Into The Deep
A/N: I've had so much fun writing this. The most I've ever had writing anything, actually. As this is a crossover, some 'verse notes; I strongly suggest watching the first episode of H2O on YouTube in order to get an idea of the look of the tail, how transformations and powers work, et cetera. This story is definitely Seblainter-centric, with romantic!Seblainter or friendship!Seblainter depending on which is appropriate. There will be no smut, sadly, as I can't write smut to save my life. There will be kissing! Just not in this chapter. I am more than happy to take prompts for this 'verse, and the chapters will be either rewrites of H2O episodes or ideas of my own. Also, fair warning – I give this to you un-beta'd.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own the fabulous trio of Sebastian, Blaine, and Hunter, nor do I own their fabulous powers or even the idea of their powers. Nothing from the Glee-verse or H2O-verse is mine.
"This blows," Sebastian grumbled, picking at a stray scale.
"Stop whining and help me dry you off," Hunter replied frustratedly. "You know Blaine's an awful liar; people will definitely be asking questions and you don't want to have to answer that you were in the toilet for ten minutes."
Sighing, Sebastian leaned over to pick up a towel as Hunter flexed his fingers, causing more waves of steam to roll off Sebastian's tail.
2 weeks ago
How Hunter had managed to make Warbler bonding via a weekend hike sound like fun, Sebastian had no idea. Maybe it was the fact that for some reason, he just couldn't refuse the strange combination of Hunter's puppy eyes delivered with a commanding military tone. Maybe it was the fact that Blaine had agreed to go (along with most other Warblers). Certainly, pitching a tent at 8 o'clock pm in the dark with only torches for light wasn't fun. Things had improved considerably during a campfire round of Truth or Dare.
"Nick!" Thad had happily called, rubbing his hands together evilly. "I dare you to... strip." Whilst every Warbler had been dared to strip in one game or another of Truth or Dare, Nick complained heartily, not over stripping itself but the fact it was 10 degrees, and that was next to the campfire. After Thad amended his dare to ten minutes, after which Nick could dress again, Hunter called truth and confessed that he hadn't stopped bedwetting until he was thirteen. Sebastian was dared to kiss Jeff for a minimum of two minutes, to which he happily complied; lying Jeff on the ground, grinding down on top, tongue flicking in and out while Nick seethed on the right. After the campfire flickered out at 1am, however, Hunter commanded that everyone return to their cabins, ostensibly to sleep, but the quiet whisper in the night certainly wasn't the wind.
"Pssst. Blaine. Wake up."
"What? ... Seb, it's 2 am."
"We're going on a walk. Let's go get Hunter."
"Let's not. Go if you want, but I want to sleep."
"Don't make me drag you," Sebastian threatened. At this, Blaine reluctantly stumbled out of his sleeping bag and pulled on his sneakers. Sebastian's threats, scary or not, were never idle, and Blaine wouldn't put it past him to not only drag him but by the hair if need be.
Blaine waited outside as Sebastian crept silently into Hunter's tent. As it turned out, Sebastian actually did have to drag Hunter, who was silent only for the benefit of his fellow campers.
"Remind me again why you dragged me out of bed at 2 am for a midnight walk, Seb?" Hunter blearily enquired, rubbing his eyes and straightening his pajama top under his hastily thrown-on sweater.
"Cause," Sebastian cheekily replied, "I felt like it. Also I didn't get laid or drunk tonight, so you owe me."
Unlike the march to the campsite, which was forcefully led by Hunter, Sebastian led the midnight walk. He took a winding path through the forest, insisting that he knew how to get back when pressed by Blaine, before finding a cave.
Blaine protested strongly at Sebastian's idea of checking it out, citing dangerous animals as the reason for his fear. After Sebastian pointed out that if there were dangerous animals inside they'd be there any time of day, he reluctantly pressed on, flashing his flashlight at any rustle and sticking close to Sebastian and Hunter, both of whom were cool and calm, albeit Hunter was still irritated at being woken.
"Guys!" Sebastian called.
"Shh!" Blaine whispered angrily back. "Do you want to wake the animals?"
"We haven't seen any yet so I doubt we will, now chill," Sebastian replied. "I found a pool!"
Blaine and Hunter ventured forward, following Sebastian's voice. He was standing by the edge of a circular pond, around which little rocks were scattered. Sand covered the ground, and the moon shone through a wide, circular hole in the cave roof. Standing on either side of Sebastian, Blane and Hunter stopped dead.
"Anyone up for a midnight swim?"
"You want to swim? At this hour? With no change of clothes handy?" Hunter pointed out.
"...Yep, that's pretty much the plan," Sebastian said. "But I won't be doing it alone." Grinning madly, Sebastian pushed Hunter into the pool with a decidedly feminine yelp, Blaine involuntarily following in quick succession before Sebastian jumped in himself.
Turning his infamous death glare on Sebastian, Hunter made to climb out.
"Wait!" Sebastian grabbed Hunter's shirt and pulled him back in. "Look!"
The moon, already close to the centre of the hole in the roof, had moved just enough to be dead centre, directly above the pool. With the movement, the water began to bubble, for all appearances a spa but for the chill of the water. Hunter, Sebastian, and Blaine could only stare in amazement as the water continued to froth and bubble around them, before stopping as the moon shifted ever so slightly off centre.
"Whoa." Sebastian said.
"That was..." Blaine interjected.
"Weird," Hunter supplied.
"Well? Hunter, you like hiking and nature so much, got an explanation?" Sebastian demanded.
"No! This walk was your idea in the first place, remember? Let's go."
On their return to the campground (Sebastian, true to his word, remembered the way) Sebastian and Blaine re-entered their tent to dry off as Hunter returned to the tent he shared with Thad to do the same. But sleep didn't come quite as easily as it had before the swim.
Sleeping in a bed and having a real bathroom with actual taps and a shower had never felt so good. Sebastian padded into his bathroom at 6.30 am to have his morning shower for the first time in two days as Blaine roused himself from sleep. Turning on the tap to scalding, just how he liked it, Sebastian stepped into the shower and sighed in pleasure. Hot water...
Before abruptly falling onto the ground with a golden mermaid (man?) tail squashed against the shower wall.
Pinching himself, Sebastian sadly confirmed that he wasn't having an extremely strange dream. Poking his newly-acquired tail didn't make it go away. So he screamed.
"BLAINE!"
"Huh... What?" Blaine slowly came into the bathroom, still disoriented and sleepy. "Oh my god. Seb. You have a tail. You have a tail oh my god."
"A little help here?"
"What am I supposed to do?" Blaine shot back. "Make it go away?"
"That'd be nice!"
"Well, in case you couldn't tell, I don't know how. Here, I'll get you a towel and I'll shower in the meantime." Handing Sebastian the promised towel, Blaine undressed as Sebastian busied himself with drying off.
However, ten seconds after Blaine stepped into the shower, the problem doubled.
"Oh... My... God." Blaine was speechless, now understanding Sebastian's predicament. Anger and confusion bubbled inside him. Why was this happening to them? Where were his legs? But after a few moments of commiseration and panic, Sebastian's tail disappeared and his legs returned.
"How did that..."
"I don't know. I was just drying myself off and," Sebastian threw up his hands. "Poof. There goes the tail." Handing Blaine the towel, Sebastian felt a light bulb turn on in hjs head. "Hunter!"
Just as Hunter was about to step into his shower, a very out of breath Sebastian grabbed his arm. "Stop!"
"What?" Hunter exclaimed in disbelief.
"Just come with me. It's urgent."
"So," Sebastian began. "I don't know how to explain this, but... We, well Blaine and I and probably you, are mermen."
"My shower awaits, Sebastian." Hunter began to leave, only to be grabbed by Blaine.
"Wait! Watch this." Sebastian turned on his sink tap and held his and Blaine's arms under it. Ten seconds later, Sebastian and Blaine were lying on the floor, tails stretched out in front of them, with Hunter gaping widely, poking Sebastian's tail gingerly. "I'm not sure, but I think this is our explanation for that weird pool." Sebastian said uncertainly.
"Put your hand under," Blaine suggested.
"I'd rather not," replied Hunter coldly.
"Would you rather find out now with us or in ten minutes with Thad?" Sebastian asked.
"Point taken," Hunter said, uncharacteristically meekly, running his hand under the water.
POOF!
"That midnight hike of yours was such a great idea," Hunter said under his breath. "Now what?" he asked, watching Blaine and Sebastian rub towels over their golden tails.
"Dry off," said Sebastian, throwing Hunter his towel as his tail vanished. "I think I have a unanimous vote that we're skipping class today, right?"
"Much as it pains me, yes," Hunter answered. "Blaine?"
"Yes. We need to, if not understand why, at least know how to manage this."
"Do I also have a unanimous vote that this never leaves the room? Because I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather be known as Sebastian the Warbler, not Sebastian the merman. Also, I'd rather not be vivisectioned on some mad scientist's table."
"Yes," Blaine and Hunter replied in unison.
"Not even our parents." He emphasised.
"Obviously," Blaine said sadly.
"It won't be easy, but OK," Hunter replied. As his tail finally vanished, he added, "Now what?"
"Now we time," Sebastian said, quickly leaving to grab his iPhone from the bedroom. "Gotta know how long we have until we become the male Ariels."
After ten minutes of continuous timing, the trio confirmed Sebastian's estimation of ten seconds till transformation. Blaine and Hunter were still lying on the floor, drying off for the hundredth time as Sebastian put away his iPhone.
"After all this, would it be weird to say I'm thirsty?" Blaine asked.
"Yes," quipped Sebastian, but he still got up and ran Blaine a glass.
After handing Blaine his water, Sebastian sat down on the bed. Blaine took a mouthful of water and finished drying off, simultaneously getting up off the floor with Hunter. As Blaine sat down on the bed, his glass tipped and spilled, causing Sebastian to throw up a hand by instinct. Much to the trio's surprise, however, the water froze in midair before dropping to the bed as chips of ice.
"What..."
"Did you just..."
"I don't know how I did that," Sebastian said. "I just threw up my hand and," throwing his hand forward, palm up towards Blaine's glass, it froze over in his hand. Blaine dropped it in surprise.
"Cool!" Blaine said. "You got a power! You think either of us did?"
"Considering both of you also became mermen, the odds are yes," Sebastian responded. "Here." Repositioning the glass on his bedside table, Sebastian gestured again towards it. "Try for yourselves."
Hunter raised a hand first. After several tries in which absolutely nothing happened to the glass, he clenched a fist in frustration, causing the glass to explode. The trio ducked to avoid the flying, deadly shards of glass and ice.
After cleaning up the shards, filling a new glass and setting it down, Sebastian suggested, "Do that again, only slower."
Slowly flexing and clenching his hand, steam began to rise from the glass as the water began to bubble. Dipping a finger in it, Hunter exclaimed "Hot! Hot water."
"Awesome!" Sebastian high-fived him. "You can boil it." Staring at his palm, he said pensively, "Maybe we should hold off on high-fives for a while. Blaine, you try."
Complying, Blaine raised his right hand and slowly clenched it. Turning to Sebastian to check he was doing it right, his hand turned with him, causing the little stream of water rising up from the glass to twist into a ring. Blaine started and stared at his hand, the floor narrowly avoiding being soaked by Sebastian quickly throwing up a hand to freeze the curl of water and the glass it stemmed from.
"What should I call that?" Blaine asked pensively as he stared at his hand, as if he couldn't quite believe he'd managed to do that.
"Manipulation of water? Waterbending?" Hunter offered up thoughtfully. "Try that again, but with your other hand. Also, concentrate more, now that you have some vague clue what you're doing."
Obeying Hunter's words, Blaine raised his left hand and curled in his fingers slightly as if holding a ball, then slowly raising his hand and moving it to the left. From the glass, a rough cylinder of water arose and grew before seamlessly bending to the left, creating a C-shape of water before becoming a reverse D-shape. "Draw a B," suggested Sebastian, to which Blaine complied, tracing a B in the air as the water formed the shape. After holding it there for a moment as Blaine gazed in disbelief at his handiwork, Blaine tentatively returned the water to the glass. But after a moment, Sebastian thought aloud, "You never got that glass of water, did you, B?"
"No," Blaine replied thoughtfully. "I mean I did, you got it for me, but I never drank it."
"Well, I could do with one now," Sebastian replied. "Can you summon one?"
Blaine playfully punched Sebastian on the arm in mock affront before raising a hand and carefully creating fist-sized bubbles of water, using both hands to keep them in the air as he placed one in front as Sebastian and one in front of himself. Sebastian looked momentarily confused as he pondered how to drink it before deciding "screw it" and got a glass, which he held under the bubble as Blaine dropped his hand.
"Well, we've learned three things from this," said Hunter decisively. "One, we know Blaine's power. Two, we can use both of our hands to use our powers. And three, if Blaine's in the room, no one ever needs to get a glass of water."
"What are we going to do with them, though? Obviously no one can know about this either, but I'd at least like to threaten someone with freezing their blood in their veins at least once," Sebastian wondered.
"Here's an idea. Just to get rid of the urge to go crazy, we can each use a power once in public — without being caught, of course. And any other time, obviously discretion is a must. No freezing people just because you don't like them. And though I say freezing, the idea applies to all of us." Hunter declared.
"Not even Gay-Face?" Sebastian asked wistfully.
"No, Sebastian," Blaine said firmly." "You know we're on 'amicable ex' terms."
"Not even-"
"No."
"How about-"
"No."
"I could just-"
"No, Sebastian!"
"Fine," sulked Sebastian. Just as consolation, he froze over the tap.
"Right," said Hunter, clapping his hands together. "We've still got a few hours left until class finishes. I say we practice our powers until then to prevent any accidental mishaps."