Did I steal this title from Enchanted? Absolutely.
Kurt didn't mean to reveal himself to the oddly dressed human sitting on the dock, it just kind of...happened. How was he supposed to know that the man was going to dive in after the tiny, rectangular thing he'd dropped in the water?
The man released a stream of bubbles from his mouth when he saw Kurt also reaching for the object. He flailed for a moment before pushing himself back toward the surface, clearly panicked, leaving Kurt with a choice: he could go after the man and reassure him that he wasn't crazy, potentially putting his own safety at risk, or he could swim away and leave the man to make up another story for what he'd seen. The smart choice was clear.
"Hey! I, uh, think you dropped this?" Kurt said, surfacing near where the man was sitting on the edge of the dock. He brandished the mysterious object at the man, who reached out and took it with shaky hands. When their skin brushed, they both jumped back.
"Holy shit. Please tell me you're just some kid who likes swimming in this disgusting river, or you're practicing your scuba diving, or - I don't know. Something," the man said, wide-eyed.
"Not quite?" Kurt said, wincing. He launched himself into a backflip, propelling his tail out of the water so the man could have a clear view. When he was right side up again, he saw that the man now looked a little green.
"I'm going crazy. Or maybe Puck really did spike my drink last night, and I'm having a delayed reaction," the man muttered. "You can't really be a - be a-"
"Merman," Kurt said. "I can absolutely be a merman."
The man whimpered.
"My name's Kurt, by the way," Kurt said after a moment of mental floundering. "What's yours?"
"Blaine."
Blaine started fidgeting with the thing he'd dropped, spinning a little wheel on one edge of it before pressing down on a lever. Kurt stared, interested, but nothing happened.
He said as much.
"Wh - oh, nothing will happen, now that I've dropped it in water. It's supposed to start a fire," Blaine said, slightly less manic.
"A fire?" Kurt repeated, even more transfixed.
"Yeah. You've - uh - you've heard of fires, right?"
"Of course, but I didn't know something that small could start one. I always thought it had to take a lot more than that," Kurt said.
"I mean, this won't start a big blaze or anything. But for small items - yeah, this'll do it," Blaine said. After a brief pause, he offered it to Kurt. "Here. You take it. I can get another."
"Wh - no, you dived in the river for it, it has to mean something to you," Kurt said, moving back slightly.
"My brother gave it to me after - after an accident. Said it might help me 'find my spark' again. But I want you to have it," Blaine said, still reaching toward Kurt. "Please."
Kurt tentatively reached out and took it, feeling another shiver run down his spine as his hand touched Blaine's again. "Thank you, Blaine."
"You're welcome, Kurt."
They simply stared at each other for a moment before Blaine began to shrug on the strange-looking jacket Kurt had seen him wearing earlier.
"Do all humans wear those?" Kurt asked, struck by another burst of curiosity.
"I'm not the only one, but no, they're not exactly common, either," Blaine said, a small smirk on his face. "People tend to think the people who wear them look scary."
"That's ridiculous," Kurt scoffed. "You don't look scary at all."
"You might be the only person who's ever said that," Blaine said, still amused. "Hey. C'mere."
Kurt swam over, pulling himself up the ladder to the dock a little ways before wrapping his tail around one of the bars so he could sit. "Wh - whoa!"
Blaine wrapped his jacket around Kurt's shoulders before sitting back and smiling. "Yeah, I guess I see your point, though. You don't look very threatening either."
"I'll have you know most of the other merpeople think I'm incredibly frightening," Kurt said, managing to go a whole three seconds before bursting into giggles at his own joke.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to offend," Blaine replied, chuckling along. "Whatever can I do to make up for it?"
"Come back tomorrow?" Kurt asked, hoping he still sounded jokey enough that Blaine wouldn't guess just how sincere the request was. "I mean, if you're not busy or anything."
"No. No, I can come back," Blaine said, flushing light red. "Same time as today?"
"That would be great," Kurt replied softly. He took one last sniff of Blaine's jacket - the first thing in years he'd smelled that wasn't scented of brine or sewage - and plopped back into the water, snickering gently when Blaine yelped at the splash.
"I'll get you back for that," Blaine called after him.
"Blaine, I live in the water. You can't expect me to be hurt by a splash," Kurt replied, flipping his fin teasingly.
"I'll think of something. Just you wait, sweetheart," Blaine said.
Kurt just began to swim away, wanting to hide the blush that appeared on his face after Blaine's term of endearment. Maybe it was also a typical human thing to call near-strangers sweet names - but Kurt really hoped it wasn't.
The next two days were two of the best of Kurt's life. Blaine managed to come back and meet him for hours on end, and he brought some kind of delicious human snack with him both times as a treat for Kurt - a pretzel the first day and some miraculous food called cheesecake the next.
Thursday, however, was a bit of a different story. From the moment Blaine arrived, he looked shiftier than usual and fidgeted with his new, functional lighter every chance he got.
Twenty minutes after they'd met up, Kurt had already had enough. "What is up with you today, Blaine? Am I - am I boring you now or something?"
"No! No," Blaine said instantly, assuaging Kurt's fear. "I just - have to tell you something. And I don't think you're gonna like it."
"Okay," Kurt said carefully, bracing himself for the worst.
"I have to go home tomorrow," Blaine admitted all in one breath.
"You haven't been going home all week?" Kurt asked, confused.
"No. I'm - I'm from Ohio. I've been visiting New York all week with my class," Blaine said. "They don't know that I've been coming here all week - I keep doing something that will get me sent back to the hotel for the afternoon, except instead of going back, I've been coming here."
Kurt's head was spinning. "So you've been missing all the sights of the city just to come talk to me? Blaine! I hear tourists talking all the time about how everything here is so wonderful, how could you-"
"Because I like talking to you more!" Blaine said vehemently. "And I just - I keep trying to turn to you to crack a joke or see what your reaction is every time we go to one of those tourist attractions, and it hurts like a fist to the face every time you're not there when I look."
"Blaine," Kurt breathed.
"I know it's probably weird for me to care so much about you after only a few days, but I just can't help it," Blaine said, unstoppable now. "When we're together, I don't feel like I have to put on a show like I do with everyone else - like I have to wear this jacket and mess with my lighter and antagonize everyone so they don't try to fuck with me. I can just be me."
"What, you don't think I feel the same way?" Kurt asked, seizing his moment when Blaine paused for air. "With you, I can talk and ask questions and just goof around without feeling judged or misunderstood. I can enjoy being seen without, you know, being seen and hauled off to some torture chamber somewhere. I can-"
Blaine cut him off there, leaning over the edge of the dock to pull him in for a deep kiss. Kurt would have happily continued kissing Blaine for the rest of his life (give or take an hour or two), but as they kept kissing, he felt the oddest sensation running through the lower half of his body, accompanied by a blinding light.
"Kurt!" Blaine pulled back from his mouth only to pull Kurt up and onto the dock, allowing Kurt to thrash without the fear of choking on water - except no, Kurt couldn't choke on water, he was a merman - but-
"Holy gods," Kurt said, sitting up. "I have - I have-"
"Legs," Blaine finished, crouching next to Kurt with a stunned look on his face. "You have legs, holy shit!"
"How did this even happen?" Kurt asked, wiggling his toes - toes! - experimentally. "I've never heard of anything like this."
"Outside of children's movies, neither have I," Blaine said. "There aren't - I don't know - sea witches or anything where you're from, right?"
Kurt just shot Blaine an unimpressed glare.
"Taking that as a no," Blaine said with a smirk. "Okay, maybe there's someone here in the city we can ask for help. I mean, New York has just about everything, right?"
"It's worth a try," Kurt said. He started trying to pull his legs underneath him, wondering if he could get himself to stand. Thankfully, Blaine got the idea and started helping Kurt up, wrapping Kurt's arms around his neck once they were both fully upright to help him balance.
"Wait, what the fuck?"
"What?"
"You're taller than me? This is bullshit."
"I'm standing on my own two legs for the first time in my life and you're mad about how tall I am?" Kurt asked, snorting incredulously. "Blaine."
"I know, I know, priorities. If anything, I should be wondering how you're wearing shorts after your surprise transformation. But still."
"If we find someone who knows how this happened, we can ask why I'm also tall, I promise," Kurt said teasingly, pressing a light kiss to Blaine's forehead. "But for now, can we maybe find me some more clothes? It's cold out of the water."
"Here," Blaine said, unwrapping Kurt's arms from his shoulders to shrug off his jacket. "Not sure you'll look scary in only a leather jacket and short shorts, but hey, it's all I've got."
"Won't you freeze?" Kurt asked, accepting the jacket gratefully.
"Guess you'll just have to cuddle close to me the whole way back to the hotel," Blaine teased.
"What a hardship. Being human is a struggle, let me tell you."
"But hopefully worth it?"
"I'm sure it will be."