A/N! Okay, I admit it. This is the weirdest AU I've done so far. But guys, I'm not kidding. I think it turned out REALLY GOOD! I hope you all enjoy it!
Part One
Cloud's jeans kept slipping down from where he'd rolled them up to his knee. By the time he bent to re-roll them a fourth time, they were already soaked with sea water. He gave up and let their flared bottoms trail around his ankles in the surf.
Time was slipping by too quickly. The college applications his mother had been begging him to fill out sat on his desk, untouched. His application to join the military was already mostly done. But now there were more and more protests against the war in Vietnam every day, and suddenly his life-long plan didn't seem so perfect anymore.
It had been natural to escape to the seaside to think. It always cleared his mind to hear the crash of the waves, and feel the chill of the water on his feet. The beach where he spent his summers was too rocky to be habitable for tourists—Not nearly the right kind of photogenic. It was all dark wet rocks and rough gravel-like sand, not yet worn down into powdery smoothness by the waves. The sea was often rough here, often dangerous. He loved it desperately.
Manning the lighthouse was not the usual sort of summer job most kids handled, but Cloud was not most kids. He was no good at sports, he wasn't interested in art, he was lost in his own mind at least 85% of the time. He only needed to worry when storms rolled in, and that was when he felt most alive anyway. It was perfect.
The storm the night before had been a rough one. He'd had to man the light all night long. Now that the sun was up and the storm was past, he'd found himself unable to rest with the specter of his future on the horizon. This would be his last summer working at the lighthouse either way it went. He desperately wanted to make it count.
He crouched, picking up a glimmering dark shape from the sands. He turned the shark tooth he'd just found over and over in his fingers, then pocketed it along with the sandy seashells he'd already liberated from the beach. After the storms was the perfect time to scan the beaches for treasure, as rough and untamed as they were. He didn't mind that his bare feet were poked by the rough sand, and that the water was really too cold to be wading in.
This was what he came here for—absolute clarity and the beauty of raw nature. What on earth did he have to worry about in comparison to a storm like last night's, that would have wrecked any ship foolish enough to come anywhere near the shore? What did he have to fear in comparison to the waves that lapped hungrily at his ankles?
He squinted against the sunlight reflecting off the water, lifting a hand to shield his eyes as he climbed the slick pile of rocks that separated the little inlet closest to the lighthouse from the rest of the rocky beach. He paused at the top as the crashing of the waves was interrupted by the wet sound of something thrashing.
He edged towards the peak of the rocks, peering down into the area beneath it on the other side. For a moment, all he saw was sunlight glimmering on the water's surface. Then the thrashing happened again, and he gasped, catching sight of a long tail thrashing in a now-shallow pool of water that must have been deeper before the tide retreated. The sharp, angular fin on its back and the rough, almost-boneless side-to-side motion said everything in an instant.
A shark.
Cloud caught a breath, staring down at the edge of the pool. The thing was still alive, but it wouldn't last long. There was no way it could—The receding tide had left it in a quickly drying puddle. How it had survived this long was beyond him. As was why it hadn't gone back out to sea, he had no idea.
He glanced back to the safety of the lighthouse, then shook his head at himself. A stranded, beached shark posed him no threat. And he rarely swam in the freezing ocean waters. Helping it back into the ocean if he could… It would do no harm, he thought. He squared his shoulders, nodding quietly to himself. Then he slipped down the rock face, trying to keep his breathing calm. This was what he wanted, wasn't it? Danger and adventure? How could he even consider signing up for the army if he couldn't face one beached shark.
It wasn't until he reached the base of the rocks that he could see into the small alcove where the shark's head was. It was then that the thoughts of bravado abandon whim in a rush. A scream welled inside him, but died unvoiced in his throat.
In the cave, a human lay, one hand caught and bloody in a twist of fishing wire. He halfway dangled off the rock face, long silver hair spilling over his back and around his shoulders. A furious snarl was on his face, revealing sharp, inhuman teeth. His eyes were wide and unseeing. Slits in his side—gills, cloud realized in shock—Flared as he tried and failed to breath.
His whole torso went tight at the failure, and he spasmed out of control, his body fighting without strength or skill for breath. The sharks tail twisted and thrashed where it attached to him at his waist, and paired with the wrenching, gasping sound he made, there was no doubt. There was no doubt that the shark's body and the man dangling by his trapped hand and drowning on air were one and the same.
Cloud stepped backwards, away from the creature. Even as the free hand lifted to claw at the tight wrappings that held him in place. Cloud watched as the merman dragged himself upwards, struggling to bite his wrist free of its confinement. But the fishing wire was too deeply ingrained, and the sharp teeth only served to send fresh blood sliding down his sea salt damp arm. He shuddered, struggled, and pressed downwards, his face only barely reaching the minuscule puddle of water beneath him. Cloud's chest tightened even as he watched the desperate display. It was obvious that the little water there was not enough. The creature, whatever he was, was dying. The litany of scars across his body made it clear that this was not his first brush with death. But the choked sound of fear that escaped him as he failed once more to catch his breath was just as clear that this would be the last.
Cloud stood motionless a frozen moment longer—long enough for the man to go boneless in the grip of his fate, sagging there and going still, as though the life had left him between one moment and the next. Somehow, that was enough to galvanize Cloud into action. He stepped forward, watching the way the twisting hair tangled listlessly about the man, drying to his skin like more fishing line, tangling him, killing him.
"Hey," Cloud called, his voice trembling around the little cavern. "Hold on, I'll get you free, just hold—"
He jumped back as the tail he'd stepped towards thrashed viciously. He winced when the hard edge of it took his leg out from under him, sending him to one bruised knee on the harsh rocks. He hissed out a breath of pain, scrambling backwards.
The eyes that turned their glare on him were pure fury. The bright green gaze with its slit pupils held a rage so deep and intense that Cloud nearly broke and ran. It was only the helpless jerking of the man against his own arm that held him in place.
"I'm trying to help" Cloud insisted, rising to his feet again. "You have to hold still, you'll die moving around like that!"
His only reply was another thrash from the creature, his many-finned tail curling up towards himself in a combination of a display of rage and of helplessness. Cloud watched a moment, waiting for the thrashing to stop. All too soon, the creature's lips parted over sharp teeth, and he gave a hollow gasping sound again, his rage dying as he lost strength once more. Cloud moved forward quickly, sidestepping the twitching tail and edging into the wet alcove. His feet sank into the water, blood swirling in pink rivulets off of the merman's body. He had scrapes and bruises all over his human torso. He must have been caught in the storm the night before, Cloud thought, to have taken so much damage and wound up in such a position.
He fumbled for the serrated shark's tooth in his pocket, knowing it would do better than nothing in a struggle against the fishing line. He stepped up as high as he could onto the rocks, his eyes fixed on the impossible figure before him, and the way his chest heaved and his muscles shook. His pale skin was taking on a blueish cast, and his eyes were rolled back in his head.
Cloud didn't permit himself any more time to hesitate. He caught the rock the fishing line was caught on, and started sawing at it with the shark's tooth. He saw the jerky motion an instant before the man struck, but he didn't have time to defend against it.
He turned just in time to see green eyes flash at him, and the free hand lash out. He screamed as the creature caught his arm, dragging him down and sinking his teeth into flesh. he jerked his head side to side, viciously, even as Cloud pulled back, screaming in pain at the injury. He lashed out with his tool, striking the merman across the face and opening a long gash there, but if anything it only strengthened the bite on him. He grit his teeth and kicked forward. His bare foot caught the merman in the gill heel-first, and his arm was released instantly with a sharp gasp of pain followed by a wracking coughing sound. The man twisted in agony where he was pinned, and Cloud stared, his entry way blocked by every inch of dangerous being.
"Fuck," he sobbed, pressing against the back of the cave and pulling his bloody arm against his chest. "Ow…"
Cloud forced his hand to uncurl from over the wound, and found that he was not quite missing a chunk of flesh there, but he had been badly marred. It was bleeding raggedly, and every one of the man's sharp teeth had left a deep gash in his skin. The thrashing, had it gone on a moment more, would have torn the entire bite-sized chunk completely off.
Cloud gripped the tooth harder, eyeing the accessible throat of the merman as he choked and dangled. He could slit his neck right then and there, and end this quickly rather than freeing him or watching him suffocate. He hovered a moment, considering the option, then he grit his teeth, glancing at the cave door again.
When the tooth descended, it was once more on the fishing wire, but this time Cloud kept his eyes on the drowning man, watching as his body instinctively thrashed and twitched—as his teeth bared and his gills flared in desperation. As he grew less and less lively, and the thrashes came less frequently.
"Serve you right if I couldn't save you." Cloud whispered, trying to ignore the taste of salt water in his mouth that had nothing to do with the ocean. "Biting me when I'm trying to help. I'd probably make a killing off your corpse, you asshole. They'd call you the miracle of the decade!"
The shark-man thrashed again, and a pained sound wrung its way out of him, almost-human. Green eyes flashed up at Cloud, the look on the face no longer rage, but replaced by fear and desperation.
"Hold on," Cloud found himself chanting as the dying man watched him, even as the creature's free arm dropped from clawing at him to lay limp in the wet sand of the floor. "Hold on!"
Green eyes went hazy, and Cloud turned from him to hack at the line, feeling the last pieces of the netting start to fray, the hand tangled in it still bloody and broken, but closer, closer, closer to freedom.
He crowed in triumph as the final cord broke, but only for a moment. Then the shark man dropped, dead-weight, into the sand. His shark's tail was still twitching and thrashing, his arms fighting to lift his weight, but unmoving. His silver hair draped around him, his nearly-dry scalp telling an ugly tale of how long he'd struggled for life.
"No, no no, come on." Cloud hissed, jumping off the rock to land beside the creature.
He crouched by his head, sliding a hand over the startlingly soft skin of the man's face, turning his face to look at him. Dazed, dying eyes stared up at him blankly, and the blood stained teeth parted in a silent, spiritless motion. Cloud was frozen a moment by that hopeless gaze, then he shook his head roughly, pushing away and sprinting to the end of his tail.
"Come on," he called desperately, "you're free, you have to get into the water!"
He gripped the base of the tail only to have the sandpapery skin ripped from his grasp by another harsh thrash of the creature
"Don't fight me!" Cloud barked. "Fight to get back in the water!"
The shark lay still, the muscles of his back moving only in little spasms, the tail fin laying still curled towards himself defensively. What energy he'd had, he'd had spent. Cloud waded through the shallow puddle of water and grabbed hold again, more firmly this time. He needn't have worried. The man lay still, his hands palm down in the shallow pool, his face turned to the side, his mouth open as though the quarter inch of water trickling into his mouth might somehow save him.
Cloud dug his feet into the gravelly sand and hauled backwards. The shark-man weighed a ton, and he gave a weak gesture of a struggle as Cloud pulled him away, but Cloud didn't let that stop him.
He hauled backwards, as hard as he could, dragging the limp form away from the cave, leaving the shallow tidal pool there, stained with blood, and with the trailing ends of fishing net still dangling off a rock towards the back of the cave. He had not stopped to untangle it from the creature's hand, and he didn't plan to.
The man did not move again. He lay still as Cloud dragged him back, sand scraping over his skin and face, his hair tangling as it was pulled along behind him. Cloud moved faster, glancing back to the retreating ocean. He gasped when the cold water hit his feet and his soggy pants, but he kept pulling back—retreating into the water until the beach suddenly dropped off below his feet.
He fell into the waves with a final gasp for air, hauling backwards till the last moment. He lost his grip as he scrambled to swim back to the surface past the sodden weight of his cotton shirt and sopping wet blue jeans. He opened his eyes only for a moment to see the floating body before him, then closed them again with a burbling scream as salt-water burned his gaze.
When he finally breached the surface, it was with a shout of pain, the salt water burning not only his eyes, but the deep, ugly, bleeding gashes in his arms. Dread shot through him as he managed to work his eyes open as he treaded water. He was bleeding into the ocean. The body he'd dragged out was gone.
He kicked hard, wondering how he'd ended up so far from the shore so fast. Had it been a rip tide? A particularly hard pull of the receding ocean? He struggled to get back to the safety of land. When a hand closed on his ankle, he choked on the water, struggling and kicking for all he was worth. He spat salt-water, fighting to keep his head above water. It couldn't go like this. It just couldn't.
The incredible grip dragged him back away from shore, and he lashed out with the shark's tooth he still held in hand. This time, a hand with fin-like webbing between the fingers and covered in tangled fishing wire caught the swing, and Cloud was left pinned by the grip. The hold on his ankle was dropped, replaced by the hand catching his other arm to hold him firmly in place.
He stared into the green, inhuman eyes that regarded him coldly from a face only halfway above the water. Below the waves surface he could see the sharp toothed mouth open, gasping in breath, the gills working furiously to restore life to the body. The clear water gave him a moment's view of the long tail moving sinuously behind the creature.
Cloud closed his eyes tightly, his brows twisting in fear and his hands clenching into fists. Terror rushed through him, as chilling and powerful as the ocean he was pinned in. He braced himself to have his throat torn out. After a long moment, he felt the gentle push of water against his back as it parted for him, moving back towards shore.
He squinted an eye open, and found the man still holding his wrists, his face still halfway submerged, his eyes fixed upon him. The tail twined through the water behind him in slow, graceful arcs, pushing them both back towards the shore that had almost killed the shark-man.
The moment Cloud's feet touched land, he staggered onto it, spitting sea water. He was quietly surprised to have been released at all.
He turned back to the ocean, staring at the creature there, with his luminous hair spread around him, glittering in the sun's light.
"Thank you." He whispered, his voice raw with sea water.
The creature stared a moment more, then slowly lifted its fishing-net tangled hand out of the water, looking from Cloud to the appendage and back. The expectant look in his eyes was completely foreign to Cloud, but he found himself shocked by it—drawn to it. He edged closer, into the shallows, but dared not come too close.
"Do you want me to cut you the rest of the way free?" He asked uncertainly, holding out his empty hand as well as the one that still held the serrated tooth.
The shark regarded him a long moment, then slid slowly forward through the water, till he could brace one hand on the drop off and extend the other towards Cloud still in the shallows without lifting his face free of the ocean.
Cloud plucked carefully at the strands with hands that were shaking, cutting away little pieces at a time till the whole thing came free at once, leaving the hand bloody and mangled, but whole. He threw the trash to shore, staring as the green eyes glanced over the wounds. Slowly, carefully, he found himself reaching out towards the silver of that hair, hoping to touch it just once before the strange creature departed.
The merman turned in a moment, lifting his face free of the water just long enough to snap at Cloud's fingers. But though the motion made Cloud jerk his hand back, the creature had not bitten this time—just threatened.
"You're welcome." Cloud muttered rather bitterly. "You bit me, you know. I should have left you behind for that."
Green eyes regarded him silently for a moment. Then, slowly, the creature rose his torso out of the water, the fins behind him working double-time to keep him afloat. He stared at Cloud, eye to eye, a long moment, then slowly leaned forward.
His lips, when he touched them to Cloud's, were cold and covered in salt, but there was no hint of the dangerous teeth that lay just beyond them.
"Thank you." The creature whispered, its voice raw, before it turned in a flash of silver hair and shark fins, diving into the water and vanishing in a moment.
Cloud stayed crouched at the water's edge, dumbfounded, with the cold, salty touch of the merman's lips still burning on his mouth, and the sight of that muscular body sliding through the waves burning at his memory. He stood up very, very slowly, collected the web of discarded fishing net, then limped back towards the lighthouse, feeling lightheaded and abused. And yet, somehow, his heart soared. He'd done it, after all. Despite the pain, despite everything, he'd gotten the strange, dangerous creature free. And gotten a kiss for his trouble. He supposed he was happy about that second part. Though if the fish-man had been able to speak English all along and had not responded to his words, it added a new layer of frustration to the events.
He bandaged his arm almost without thinking. The pain braced him in reality, in a way. He had definitely been bitten. There was no questioning that. So it would have been foolish to question the other events of the evening. He found himself glancing out to sea over and over hoping to catch a glimpse of the strange being who had altered his summer so suddenly and so thoroughly. There was no such thing as mermen, and yet… And yet the stinging wound on his arm said differently.
The applications sitting on his small desk in his summertime bedroom at the lighthouse's base all went untouched that day, and Cloud stayed up late into the evening, watching the waves for any sign of movement that should never have existed.