Currently I'm taking fic requests over on my blog (myantiquehabibi over on Tumblr). This is one of them.

He couldn't swim. He was also five years old so it was understandable that he couldn't swim. Altair had been down at the docks with his parents, his father was talking with a captain of a ship while his mother bought their dinner of fish for the night, and he'd been looking over the side because he could see fish. His papa had said not to get underfoot of the adults while he talked with the captain, so he stood out of the way on the dock. He'd quickly been captivated by some of the brightly colored fish that swam under the dock and looked no bigger then his palm. They were white with thick, vertical, black, stripes on it's body. And there were some silver ones too.

Then someone had bumped into him from behind. Someone wasn't looking where they were going and he went head over feet into the ocean with a cry and a splash. He grabbed for air but couldn't find any and his first (stupid) instinct was to cry out. He inhaled sea water and immediately tried to cough, which just making him swallow more water.

For a second he managed to breach the surface and there was crowd of people looking down at him and he could see his father's face. "Altair!" he heard him yell and could see his reaching hand through the film of water over his eyes. But then he went under again and he heard someone yell again, probably his father, probably his name.

He couldn't breathe and couldn't swim and he was sinking, his lungs full of water, when something suddenly grabbed him from beneath. In a daze, half drowned, he thought he saw a black face with small white marks on the cheeks, and black eyes. With one arm around his waist they opened their mouth and it was filled with a million sharp, pointed, teeth, and they pressed against his mouth and inhaled.

He had the strange sensation of having the water sucked out of his lungs and when they were empty he felt like he was going to die because he really couldn't breathe. But then his head was above the surface and he was coughing and gasping and crying.

"Altair!" he heard his papa cry and he was moving through the water without moving himself and then two strong arms were lifting him up out of the water and he was still crying. There were a lot of people yelling and talking all at once and he just clung to his papa's chest. He coughed again and looked at the water under the dock, there was nothing there, and then he saw a long, black shadow flash through the water and out of sight.

—

Altair had been coming to the docks every day for the past ten years. Every day, without fail, as close to the same time as he could, usually before dinner, when the docks were quieter. He fingered the coin he normally would drop into the water, or sometimes a pearl. His father ran a jewelry store, he was his apprentice, and sometimes pearls got cracked during the grinding or cleaning process. They were still good pearls, they just couldn't be used for the quality of work his father worked at. He was a master and known for his quality. Nothing but perfection would do.

The days he couldn't get pearls he used coins. All the stories said mermaids liked shiny things, so they were always shiny coins. And it was also said they liked pearls and decorated everything with them, so when he could; pearls, since mermaids probably had no use for coins. That was if mermaids were even real. They were just stories, mostly legends. Reports of them were infrequent to non existent. Still, Altair knew.

He knew because he'd been saved by one when he'd fallen off these docks ten years ago. He'd since learned how to swim, to help his father dive for pearls, and against his father's orders even swam in the harbor. That was dangerous though since a boat could run over him. He still did though, usually to check just below where he was standing now (the spot where he'd fallen a decade ago) to see if his coins or pearls were there. They never were. All he ever found was a silty bottom, even when he dug into the muck. No coins. No pearls. Ever. Even when he checked within the span of a few hours. Nothing.

He pocketed the coin and sat on the wooden dock. "I know you're there," he said to the dark harbor water. "Maybe you can even understand me, I don't know. I hope you can. I wanted to say thanks… again," this wasn't the first time he'd sat here on the docks and seemingly talked to no one. It was why he came later in the day, when not so many people were around, so they wouldn't stare at him and wonder what Umar's son was doing there talking to himself like a lunatic. His family had a reputation after all. "And thought you might like something else, not a coin or a pearl. I bet you have a lot of the latter, nicer ones then I leave you, and more useless coins then you know what to do with."

With that he pulled out a ring. He'd made it out of silver because it didn't tarnish easily. It was just from some old coins they had around the house, ones that were out of date and would be melted down at the bank anyway. He'd melted them and turned them into wires and then braided them and made a loop that could fit his index finger. He was just sort of guessing at the diameter, wasn't like he could ask them after all. He felt kinda dumb doing this but before he could regret it he dropped it in the water. "Hope it fits," he said as it hit the water.

He waited, he wasn't exactly sure what he was waiting for, but he was waiting anyway. Nothing happened and he had to get going. His mother would start to get worried about him if he wasn't home for dinner. "Well that was dumb," he muttered to himself and sighed, rubbing his face.

When he pulled his hand away he almost fell off the dock in surprise. In front of him, with just the top of their head above water, was a mermaid. No. Not just a mermaid. His mermaid. The one with black skin and he could just make out the markings on their cheeks. He stared at them, surprised at how different they looked compared to his memory. But then that memory was ten years old and tainted by panic, but still. They were bald and he thought they'd been younger, but no, they looked like a man in his mid twenties. And his eyes were black. The black like a shark's were black, and made him swallow. Those were the eyes of things that were not friendly.

"Hello," he said, voice cracking. They stared at him. "Uh…" awkward much.

Then they lifted their head fully out of the water, "You're not scared," he said and Altair was struck by his voice. It was so… inhuman. Long and low and washed out, how a voice could be washed out he didn't know, but theirs was. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. He shook his head. "You should be," they said.

He furrowed his brow, "That seems silly to be afraid of the person who saved me," he said.

"I was going to eat you," and he paled, because they said it so bluntly.

"You… what?"

"I. Was. Going. To. Eat. You," he said, staring at Altair. He swallowed.

"Why didn't you?"

The mermaid blinked, "I don't know," he seemed confused by himself.

"You… eat people?" he swallowed.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why do you eat cows?"

"Because they… oh," and he was sure he was deathly white.

The mermaid held up the braided silver ring to examine it and look at Altair through the loop. Then he took off a necklace Altair hadn't seen because it was under water, and put the ring through it. He saw, to his surprise, that the necklace was made of coins with a hole drilled through the top. All the coins he'd brought. The ring clattered against the coins and then vanished under the water. The mermaid looked at him with his alien black eyes and grinned, his mouth was full of teeth like needles, twice as many as a human had in their mouth. "Do I scare you now?" he asked, still smiling.

"A bit," he confessed.

"Good," and then he vanished under the water.

Altair skipped going to the docks for an entire week before going back.

—

He saw the mermaid a few more times after that. Never like the first time though. A dark shadow in the water, or a splash that was too big to be a fish, or a fin rising up from the harbor briefly. Never anything much, and not often, but he went back, every day, because he wanted to see. He usually brought coins now, because he didn't crack pearls anymore since he was older. He brought lots of different ones. Ones from other cities and other countries when he could, ones that were different values and weighed different amounts. Sometimes he brought other tokens, a ring, or a pendant he could wear on his necklace. Small things his father wouldn't notice he made and wouldn't ask where they went.

One day he went to the dock closer to dark then not. There was no one around and he thought he saw something at his usual spot. He realized that he did see something. He bent down and picked it up. It was a necklace made entirely out of raw black pearls, each pearl carved with geometric and organic designs, and at the middle was a piece of flat, white, rock with a jelly fish carved on it. He smiled to himself and put it on. He'd been coming here almost fifteen years and this was the first time he'd ever gotten something in return from his mermaid.

He dropped a big gold coin into the water, he'd brought a shiny bronze one to do so, but he decided to drop the gold one in instead. He'd never given the mermaid gold before. His father would be so angry with him when he had to say he 'lost' it. Worth it. Then he said his thanks, though got no response, and left, tucking his new necklace under his shirt as he went.

—

He turned the coin over and over again in his fingers as he sat on the docks. He was hoping his mermaid came today. Today wouldm, potentially, be the last day he'd ever come here. He was going to marry someone in another city, one inland. The girl was nice, he'd met her once or twice, and her father was friends with his father, though had nowhere near the reputation. His father made jewelry for kings and nobles. Her father made them for the wealthy merchants and lower nobles. But the old men were friends, and Altair was almost twenty-five. He needed to get married.

"Please be here, I want to see you," he said, squeezing his eyes closed as he gripped the coin, and then dropped the coin into the water. He opened his eyes, confused, when he didn't hear a splash. Instead his mermaid was there, hand in a fist around the coin, having caught it before it hit the water. He smiled. "You're here," he said. They just looked at him with their black eyes. "I… came to say goodbye," he swallowed.

"Goodbye?" they asked and like the first time their voice made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

"I'm leaving, to get married."

"What is married?"

"Uhm… well," he said awkwardly. "It's where a man and a woman live together, I suppose, with a promise to not live with other men or women."

The mermaid cocked his head at him, "That's dumb," he said and Altair snorted.

"But… yeah," he said awkwardly. "I came to say goodbye, because I won't be able to come here anymore."

"Ever?" he asked, and it sounded like he was disappointed.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "I might come back, my parents are still here," he shrugged. The mermaid looked at the coin in his hand and then tugged at something below the water line, something he couldn't see. He didn't wear a necklace made of coins anymore, he was sort of upset by that actually. Then he stared at what his mermaid pulled from the water. It was a long string, maybe as long as Altair was tall, of coins. They coiled the coins around his wrist before tugging it off and offering it to him. "What? No, those are yours," he protested.

"I'll come back for them," his mermaid said. "Just be sure to come give them to me." Altair swallowed and nodded before taking the great string of coins. Twenty years worth of coins. A life time worth of coins. He knew they all couldn't be here. Some would have corroded or fallen off at some point. But the string was still impressive. Then the mermaid pulled out the big gold coin Altair had given him once, it was on a thong along with the rings Altair had made, the string wrapped around the coin instead of through it, "I'll keep these," and with one hand he pierced the soft silver coin he'd brought today with a finger ending in a claw and put it on the string with the rings and gold coin. Then he put them back under water, seeming to wrap it around something below him.

"Okay," Altair said.

His mermaid smiled, all teeth like before, but it was a nice smile this time. "I'll see you later," and then he vanished under the water, just like he had the last time.

—

The docks had changed since the last time he'd been there. Even the last time he'd been there the docks had been old and crumbling. A new jetty had been added to his usual spot now, and all the wood new, though still a bit old. It had been five years since he'd been here, but his feet remembered the way, even if his spot was gone now. The long string of coins was in his bag at his side along with several pieces for his master work he'd come to show his father, so finally he could get his master's chain.

It might have just been an excuse to come back here. His wife was pregnant with their second child, but he'd spent twenty years coming to this spot. He'd have been lying if he said he didn't think about his mermaid during that time, or while he was away, because he did.

He stood in front of the water and pulled out the long string of coins. He'd since restrung it on wire, and made it a double string, and sealed it, so it'd last longer, even in the salt water. He'd taken good care of it over the years, and hadn't told anyone about it, though his wife had asked. Altair didn't want to tell her, since mermaids weren't real. Not really.

He stood on the dock for a long time, till it got dark and the harbor master had someone light the lamps. If he dropped this into the water and they weren't there what was he going to do? He rubbed his beard with a sigh before deciding he just had to do it. He had to give it back, like he'd promised. Altair held the string out over the water to let them drop.

A hand suddenly lashed out and caught his wrist before he could drop them. "The hell?" he started, nearly dropping them anyway, and turned to who had grabbed him. "Who are you?" he asked the man who'd stopped him.

"I thought I'd save you the trouble is all," they said and he felt his face go slack. "Thanks for keeping them safe," he said, and grinned at him a little and he saw a hint of teeth, long and thin and pointed. His mermaid. "Surprised to see me?" he asked.

Altair just blinked stupidly at him, "You can do that?" was the first thing out of his mouth.

"I can do a lot of things," they said. "Including this," and then Altair was being kissed and that was just… wonderful actually. "My name is Malik," he said when they came up for air, "I was very lonely without you."

Altair didn't even know what to say to that. He'd basically just been confessed to by a mermaid. A mermaid who right now wasn't a mermaid but a really attractive man with black hair and dark eyes (though nowhere as dark as when he was in the water) and skin the color of coffee and milk. "I have a wife," he heard himself say dumbly and wow he sounded really stupid.

"So?" Malik asked him, "I don't mind sharing," and Altair flushed. "Just done go away again," and he reached out and cupped Altair's cheek. Altair closed his eyes. He could make this work. He would make this work.

-fin-