It was Ivan's island. Well, not if you looked closer. Yes, he lived there, but so did his father. Then again, his father living there was a controversial topic. His father worked out in the open sea, probably as a merchant. Well, he was actually a pirate. But Ivan didn't know that. Ivan himself was just a boy, a teenager living alone in that little island shack. To reach the mainland, he would take his little dinghy and row it over. The island had fruit trees, yes, but Ivan was a growing boy who needed plenty of meat, and fishing just wasn't enough. He also needed timber and log crops, for either repairs to his actual domain, or firewood. It would be dull to cut down any of the trees that littered his tiny little island.
Ivan rose one morning, stretching his arms and yawning loudly. There was no-one around the house, ever, so he could be as rude or unattractive as he wished, and no-one would criticize. He walked about the sandy shack, staring up at a small hole in the roof that would require fixing. It would be horrible to have a drip into the shack. Ivan sighed and pulled on an undershirt, lamely swinging his arms back and forth so that he could admire the flouncy sleeves. After being dumb and childish a moment longer, he fixed his breeches and stumbled out of the shack.
He was almost blinded by the bright sunlight, but he smiled and lifted a hand to shade his eyes. Now that he could see a little better, he located one of the island's fruit trees, and picked up a mango that had fallen. As he ate, he began making his way around the sandy lip of the island, to go to where his boat would be. It wasn't there. In its place was a man-. Er, no, a merman, with a long red tail and sleek yellow fins. He was covered in jewellery, with everything ranging from armlets and necklaces to earrings and beads around his hips. His hair was beautiful too, dark copper tresses that fell just to his chest.
"Are you looking for your boat?" the merman said, already coming off as obnoxious. Ivan just pouted, finished his mango, and wiped his hands on his trousers.
"Where is it?" Ivan murmured, staring at the odd creature in front of him. He then looked up a tad more, and his eye caught on his boat, floating a little ways out to sea. "Did you do that!"
"Give me a sparkly," he insisted, resting his elbows in the sand, and his face in his palms. "And I will retrieve it for you."
"If I could swim, I would just go and get it myself," Ivan muttered, turning to go and look for a 'sparkly'.
"Hold on a minute, what was that?" the merman laughed. Ivan faltered, turning to give the creature a firm glare. "You are a human living all the way out on a tiny little isle, yet you are unable to swim?"
"Are you to make fun of me?" Ivan puffed, turning back entirely and crossing his arms. The mermaid nodded, smiling with a set of white and pointed teeth. "I cannot swim because I never learned. It was not my choice to live here." With that said, he huffed and trundled back to his home to dig up something for the pesky merman.
The thing is, Ivan wasn't at all shocked by the existence of merpeople. When his dad had actually been around and was not gallivanting across the seven seas, he had woven many tales of the species. Ivan had believed in them, but as his father grew more sour, he would answer any of Ivan's questions by saying 'Stories are stories, kid. They're not real.' These discouragements didn't in any way erase the belief from Ivan's mind. If anything, he was happy that he was right. He had been right all along, they did exist!
Ivan retrieved a small silver necklace from his shack, hoping it would be enough to satisfy the merman. When he returned, it seemed he had hauled himself up the beach a little, and sand coated his damp arms and tail. "Is this sparkly enough?" he asked, holding out the necklace. "It's not gold, but it's the best I have." It was also the only piece of jewellery that he had.
"Let me look," the mermaid insisted with a huff, motioning for Ivan to come closer. He did, and sat in front of the creature, offering the silver piece for him to examine. He glared at it at first, before putting it between his teeth and nibbling a little. "Yes, I'll accept it. Now I shall go and get your boat."
The mermaid slipped the silver chain around his neck, where it competed with gold bands and laces, and then shuffled back into the water. Ivan just sighed and waited for his boat to be returned. After a moment or two, it was, and the mermaid crawled back up on the beach with it. Ivan helped strand the dinghy on the shore, and sat back down again. "Thank you," he sighed. "Ah, my boots were in here." He looked into the boat's body, and indeed, his boots sat inside it. He only really needed them if he was going to the mainland, he'd observed.
"Those look odd," the merman huffed, staring at the boots.
"They're for my feet," Ivan pointed out. "It's so my feet don't get hurt if I step on something sharp. You probably wouldn't understand, what with having a fin and all."
"So you're not irked or discomforted by what I am?" he asked, dragging himself up the beach a bit to sit by Ivan and look up at him. "Most humans try to catch my kind, either to eat or sell them and become rich." He mumbled.
"I'm just a boy," Ivan pointed out. "And it may be thought childish, but I still have my sense of wonder, unlike a lot of adults. You are indeed fascinating to me, and I know you have a will and set of emotions of your own. Selling or eating you would be a waste of an amazing creature."
"My name is Yao," the merman nodded, eyes on the lapping waves. "You are worthy of knowing that, kind boy. I don't converse with many humans."
"My name is Ivan," he said in a like tone. "I don't chat with many mermaids, either." He laughed quietly, and smiled a bit. "Other than stealing my boat, you are quite an interesting subject."
"So, do you live here without any other humans?" Yao queried, tilting his head and peering up at the human aside him. "Surely a boy doesn't live alone."
"Sweet isolation, I suppose," Ivan sighed. "It's enough to drive a man mad."
"So, are you mad?" The question came off as a little snarky.
"No, I'm not." Ivan shrugged. "I do go into the mainland when I need to. I socialize with the people there. My father is a sea merchant, out on the waters without his son. I stay here." He skipped the part where he talked to himself. That was a little mad.
"My father is a lowly man in our hierarchy," Yao murmured. "He expects high of me because I am his son, but little will come from me, as I am a runaway."
"A runaway?" Ivan asked, curious. "Oh, I don't mean to pry, Yao, it's just that I'm interested. My apologies."
"It's fine, human. By the sea, I didn't think humans could hold intelligent conversation for this long," Yao scoffed quietly, running a hand through his hair. "Yes, I swam away from home quite some time ago. A life in lower class is not one for me, and so I left the shoal. I was just a reject there, but alone, I am my own man."
"Oh, I see," Ivan nodded. "I take it by how much you've shared that you don't have company often."
"You don't either, do you?"
"No, I don't."
They both gave sad little laughs, before a silence stopped their chatter. At last, Yao spoke up. "You really don't know how to swim?" he asked, raising a thin brow at the boy.
"Yes, I really don't know how to swim," Ivan huffed quietly.
Yao clicked his tongue, and flashed a smile of pearly whites. "I should teach you."
Shortly after that, Yao grabbed Ivan's arm and flopped towards the water, Ivan unable to escape as Yao's long nails dug into his arm. "Ah-.. Heavens-" he cried as the water came closer and closer.
"It's really not that hard!" Yao huffed, squeezing Ivan's arm a little harder and pulling him into deeper water. It was currently at Ivan's knees.
"You have a tail!" Ivan argued, struggling under the impression that this was how he was going to die.
Yao laughed. "Thank you for pointing it out, I did not know!"
He stopped dragging Ivan once the water was at the boy's hips. Yao was swimming in little circles now, happy to be back in the water. "Come on, it is not that hard! Just do as I do," he nodded, going underwater and kicking his tail.
"I don't have a tail," Ivan whined quietly. "I can't do this, Yao, let's just go back to shore."
"No!" Yao cried as he burst up from the water again. "What if you fall off your boat! You will surely drown. We cannot have that of a nice young man. Well.." he paused in thought. "I will show you something amazing. Hold onto my back."
Ivan was hesitant, but he put his hands on Yao's shoulders, and pulled himself a little closer to the merman. Yao then kicked his tail and dove up, before surging down beneath the surface. Ivan was lucky he knew how to hold his breath. His eyes burned from the salty water, but he heard Yao say clearly to keep them open. Ivan felt as if his lungs were trying to implode by the time Yao had gone as far as he wished to. "This is my home!" Yao declared, swimming once around a shipwrecked dinghy. It was nothing special, just an old, sunken, and moss-covered boat shell that had been upturned and overgrown with kelp. Hurriedly, he kicked his tail and sped back up to the surface so that Ivan could take a breath.
When given the chance, Ivan gulped in a breath and gasped for more. "Goodness!" he cried, clinging rigidly onto Yao's shoulders.
"So, what did you think?" Yao smiled, turning his head a bit to face the human. "There are treasures inside, but you would have suffocated had you been down there much longer."
"I was more interested by all the fish swimming about," Ivan shrugged, relieved when Yao swam back towards the shore, and his feet could touch the sand again. He hurried away and out of the water.
"Oh, you're hungry then? I'll be back." And with that said, Yao dived back under.
He wasn't back for a few minutes, and Ivan sat down on the shore, letting the sun start to dry him. Yao suddenly popped up above the water, lifting his hands high and showing off two fish, still alive and flipping about in his grasp. He then bit into the gills of either one, to silence them, and swam back to shore. "See! Food," he hummed rather cheerily, throwing both fish at Ivan before trying to drag himself up the sand. Ivan, in shock, just let the fish hit him in the face. Charming.
"Well, dig in," Yao huffed, grabbing one of the fish from in front of Ivan and just biting into it. "It's not going to run away. Grab it." he mused, talking now with half a mouthful of fish guts in his mouth. Ivan, frightened and cautious, picked up the fish Yao had offered him and stared at it. As Yao's eyes were glued on him, he brought it to his mouth and took a meek nibble. It would have been rude to refuse a meal. He coughed at the taste and lowered the fish, spitting out the tiny bit of raw flesh he'd bitten off.
"Uhm, I'm not hungry, you can have mine," he laughed weakly, handing over the small fish.
"I wasn't expecting you to actually eat it!" Yao laughed, taking it graciously. "I know you humans like your food fired for some absurd reason. You are quite entertaining, Ivan!"
Ivan laughed half-heartedly, cringing as the taste of raw fish lingered in his mouth. "I'm going to get some fruit instead," he murmured, watching out of the corner of his eye as Yao was already picking the bones of the first fish. He returned with half of a papaya, and settled himself down. Yao seemed to be quite childish, as he had tossed away the first fish's bones, and was currently trying to pull an eye out of the second. Once he succeeded, he laughed to himself and then lifted the extracted eye up close to Ivan's face. "Hey, Ivan," he smirked, squeezing the little sphere and pretty much grossing Ivan out. Ivan was currently trying to ignore the fish blood all over Yao's face and hands. "I guess you and the ocean are seeing.." he paused, for emphasis. "Eye to eye." And he lightly squeezed the eyeball again, moving it closer to Ivan's own eye.
"You mermaids have jokes worse than humans do," Ivan stated, laughing softly. Yao chuckled as well, popping the eye between his teeth and biting down. That was actually really gross, and Ivan tried not to feel sick as Yao repeated the process with the fish's other eye. Yao soon finished this fish as well, and discarded the bones in the sand beside him.
"That was nice, you really missed out," laughed Yao, flopping forward to the water to wash his hands and mouth. "Raw fish in the heat of the day is divine." He hummed in approval to himself, before crawling back up and prodding Ivan's shoulder with one of his webbed fingers. "Your species does not understand good food."
"Maybe if I see you again after today, I'll buy something from the mainland and give it to you, and you will be amazed at how good some of our food can be." Ivan nodded, poking Yao's shoulder back.
This quickly turned into an immature and childish poke war, with Ivan gently poking Yao's shoulder, and Yao releasing an intense barrage of jabs into Ivan's arm, shoulder, and chest. And before they knew it, Yao was on top of Ivan, flicking his fins excitedly as he continued to poke and prod the human. "I think I'm going to have holes in my arm by tomorrow," Ivan laughed softly, taking Yao's wrists so he wouldn't be able to poke him any more. "Or at least, a lot of tiny poke-sized bruises." There then fell a silence, and Ivan noticed the position they were in, with Yao laying atop him, and Ivan almost holding his hands. "U-uh!"
"Is something the matter?" Yao pouted now, sticking out his tongue.
"It's just we're kind of positioned awkwardly?" Ivan said weakly, getting quite embarrassed. "I-.. I, um-" he stammered, glancing away from the beautiful merman. "I don't know, I just feel bewitched or something-.. But, uh-"
"Spit it out, human," Yao scoffed, leaning down and staring into Ivan's eyes to extract an answer.
"I!" he cried, flustered. "Can I ki-.. Um, kiss you?" He then gulped and covered his mouth. That wasn't supposed to happen.
"I love having the ability to make people speak their minds," Yao chirped. "What's a 'kiss'?"
"It's.. Uh.." Ivan mumbled. "It's when two people who like each other but their lips together-"
"That sounds weird," laughed Yao. "I don't get it."
"Can I show you?" Ivan whimpered, embarrassed as he moved his hand from his mouth.
"I like you, so sure," Yao shrugged. Ivan, flushed beyond comparison, leant up, and gently pressed his lips to Yao's. They tasted salty, and they were soft, and-.. Oh. Over the salty taste was the taste of fish guts. Ivan leant back and tried not to cough.
"That's what it is," he nodded weakly.
"Again!" smiled Yao, finding this quite amusing. "I like you plenty, so again!"
"Oh-.. Huh? Really?" Ivan mumbled, taken aback. He didn't particularly want to kiss Yao while he tasted like fish guts, but hey, it was a start. He leant upward again and kissed Yao, only to feel him pressing his lips back this time. They kissed again, and then twice more, until Ivan couldn't stand the taste of fish innards anymore, and pulled away. "That was nice," he murmured, red-cheeked.
"What were you eating? It tastes delicious!" Yao huffed, putting a finger on Ivan's lips, as if he was trying to push it between them. Ivan scoffed and turned his head in embarrassment.
"It's called papaya," Ivan mumbled softly. "It's the orange fruit I was eating before. I'd give you some, but I'd think you're full by now."
"I am," whined Yao, rolling off of Ivan and absently kicking his tail in the sand. "Well! I will just have to come back tomorrow when I am not full so I can try this papaya thing."
"You're coming back tomorrow?" Ivan said quietly, realising how hopeful and desperate he sounded.
"Of course," Yao gasped, looking like he was offended. "You are a lonely little human boy who cannot swim and lives all the way out here on this little isle. You can teach me new things and give me new foods, and I will not steal your boat, and I will teach you to swim."
"How sweet of you," Ivan joked softly. "But, um, yes, I'd like it if you could come back tomorrow."
"We can do the kiss thing again!" Yao gasped, rolling over and grinning up at Ivan.
Ivan snorted. "Only if you eat the fruit first."
ahuhu this is an apology for born of steel and a blackened heart because dang that was sad