Abril: This story was inspired by the beautiful short-film "High Tide" by Kristen Kemper, you HAVE to check it out, it the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. The soundtrack of the film sort of reminded me of the song "Pictures of you" by The last goodnight.

In this story is completely AU and both Erik and Raven are human, they don't have powers nor anything of that sort. And they are young if you were interested.

Thanks to Mondhase for being a wonderful beta, her help is lovely. More notes at the end of the chapter.

-Third person-

The soft breeze that brushed their faces brought the taste of the salty water of the sea, the wind ruffled their hair as they headed down the rocky shore and closer to the coast. It was a beautiful morning, barely 7:30, but Raven Darkholme and Erik Lensherr were up and about, having a pleasant walk accompanied by the song of the seagulls and the crashing waves against the rocks.

"I can't believe I actually got up for this." The blond woman said with a little laugh, the man by her side smiled at her and squeezed her hand softly.

"It's a shame we don't come here more often. Don't you think. Erik?" Raven asked as she held her hat to her head, the playful wind trying to knock it off and into the water. "I mean, we live just by the beach. How long does it take us to get here, ten minutes?"

"Yeah…" He said, his voice somewhat absentminded, but listening to her every word "Yes, I think we should come down here more often."

The blond woman let go of his hand and hopped from rock to rock in a way that made Erik think she might fall any second, but he shook the thought away, knowing of his friend's agility.

"We have the entire day for us." She said, looking back at him with a little smirk "Do you wanna go to the town later? Maybe we can meet with Alex and Sean… perhaps Hank? Or Logan!"

The tall man gave a low chuckle. Oh, how the woman liked to tease him to no end, knowing perfectly well he didn't like to deal with other people. But perhaps the company of his friends would do him some good, he thought.

"What the hell…" He smiled "I guess we'll be going to town."

The blonde hid her smile and hopped down to the next rock and onto the next at a fast pace and with graceful moves, heading to a hold of water detached from the rest of the sea. Right by the edge she took her hat off as well as her satchel, placing them on the floor.

Erik looked at his friend fondly, as she introduced her hands into the water, looking for rocks and colorful shells like a little girl.

-Raven -

The water was so clear I could see every inch of green life attached to the rocks, the seashells and the morning light reflected in the surface. I was so lost in my fascination with the light reflected upon the water that I almost didn't catch the bit of moving color by the corner of my eye. And I couldn't help but gasp.

"Oh my goodness…" Just below the surface was the most incredible thing I had ever seen in my entire life; it was the most impossible thing I could have ever thought about and the most dream-like situation I could have ever imagined.

Just below the surface was a man with the tale of a fish.

Alerted by my words, he bolted from where he had been playing with the rocks and pebbles in the bottom of the water. I was leaning against the wet edge, so captivated by the creature that I didn't have a moment to think as I felt myself fall into the cold water. I rose my upper body from under the water and I looked ahead, my vision cut off by the curtains of my blonde hair. Pushing them away I saw the strange thing trapped against a boulder, his frightened eyes looking directly into mine.

There were no words; there was nothing I could say. His eyes were electric blue, somewhat green in the light; like lightening in the night or clear water. He had a long, long tail that writhed as best as it could against his body, the scales a translucent deep-dark blue with outlines of green.

I finally snapped out of my shock and I stood up; the poor creature shoving himself against the rock at my sudden movement, trying aimlessly to climb to the other side and out into the sea.

"Shh-sh-sh-shh." I shushed him with the calmest voice I could muster at the moment "It's alright… I-I'm not going to hurt you." I said.

The… should I dare say siren? Looked at me with terrified eyes, his breathing erratic and his muscles tense. All over his body were tiny scratches and trails of blood, probably from trying to get out before I had arrived and now… he was scraping his skin again as he tried to climb the boulder, his beautiful scales falling off.

"It's alright, it's alright." I kept saying "Everything's going to be alright… I'm not going to hurt you." I bit my lip as I thought what I could do in this bizarre situation, deciding it was best if I sat in the water so I wouldn't look so threateningly tall. I lowered myself into the water, slowly. And after a few painful seconds his breathing began to calm down though his eyes were still wary.

"Now that's a good boy…" I said with a relieved sigh. I half swam half dragged myself closer to him. He twitched back as I moved closer "No, no!" I said softly "it's all right."

But then entred the situation a factor my mind had completely erased from the equation. Erik, I thought angrily.

"Raven I saw you fall from afar." The bastard said in a laughing tone "are you alrig… What the bloody hell is that?!" He shouted, his military instincts kicking in as he prepared to attack the strange creature.

"Shut up!" I screamed "Stay back and shut the fuck up!" I said more quietly but with the same venom I had started with. He didn't lower his guard, but he did as I told.

He hadn't seen the siren from where he stood, the poor thing being under water and Erik so far away. I thought of his days with the soldiers and every bad experience he had ever had in the field, al the blood and death he had seen. It makes it hard for him to be sociable at times and wary of anything strange. But I could not let him ruin this… I couldn't.

The siren tried desperately to climb the rock wall again, a sharp piece stuck in the upper part of his tail where a human's hips would be, blood oozing from the wound.

"Oh my god… please stop." I begged him, as I tried to hold back my tears and swallow the knot in my throat. "Pleeease…" The panicked half-man stopped cold at the sound of my voice, which had embarrassingly broken, but I thanked the Gods that it had. The siren lowered his body until he was sitting at the bottom where the water reached the middle of his chest, and slowly, he turned to look at me.

I puffed out a shaking breath. "Okay, that's alright…" I dragged myself closer and closer until I was at the gap of rocks he was hiding in; so close I could almost touch his bended tail. His chest breathed in heavily as I brought my hand closer to him.

I could feel Erik's eyes piercing my back, ready to launch at the creature if he so much as hissed at me.

I placed my hand carefully over his tale and I felt him flinch, his eyes connected with mine the entire time, never breaking contact. I moved my palm up to his hip in a slow motion, his face got a blue tint as he grew uncomfortable with the way I was touching him. Taking advantage of the moment, I reached for the stone and with a quick movement I yanked out the piece that was buried in his tail.

"Hissssh!" Out of his mouth came a sound I had never heard before; like an angry cat and the hiss of a snake but in another tonality. His movements were so fast I had no time to think and I lost my breath as he yanked painfully at my hand. The creature had been so scared the whole time I had forgotten this thing could be seriously dangerous, it was a wild animal and I had neither control nor power over it. And now it had me gripped with strong hands by my upper arms.

-Erik -

I didn't dare to move as I saw Raven touching the horrid thing, afraid that one movement might be the end of her. And I saw the second the thing had had enough playing with its food and grabbed her arms with force and pulled her towards him.

The second it touched her I jumped into the water, ready to kill the animal and get it as far away from Raven as I could or die trying.

"E-Erik s-stop!" She shouted, the fear painfully obvious in her voice as she stumbled over her words "S-stop." She said more quietly.

My fists were clenched tightly as I stood very, very still. Jumping at the creature while it had Raven in its gasp would not be the smartest move. So I waited.

-Raven -

"I-I-I… I'm s-sorry." I said, trembling with fear. "I wa-was just trying to… to help." My chest hurt with anticipation as his claws sank slowly into my flesh, his eyes burning into mine with rage and ire.

I gasped from the pain and I hear Erik trying to get closer again. "Wait!" I said again, leveling me breathing heavily. I took a gulp of air and looked into his eyes with my fearful ones. "If you c-can understand me… I'm s-sorry." I said with as much honesty as I could.

-Third person-

The creature looked at her eyes with burning rage as she spoke. He was in all his right, a wild animal, by nature he lashed out upon pain. That is until he heard the pleading tone Raven had spoken in; he didn't understand what she said, not completely at least, but he stopped a moment in his rampage and as he looked without the curtain of pain clouding his eyes, he could finally see into hers more closely.

The girl was scared, as scared as he had been a moment ago, and now he was the one making her scared. He gazed to his hands that held her tightly with a strong grip that promised some nasty bruising later and the creature saw the extent of his actions. His sharp fingernails where digging into her skin, drawing blood from the incisions he was making. For a moment the creature felt as if he was about to slay a fish he had just caught to eat and he felt ashamed of his actions. Very, very slowly he loosed his grip until his hands where just resting over her upper arms.

"Thank you…" Raven sighed as the siren let go of her.

-Raven-

The siren didn't take his hands of my skin, but he was no longer hurting me, which made me sigh in relief. The creature no longer looked me in the eye, that's when I realized… he was ashamed of hurting me. But what could I say to a creature that probably didn't understand a thing of what I said. I looked at Erik -making sure he was not going to make any stupid moves- and as we locked eyes and glared at each other, he knew perfectly well what I wanted to say and he was not happy.

I turned back to the creature in front of me as I felt his hands leaving me, he looked at his palms with wonder, and they were red with my blood.

"Hey." I called him softly to get his attention "It's okay… I owed you one any way." I smiled, trying to get the message trough and after a few hesitant moments, he smiled shyly back at me.

"Raven I want you to get away from that thing." Came the commanding voice of Erik. I looked at him challengingly, my frown deep "Now." He said again like a parent scolding his child. I ignored him and looked again at the poor thing (that yeah, had been about to bite a chunk of my skin off, but who pays attention to the details anyway?) and gave him another smile.

He looked sadly at my arms again as he brought up a finger to cares my left arm.

"It's okay, really. Let it go." I said, not really hoping he understood me. "Oh, wow!" I exclaimed as he took my arm and pulled it to his chest "What are you doing?" His hold was not hard, but rather gentle and careful to not hurt me again. And then the weirdest thing happened (not that finding a real, leaving siren was anything normal… but it was pretty weird by the account of things that had happened today).

"What the hell is it doing?" Exclaimed Erik as the siren lowered his head and started licking my wound. If I hadn't seen the remorse in his eyes I would've probably thought that he was tasting how good I would be for a meal.

It felt weird. Not pleasant like when someone licks you during sex (you can excuse almost anything weird during sex) and not funny like when a dog licks you out of happiness, it was weird. His tongue was scaly and raspy, like when a cat licks you and you move it out of the way because it doesn't really feel good. But I didn't stop him, after all what did I know of siren-y costumes? Maybe he was saying sorry the only way he could? So he kept on liking my wound with care until the incisions no longer bleed, he then took my other arm as gently as the first and continued the process.

When he was satisfied with both of my arms a pleased croak came from his throat. I looked at the wounds and saw the telltale soft purple of his hold, his fingers where beginning to show. I ignored the fact and looked him straight in the eye and nodded approvingly.

"Thank you." I said politely, which earned me another toothy, and still shy, grin. My mind was suddenly filed with ideas of communication, making my heart almost skip a beat with excitement.

"My name is Raven." I said with a smile, the creature looking at me with confused amusement. "Rae-ven." I repeated, patting my chest as a sign of what I meant. But the siren did not understand.

"Come here!" I commanded a stunned Erik with excitement, who was still frozen by the scene. "Come on, don't be a wuss!" I said, because he did not move. At the moment I had neither the patience nor the time to waste with whatever racist thoughts he had crossing his mind.

He looked at the hybrid with hesitance.

"For the love of God Erik, come here right now!" I shouted angrily, but my friend had finally moved. As soon as he was at arm's distance from me I pulled him down into the water with me, soaking him to the waist as he kneeled beside me.

I stopped a second, recalling I didn't know how the siren was going to react to Erik getting closer and I turned to look at him. His brows frowned and his teeth where starting to show with anticipation. Erik was tense beneath my hand and the creature hissed softly at the unknown presence.

"No, no, no, no, no." I said quirkily with a soothing gesture of my free hand. "it's okay…" I said softly, hoping the message would get through to him and he could control himself from scratching Erik's eyes out (as he much looked like he wanted to do). "It's okay." I repeated with a smile.

Slowly but surely the hissing faded and the siren settled himself. Erik too relaxed his muscles somewhat but they were both on guard.

With the tip of my finger, still not sure how much liberty I had with the creature, I taped his slender hand to take his attention from the German. He looked down at what I assume was a strange gesture for him and then up at me with a questioning gaze.

I placed my hand over my chest again "Rae-ven." I said slowly and then I placed my hand over Erik's chest "Er-ik… Er-ik."

Abril: Mondhase pointed me out Erik's attitude seams a bit confusing; for anyone who is wondering, because in this story they are humans I wanted him to have the same dislike he has for what is not like him. Mutant Erik hates humans, so therefore human Erik hates things that are different.

Any questions?