the photo on the wood and pulled himself up to sit beside you.
His tail was so close to your leg you could feel the coolness that clung to his scales so fresh out of the water.
“Your song,” You continued, as it seemed unlikely he would raise his voice sometime soon. “It was so… full of emotion. What were you singing about?”
His gaze, erratic, fled your face and focused on the water rippling around his tail.
“I lost a friend.” He answered eventually, and although he didn’t whisper, it almost felt like he had. “I was trying to call them, pleading for them to come back to me.”
“I’m sorry.” You held your gaze trained on him until the brown, in the moonlight grey, eyes met yours again. Under your attention he stilled. “You must have liked them a lot if you were this desperate to have them with you again.”
He nodded, not losing the contact. His tongue flicked over his lips and the crease between his eyebrows returned before he spoke again, slowly, like he was picking his words with great care.
“They’re in a place I can’t reach. We don’t sing often. Your kind have made tales and warning stories of those you call Sirens, who lure sea-faring folk to their death by bewitching them. But it’s not like that. We protect what is most dear to us with the only thing more powerful than any weapon your kind could craft. We sing. But we don’t sing for destruction. We sing to make peace, to calm waves and to save those too weak to defend themselves.” He paused, the interruption minimally. “We sing for our loved ones, to heal and to lighten the mood and when they leave for their safe return.”
His face was uncharacteristically somber as he spoke, and you listened intently.
“Your friend,” You looked out over the ocean, thinking about how incredibly it had looked to see him swimming with the whales. “I hope they’ll come back to you soon. Even though that song was so beautiful, if it speaks of loneliness and the wish to see them again, I hope you won’t have to sing it too many times.”
Yukhei had taken the hand that had been lying on the wood between your bodies away, holding it by its wrist with the fingers of the other hand.
His expression was unreadable as you looked up into it, tried to see anything.
“Where is your friend? How far have they gone?”
The tips of his fingers were dry but still cold to the touch when they met with the skin of your own hand. You felt them when he moved his hand up your arm, to your shoulder and then across your back.
Tears collected on the waterline of his eyes as he turned to fully face you, looking down and taking in every detail of your face.
“I’m sorry.” He whispered, and you didn’t know what for exactly.
He closed his eyes before leaning forward, his chin on your shoulder and his arms holding your tightly.
With the weight of his arms over yours it wasn’t easy but you did your best to hug him back, waiting if he would explain.
His voice was husky when he drew a shaking breath through the hot liquid running over his cheeks and collecting in your cardigan.
“I don’t know where my friend went, but it was because I left them first, but they’ve come back now and I’m so happy but I’m so sorry.” He tightened his hug and in the breathless moment in which he squeezed you as close as he could you realized he’d meant you.
He’d been singing about you.
With your hands cupping over his shoulders you pushed him back a little to be able to see his face properly.
He squinted his eyes at you through sniffling a little.
“You were singing for me? To come back to you?” He nodded, biting on his lower lip and covering the hand you’d put on his cheek to wipe away his tears. “You wanted me to come back? But- You were the one who didn’t show up. Who left without saying anything.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he knew exactly what you were saying was true.
“I know. It was rude of me and I hate myself for doing it and- That’s not true, I was there when you put the photo on the pier, but I didn’t show myself which makes it even worse and I’m so sorry but when you said you were going to leave soon I just- I didn’t know what to do. Of course I knew you’d be gone sooner or later, of course I knew it shouldn’t mean anything to save you from drowning, but I still hoped… We would have more time.”
The corners of his mouth drooped down alongside his shoulders.
“In a way, I- I didn’t want the time I could spend with you to end yet, and that’s why I didn’t show- And also you said you wanted to see lots of the village, and I thought I kept you long enough but-”
You sighed deeply. “I understand.”
He closed his mouth and looked up to you ruefully.
“I’m sorry too. For not telling you earlier.”
This time it was him sighing, taking your hand from his cheek to his lap and curling both his palms around yours.
“Can we watch the stars together tonight?” He asked after a bit of silence in which he’d tapped on your skin in what you were pretty sure was morse code for something but you didn’t know morse and so didn’t know what he was saying.
“Yeah.”
Lying side by side, with your pinkies linked, Yukhei pointed at brighter spots overhead with his free hand, telling you about formations and tales he’d been told as a child about those who swam among the stars.
He described a gigantic whale, swimming through the sky, and you told him how humans had been to the moon and how there was no air in space and eternal cold that would freeze anyone who didn’t wear a suit.
“I don’t believe that.” Yukhei said after a moment of consideration. “Your stories are a lot less fun than mine.”
You turned your head to look at him, watch him looking into the endless dark, and laughed at his defiant comment.
There was no point in disagreeing with him or trying to prove what you had said was right and the space-whale he was sung to about wasn’t.
There were many things he wouldn’t believe if you would have told him, but you figured the concept of space was one of the most harmless he could choose to disbelief.
In the grew hours of dawn the day of your departure you sat in front of Yukhei on the walkway again, legs crossed and hands folded.
He had dipped down into the water for a moment before setting himself next to you again, and now your eyes switched between his hands, which he held cupped close, and his face; holding barely contained excitement.
“Okay, close your eyes and open your hands.”
“If this is a fish you caught for me, I told you, I can’t eat raw-”
He rolled his eyes but failed to bite back his grin. “I promise, it’s not. Not this time.”
Mouth falling open you stared at him. “Wh- Not this time? When did you plan to give me a live fish?!”
“Can you please close your eyes now I want to give you your present.” He pouted, and finally you complied. Closing your eyes against the pastel colours of the coming sunrise in the sky, holding open your hands.
Something was placed into them; thin, with a small roundness to it at one point.
The wetness of Yukhei’s fingers brushed the side of your palms as he retracted his hands and then made a small sound, signalling it was okay for you to look.
Blinking down on your hands you took in what he’d put there.
It was dark with water but it looked like yarn or some other string, twisted and knotted and braided into something that was barely large enough to be a necklace.
Three small pearls were woven into it, a bigger one the size of your pinky finger’s nail flanked by two smaller ones.
You looked up into Yukhei’s nervous face.
“We give pearls or other pretty things as gifts, but my kind doesn’t wear bracelets or anything like that because it can get caught on sharp edges and strangle us; We put everything we get gifted into our hair, because it’ll hold on to it for us, but for you I had to improvise because your hair is dead and won’t be able to hold them.”
Your fingers curled around the gift protectively, but faced with this new information you couldn’t help but wonder.
“Your hair is alive?”
The merman nodded, hands clasped in front of him. “Touch it! You’ll see what I mean.”
Even more careful than when you had first stroked over his tail you now reached out with a hand, two fingertips brushing the darkened strands.
To your bewilderment and elation the hairs pulled away from the skull and wrapped around your fingers for a moment.
Spurred on by the soft giggle of Yukhei and the positive first contact you extended the rest of your hand and ran it over the side of Yukhei’s head. The strands parted easily for you, reached up and placed themselves around your hand, slipped into the creases on your palm and held you in place for a moment before giving you free again.
“That’s amazing!”
Yukhei’s grin was big and contagious as you gave him his space again.
“Pretty cool right?”
“Yeah!” You sat in front of him for a moment longer, marvelling at him, all of him.
“You want me to help you put the necklace on?” He offered, but you insisted on trying it on your own first before having to relent to his help after not being able to fit the small wooden pearl through the designated clasp.
The necklace sat against your throat like a choker, and even though Yukhei expressed worry at how tight it was you waved it off and told him it was fine.
“Thank you so much.” You held out your hand, waiting for him to put his own into yours.
He did, thumb rubbing over the skin around your wrist.
“Thank you.” He echoed, smile wide and warm. It simmered down a little the longer you held eye-contact, until he looked away and cleared his throat.
“You’ll come back soon, right? I want to introduce you to everyone.”
“I have free time during winter again, but maybe I’ll be able to come by for Autumn break.”
Yukhei groaned a the prospect of having to wait that long, pouted at you shamelessly.
“That face won’t get me back to you faster, I still have to earn the money it’ll cost me to come and stay here, you pebble.”
The playful expression replaced the half-hearted sulking, and he nudged your knee.
“Don’t you have a bus to catch?”
You checked the time.
“I think I have enough time for one last hug.”
And even though the saltwater still covered him head to fin, you held on to the other until the sun had almost fully risen above the horizon. Unwilling to let go just yet.
Months later you sat on the bus, face so close to the window the glass fogged over. There was a lot less green outside, and the thick clouds didn’t let through much daylight, but you could make out the rocks in the distance, the roofs of the houses.
In your luggage, safely stored underneath your seat, were gifts for a certain someone, alongside a neoprene suit and diving goggles.
Soon you would check into the hostel, to get rid of the bag. But after that there’d be nothing holding you back from venturing through the path of trees, down the slope of the hill and onto the wooden planks above the water - you’d see how many stones Yukhei had been able to gather and put there, one for each day he’d waited for you. And then you’d put them all into a single heap, a pyramid maybe, and wait.
You had a feeling it wouldn’t be too long before the familiar blinking of the pearls and glittery things in his hair would break through the surface, and you smiled to yourself, looking forward to being able to hug him again.
Soon.
You settled back into your seat and watched the world outside, watched the town by the ocean grow closer every moment.