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Len believed there were evil things in the world. Exhibit A was his father. What man found joy in terrorizing his own children until bloodshed and broken skin? Len couldn’t fight the monsters in the closet for Lisa, but he could fight Lewis. And he fought everyday until he was eighteen when he packed Lisa up in his shitty pick up truck and drove all the way to Washington state, to a little coast town that was always cloudy and rainy where Mick, the ever loyal Mick, was waiting with his tackle shop and extra room. So Len liked to think he knew a thing or two about monsters.The… thing, pushing him up, towards the surface of the water, towards the bottom of Mick’s boat, was not a monster. Yes, it (he will call it an it until he figures out whatever the hell it really is) had a fin, it had long dark… hair? It floated around its head like a dark cloud, intangible and smoky. It’s eyes.… god it’s eyes. Through the murky water turned by the storm going on topside, Len looked into the eyes of something wholly inhuman. There was no iris or pupil, just a large dark blue dot that held a strange intensity in a black background. The hair was pushed from the pale face of the creature and by god was that face unnaturally beautiful. It may have been the like lack of oxygen making him say that though. It looked… male? He guessed? Broad male chest, strong jaw, wide-ish nose… it, he was… wow Len really needed to breath. The creature easily swam to the drowning man (HOLY SHIT IT HAD A TAIL), it’s movements smooth and fluid, the rough undercurrent not even a issue. It’s strange eyes watched Len gasp helplessly, curious. It reached out effortlessly, it’s cold cold hand grabbing Len’s thrashing arm tightly and moved upward, to the unsteady surface of the water. That must’ve been about the time Len had blacked out. When he came to, he was in his small bed in his small bedroom, wrapped in every blanket in the house and little Lisa lying on him. Mick was next to him, having dragged the rocking chair from the living room into Len’s room. Mick moved to leave, but Len managed to get his arm (the same one the creature had grabbed) out from the covers and grasped Mick’s wrist. He breiy saw a bandage around his arm, and four small dots of red in the the shape of an arch. “Wait.” He gasped. His throat felt like it was on fire and breathing was hard (granted that might have been because of Lisa). “Mick, what happened.”Mick winced a little, scowling. “We went and dicked around on the boat when there was a storm warning. You fell overboard.” He sighed through his teeth, “You were kinda, uh, thrown, back on the ship.”Len raised an unimpressed eyebrow, foggy memories of the creature swimming around in his mind. “What?”Mick sighed again, agitated. “I mean you were under the water for a while, then all of the sudden you were thrown up into the air and landed on the deck, puking up water.” he shrugged. “Might’ve been a current-”“Bullshit!” Leonard hissed angrily, careful not the wake up Lisa who was still sleeping softly on his chest. “You and I might know jack shit about the ocean but we know a current or wave couldn’t launch a full grown man onto a boat!” he whispered furiously and quickly.The older man’s eyes light up with his own anger, “Then what do think did it?”Len thought of the creature, its long black hair and strange features and it’s eerily beautiful aura. He wouldn’t tell Mick about it, at least not yet. The subject was dropped and forgotten on Mick’s part, but the image of the underwater creature haunted Len for days. He was too stubborn to even google “mermaids” or “sirens”. Hell, everytime he passed by the local folklore museum he would pointedly look away. Maybe it really was the oxygen deprivation and it was a hallucination. It had to be. Maybe a freakishly strong undercurrent really did throw him out of the water. The creature wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. When it was about a week and a half later, Len and Mick were at the pub in the small coastal town. It was the first time in the month they could go out at night, seeing as Lisa went to a sleepover at her friend Hartley’s house. The bar was getting full of people and stuffy, and Len hated nothing more than the heat. Mick gave him a look that let him know it was okay to leave Mick there, so Len departs. The cool air of the ocean breeze calmed Len’s irritated skin, it was easier to breath. The beach at this time of night was deserted, and Len knew from experience that no one should be on the sand now (especially with that asshole lifeguard around who chases people off the beach when it nears closing time)So Len is understandably confused when he sees a lone figure sitting in the sand. Len debated just letting the person get caught, but he wouldn’t wish anyone being yelled at by the asshole lifeguard, so this would be Len’s good deed for the year.The sand shifts beneath his boots but the walk was relatively straight, as he made his way to the stranger. From what Len could see, the stranger had long black hair, which suggested female, but the broad shoulders suggested male. There was a flicker of a memory in Len’s mind eye, about long black hair and broad shoulders in the water with a haunting face, but he quickly shook the thought away.“Hey!” he called. The stranger didn’t stir. “Hey, buddy? Beach’s closed.”The figure turned to look at the oncoming Len, with wide dark blue eyes that were echoed with… actually, this guy had very similar… Len stopped suddenly to stare at the man. He had the same face. Same nose, same hallow face, same hair as the-“Hey, who are you?” Len barked. He was confused, which defaulted to anger, because if Len didn’t know something he was at a disadvantage and that was a weakness, and weakness were bad and needed to be hidden. The stranger tilted its head in confusion, one dark eyebrow raised, the other scrunched. Len noticed he wasn’t wearing anything sans a towel that was probably left behind from the one of the day’s beach goers. Len had to force himself to remain still, to not snarl at this person because, come on, what were the odds, there’s no way that this was the marmai- thing, creature that had saved him from drowning last week. For one, this dude had legs, and it’s like, a thing he didn’t have before, and not to mention that the eyes were different, and, and-!The man stood, the towel fastened around his waist safely, and walked shakily to Leonard, slowly with unsure steps, stumbling slightly into Len when he held his arms out.The man was much paler up close, the moonlight bounced off his skin like a mirror. Len didn’t have much time to stare (man, did want to stare) before the man grabbed his arm suddenly, squeezing the space where those four little cuts were. Len didn’t flinch, just looked at the long fingers that felt awfully familiar around his forearm. When Len showed no signs of pain, the other man nodded and hummed in approval.When the man began to pull away, Len gripped his elbows to keep him there. The only people who knew about Len’s injury was Mick and the creature that gave it to him. “Who. Are. You?” Len seethed, being sure to lay the glare on thick. The man seemed unaffected by the physics threat Len was trying to display. Instead he ran his thumb over the area the wounds were. “Sorry.”The voice was a surprise. It was low and sounded unused. “… what?”“Your… arm.” He started slowly. “I… grabbed… too hard… before.” Each word was carefully, drawn out as if he wasn’t sure if he was saying the right thing.Len swallowed thickly. “So, you were the… thing, that day, in the storm?”The man scrunched his nose playfully. “Thing?” Len wanted to interrogate the man, hold him there until he got every answer he wanted. “What are you? How did you throw me? How are you on land? When did you get legs?” but every question Len shot off was met with a small smile and a throaty chuckle from the dark haired stranger.“You…. speak fast. And many.”There was a splashing sound, far away in the waters, faint but loud enough to distract the men on the beach. The stranger turned to the ocean with a frown.“Leave now.”Len blanched. “Who’s leaving?” “Me.” The man began to pull away, but Len’s grip tightened. “Wait wait wait,” he shot off. “You just can’t go, why did you save me?”The man sighed harshly, looking between Len and the ocean a few times before speaking again. “Later. Next moon time.”Len really didn’t want to let the man leave, but the stranger was stronger than he anticipated and easily broke out of Len’s grip and stumbled to the dark waves. The distance was too far for Len to see what clearly happened, only that the man waded into the ocean effortlessly despite the rough waves and dove under, not coming up again.He stood there, numb and cold, just watching the lapping water against the sand unblinking for several long minutes. Len went back home, laid on his bed with his sandy clothes still on and stared at the wall, trying to make sense of what had happened.---Mick didn’t ask why Len went out the next night when he left with instructions to watch Lisa. Mick probably figured Len needed some space because he’d been acting out of sorts all day. Len was grateful Mick didn’t ask questions. Mick was dependable like that.He walked along the edge of the beach, careful not to cross from the concrete of the sidewalk to the sand, not until he saw the stranger. After an hour of patrolling the beach’s edge, Len huffed angrily, ready to give up and go home and convince himself that the last few days had been a fever dream spurred by the stress of moving away from an asshole parent with his kid sister in the dead of night. Had to be. The day on the ocean…. hallucination from no oxygen. Last night, drunk. Had to be. Except there was a man with long dark hair, wrapped in a towel, sitting on one of the many old, wooden, saturated with salt water benches along beach. Len’s pace hastened when he saw the man, quickly rushing to his side.Len awkwardly slid to sit next to the man, who was staring longingly at the water silently. There was hardly a breath of pause before the stranger spoke.“Hi.”Len breathed a laugh at the absurdity of it all. “Hey.” the quietness that followed was disrupted by the sound of a passing car from the nearby road. Len had a thousand questions for the man, but first thing first. “What’s your name?”The man look confused by the question, cocking his head in a bird-like fashion.Len recalled the weird way the man had spoken before, the broken english and basic wording.“Um, what are you, uh, called?”The man perked up considerably. A little betraying part of Len thought it was cute. The man gestured excitedly to the sky. “Sun!” he chirped, pointing to the moon.Len followed the the direction of where the man was pointing with his eyes. “Your name is Sun?”The man huffed. “No,... meaning sun warmth. Meaning,”m he sighed, frustrated with himself, “meaning light… beam?”Len digested the information. “Your name is Sun Ray?”“Meaning.” he stressed. A strange noise came from the back of the man’s throat and he smiled as Len looked at him oddly.“...was that weird noise your name in… whatever language you speak?” the man nodded. “Let’s… just stick with Ray.”That seemed to appease the other. “Ray…” he said slowly, his mouth curling around the unfamiliar word, stretching it out and long. He smiled brightly, looking to Len in accomplishment.The excitement on Ray’s face caused a small smile to crack across Len’s face. Ray suited him perfectly.Ray didn’t answer any of Len’s questions that night, all he did was ask Len a bunch of weird questions like what cars were and why Len’s hair was so short. Len couldn't bring himself to be angry that Ray kept interrupting Len’s questions with his own. He… well, Ray reminded Len an awful lot of Lisa, bright eyed and brimming with innocent curiosity that Len couldn’t help but try to satisfy. All too soon a loud splashing came from far in the water, causing Ray to seize up and look away from Len to the ocean.“Is that them?” Len asked quietly. “Your family?”Ray nodded. “School. With the pod.”Len rolled his shoulders at an exceptionally strong breeze. “When will I see you again?” Len, after all, still had many questions.Ray stood up and smiled down at Len. “Next moon.” he said simply.“Where?” Len laughed, not planning to scouring the beach for an hour again.Ray patted the bench with a smile. “Here.”Len smiled back, an odd weightless feeling in his chest.---For days, Len and Ray met up in the dead of night to talk. Ray didn’t reveal much, but Len could piece together enough to get an idea of what Ray’s life is like. His pod was separated into two groups, what Ray calls the hand and the teeth (Len mentally calls them the mermaids and the sirens). The hand were the softer breed, taking care of the children and harvested seaweed and clams and such, weaving bags and seldom leaving the pod. The teeth were more aggressive. They were the hunters, the predators. They went out to collect food from crabs to seals to sharks to eat (and the occasional human, Ray once carelessly mentioned). They had sharper and more rows of teeth. Len only knows this because Ray once excitedly brought a skull of his long dead teeth ancestor to show Len. (Len was proud to say he only screeched a little bit). They collect human artifacts from sunken ships and they could go above water longer than Ray could.Ray also, could not stay above land during the day. Len was sure the reason why Ray insisted to converse during the night was because Ray was hiding from his pod while they slept. Turns out that mermaids were mostly nocturnal. Do to some magical law or something, the merfolk can only come out of the water and, you know, survive, only when the moon is out. Sirens can roam whenever they want, something about protecting their pod (Len can only think about the strange blonde woman who is seen roaming the shore of some of the small islands right before a storm, who smiled sharply at Len and Mick when they went out that fateful day).Mick never asked why Len went out nearly every night now, save the once (that was the evening of the new moon, so no Ray). All he did was watch Len warily and wearily, not mentioning how Len is sleeping more in the day and gone almost all night. Mick never asked why Len was suddenly checking out fairytale books from the library (Len was kind of hoping he would, he had a great lie prepared for it), or why when Lisa forced them to go to the folklore museum, Len scoffed at the mermaid skeleton display and mumbled something about “not enough teeth.” Mick was good like that.And Len, Len was digging himself into a very deep hole.Ray was nice. Ray was innocent. Ray was very curious about humans and their customs and everything about them, just like Len was curious about the merfolk. The time spent together felt right and natural. Soon Ray wasnt holding Len’s hands to study the scars and calluses, he held it because he wanted to. The questions stopped being about humanity as a whole and became about Len. Len’s queries were not about mermaids they were about Ray.Ray liked oysters best, and he had a brother. Ray watched over the pups most of the time because he was the mermaid equivalent of a teacher. Ray’s best friend was a female teeth called a name meaning “royal child,” one quick google search later and Ray and Len dubbed her Sara. Ray wanted to feel the sun’s warmth but the hands weren't allowed near the water’s surface during the day. Their eyes were too weak to handle the full brightness of the sun, even in a cloudy little town like this. Ray liked Leonard’s short hair and the the scars on his hands and his voice when Len patiently explains and answers all of Ray’s questions. Ray liked Len. Len liked Ray because of that. You don’t teach a mermaid about your whole life and not catch feelings for them.And, naturally, there were a million things that could go wrong. Ray was a whole ‘nother species for christ’s sake! And Len was a wreck of a human, he couldn’t even protect Lisa back when he lived with his dad, how is he supposed to take care of Ray? Who was part damn fish!
Len groaned and slid further down into his bed. All this thinking was giving him a headache. Damn Len and his old romantic heart. There was a reason he always pushed people away, because once they wriggled into his heart they were cemented there forever (thus far there was Mick and Lisa. And Ray, but that goes without saying). If this… thing with Ray progressed, how was Len even supposed to stay with Ray? This whole “ocean by day and sands by night” is becoming exhausting.Len mused he could install a huge tank downstairs, like the kind they have at aquariums. At least that way Ray and Len could share a house. Lisa could keep a secret if it really mattered and Mick would probably grumble but never object. And it’s not like they has visitors or any-What was he thinking! There wasn’t anyway Ray would leave his pod! The way Ray talks about the pups, and Sara, there’s not a chance he would leave them in exchange for Len, no matter how much Len could delude himself.He groaned again, pushing himself off his bed. It was nearly time for his nightly visit.---“Your face is dark.” Ray said simply, his palm’s cold on Len’s face, finger tips pressing along his temples, thumb swiping at the bags under Len’s eyes.Len savored the loving touch before speaking. “Well, it is night time.”Ray tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, his lips pulled down; the perfect facial expression conveying, “That not what I meant and you know it.”A small smile wormed its way on Len’s face, and he turned his face slightly to kiss Ray’s palm. “I’m just tired is all.” Len tried to say.What came out was, “‘m juss tired izzall.” The slurred words only made Ray look at him more disapprovingly. “You should rest next night.”Len tried to protest when Ray interrupted. “I can see you in the day, so you can rest at night.”“You said you can’t handle the sun.”“Sara has plan.”Len startled a bit. He hasn’t actually met Sara, he just knows she’s a teeth and is fiercely protective of Ray (if his stories are anything to go by). Sara was apparently one of the more adventurous teeth in the pod, and spends the time allotted for sleeping along the surface in human form, doing whatever she wanted. Len shrugged in agreeance. He supposed he would follows Sara’s plan.---Mick opened the door to a blonde woman with sunglasses and a smile on her face.“Hi! I’m here for Len.” She said in response to the look Mick gave her. “He has a date.”Len, at the sound of the woman’s voice, quickly nabbed the collar of Mick’s shirt and pulled him away from the door and instantly stood where he did. The woman never stopped smiling. “...Sara?” he asked tentatively.The woman nodded with enthusiasm. “Yup! Hurry up, we gotta go.”Len knew that mermaids were stronger than the average human, and the subspecies of teeth were stronger still, but that did nothing to prepare him for the sudden and harsh tug that almost lifted him from his feet when Sara wrapped her slender tan fingers around his wrist and pulled. After seeing the beach and boardwalk at night and abandoned for weeks made seeing it bust and milling with people in the day startled Len. He had completely forgotten that other people used the beach beside he and Ray and other boated the ocean besides he and Mick.Sara was sure footed and confident, easily walking past pedestrians and dragging Len behind her in a steady stride. Len saw his and Ray’s bench, now preoccupied with two girls taking pictures of with their camera phones. He felt a sliver of jealousy, but was yanked away by Sara before he could dwell on his feelings.Len wasn’t sure exactly how long she had been planning this, but she seemed very prepared. Sara lead Len to a small mototized boat and started their trek to the small island far away from the other beach goers. Either Sara didn’t know a lot of English, or she just had nothing to say, just occasionally re-adjusting her sunglasses or giggling every time her look strayed to Len.As they docked on the island’s shore, pulling the small boat up onto the sand, Sara’s silence finally broke.“Ray loves you.” she said plainly.Len could feel about everything when he heard that. The shift of the sand beneath his shoes, the weight of his clothes and Sara’s stare, the sun’s warmth being negated by the coolness of the breeze. Ray told Sara everything, she was his confident. He wouldn’t lie to her (then again, Ray’s kind didn’t really understand deception through words-) and he certainly wouldn’t lie about something like this- He knew Ray liked him, but did he actually-“Wha-, I, I mean, really-”“He wouldn’t do this if he didn’t love you.” Sara interrupted. She smiled widely, her teeth sharp as a knife’s edge, as dangerous as a raging ocean. “You better love him back.”Before Len could even string together a coherent thought, or wipe the goofy smile from his face, a splashing noise came from the grouping of trees more inland.Sara followed the noise, and Len followed Sara.In the shade of the tree, rested a lagoon, and in it the very familiar torso of Ray circled around. Len realised the flurry of color following Ray was his tail. Len’s never actually seen it before, he realized.It was beautiful.The scales that tampered from his waist were navy blue, deep and almost iridescent in the spotty patches of sunshine that made it through the foliage. The navy blue blended into a deep sapphire, around where knees would be, and connected to that was a deep burgundy red, followed by a bright ruby red that was splayed out in the fin. Len could barely take his eyes off it.Sara nudged him, startling Len to speak. “I didn't know scale could even be that color.” He flushed as soon as he said it.Sara laughed again, slipping the glasses off her face and dropping them into the lagoon. Ray’s pale torso and beautiful tail fin followed.“Just Ray’s.” She said softly, fondly, gazing at the lagoon. “Awful for hiding, but great for baiting.” before len could ask what she meant by that, Sara cuffed his shoulder good-naturedly before making her way to the shore of the island. “Two hours.” She said sullenly, eyeing len with a weight unlike before. “ That's all i can give you.”Len nodded silently in thanks, and Sara disappeared behind the tree line.He stared at the empty space Sara once held until he heard splashing again.Len turned around fully, seeing Ray’s upper body resting on a flat rock, the sunglasses perched on his nose sloppily. Len chuckled, shucking off his shoes and sock and rolliung up his jeans, dipping his feet next to Ray’s tail and gently reset the glasses correctly on the other’s face.Ray smiled sweetly in thanks.“I can't come up.” Ray started. His voice sounded different, lower and rougher. “My gills need water.”Len nodded in understanding, combing his fingers through Ray;s dark locks.“And, the light-” the mermaid gestured vaguely around them. “My eyes can't-”Len kissed Ray, heart swelling. Ray’s mouth was wet and salty against Len’s own dry and chapped lips. This sweet sweet creature was going through all sorts of obstacles just to see him. Len can barely remember that last time someone face any trouble to spend time with him. Ray conspired and planned to be with Len during the day, so that Len could sleep. Len was sure he would never sleep again if it meant he got to see Ray.As Len pulled away, his foot brushed up against Ray’s tail, the scales smooth and cold against Len’s toes. Ray sighed, all blissed out and dreamy, the way he always did when Len kissed him without warning. Len loved this creature, who was always thirsty for knowledge, who was kind and giving, who was smart and clever. Len loved Ray, he’d do anything for him. (Len’s mind was racing with plans. About talking to Mick about this and finally coming clean, about planning a future with Ray because he can’t live without him, about introducing Ray to Lisa (Ray would LOVE Lisa)-)“What reason for that?” Ray asked lightly, his cold fingers playing with Len’s warm digits.Len smiled widely. “I have a plan.”