'Cause she's a cruel mistress
And a bargain must be made.
But oh my love, don't forget me
When I let the water take me.
- What The Water Gave Me, Florence + The Machine
The ocean was a big, deep and mostly boring place to live.
Sure, Tucker (mermaid, and all around badass he was) liked hanging out with his colony whether it was during migration or at their semi-permanent home on the same reef they'd been returning to for years, but there was really only so many times one guy could race between the same three coral formations or explore that shipwreck of the luxury human yacht from a few years back or talk with his dumbass friends about the same dumbass shit, before he went stir-crazy.
He would be the first one to admit that the days he could sneak away for a couple of hours to do his own thing were by far his favourite, those times where he could really stretch out his tail and have some fun without disturbing anyone else too much or causing the elders to frown at him in disapproval.
There were really only three options of where to go when you lived in the ocean: up, down or sideways, and Tucker liked those first two the best.
Some days, he made the dangerous journey further out to sea and dove downwards until his eyes couldn't adjust to the lack of light and he strained to pull enough oxygen from the water. It was always a fun time, not just for the thrill of potentially dying in the deep, but also because Grif and Kai had usually joined him, and they'd made a fun game out of daring each other to dive the longest or betting who could spot the freakiest deep-sea fish.
In truth though, he hadn't gone down there in a while, hardly since Grif and Kai had left and, when he thought about it, not since before Junior had been born. Maybe it was a sign that he was growing more mature and aware of his own mortality. Maybe having a kid had just sucked all the fun out of his life. Who knew?
And then, there were days like this one; sunny, nearly waveless and peaceful, where he floated just a few metres below the surface of the water just chilling the fuck out, arms tucked behind his head and the warm current gently rocking him into a doze. Days where he daydreamed of ice-cream, pretty sunsets and attractive blondes happening to fall into his lap. He generally did this closer to the shore where the water was shallower and kept its heat longer, so he could relax for as long as he wanted to. He'd spent entire summer days like this, lounging and day-dreaming to his heart's content.
On that day, he'd parked it under a long pier near a place on the coast called Blood Gulch, a human town that smelled strongly of bad fish, urine and fresh paint from both frequent graffiti attacks and the local community group's half-hearted attempts to cover the graffiti up.
Tucker liked to come here as much as he could, not only because it was one of the closest places to the colony, but also because he liked spying on (and occasionally meddling with by temporarily transforming into one of them) the dumb, two-legged creatures that lived there. In some cases he even enjoyed hanging out with a few of them, like his friends Church, Caboose, Donut, and of course, Grif and Kai, who'd gone full-human some time ago. There were even days when being human was far better than being a mermaid- the land wasn't quite as boring as the sea, after all.
It was also quite handy that most of the town's inhabitants were either stupid or perpetually high, and the few tourists who did come in the summer were too busy looking disappointed to pay close attention to anything strange, like, say, a freaking mermaid down by the pier. It made things a lot less stressful in the long run- he wasn't technically supposed the reveal himself to humans, as that never lead to anything good.
That day in particular felt special, mainly because his ventures away from the colony were becoming fewer and far between. As much as he loved Junior with all his heart and fins, he'd found lately that it was an exhausting job being a father; you had to make sure the kid was fed and sleeping enough, and then there was teaching him how to swim properly telling him off when he bit the other mermaid kids when they got too close.
And okay, maybe sometimes it wasn't just boredom that made him want to get away from the colony. Maybe sometimes he just needed to leave, to get away, to chill the fuck out.
It wasn't a bad thing, he usually reasoned to himself. Everyone needed their alone time, and it wasn't like he was being an negligent asshole about it- someone would be keeping an eye on the little squirt, and if it came down to it he was confident that Junior wasn't dumb enough to wander off from the group and be eaten by jellyfish. The kid was a smart little shark, after all.
And so, Tucker lay on his back in the warm water, letting any worries he had float away with the current and the sun warm everything from the tip of his tail to the closed lids of his eyes. This was his time, and nothing could take it away from him.
There was an echoing splash somewhere above him that he paid no mind, at least until something heavy smacked him in the face.
"What the-?" he cried, eyes flying open, nose stinging. He grabbed at the offending object before it fell off him and sank to the sandy bottom and gazed at it in equal parts surprise and anger. Things falling in the ocean wasn't an uncommon occurrence- it was mostly fisherman's hooks, human rubbish or, closer to the land as he was, rocks thrown by teenagers to scare innocent fish who were just going about their day.
This particular object Tucker recognised as a 'cell phone', something he'd watched a lot of humans use a lot more than they probably should have. A couple of years ago he and Grif had even stolen one to look up human porn on the internet, but that had ended with them discovering that the device definitively did not work under the water. This one wasn't even the first time Tucker had seen dropped into the water either- the ocean floor beneath the pier was a treasure trove of human crap lost from the pier, from sunglasses to empty beer bottles.
But before he could scrutinise the phone further, there was another, much larger splash above him and something large and moving fast blocked out the light of sun. Before Tucker had time to think, the thing barrelled straight into him with such force that it pushed him down several feet.
The cell phone slipped from his hand.
Suddenly all he could see was two wide blue eyes- one with a long scar slashed across it from eyebrow to cheek- freckly skin and a nose pressed in uncomfortably close to his own face. His first instinct was to pull his face and tail back at the sudden intrusion into his personal space.
Tucker blinked, and so did the man. He looked the muscly body up and down, noting the two legs and shorts, and the human seemed to do the same to him, cheeks puffed from holding his breath.
For a brief second, it registered in Tucker's mind that their lips were uncomfortably close to each other.
And then the screaming started.
While Tucker would deny shrieking like a girl until the day his bones rested on the ocean floor, it was far from a manly yell that escaped his mouth. It was, at least, undeniably more dignified than the muffled gurgles punctuated with streams of air bubbles that the human produced.
In a panicked flurry of swearing and flailing limbs, Tucker pushed himself away, rolled over and began swimming downwards as fast as his fins would propel him, as the two-legger did the exact same thing in the opposite direction.
Tucker was still swearing wildly by the time he reached the ocean floor, his heart hammering in his chest and breaths coming short and fast.
"What the crap was that human thinking?"
He made a concerted effort to calm himself, before rolling over and looking to the surface, where the flapping legs of the human were making a beeline towards the shore.
"Yeah! You better fuck off and not come back!" Tucker yelled, shaking his fist upwards.
There was no way the human heard him.
He swam over and grabbed onto one of the barnacle-covered support poles of the pier, and took a moment recompose himself. A thin stream of bubbles left his mouth as he considered the situation.
It was official- his day off was now, tragically and completely, ruined. There was no way he would return to his zen zone anytime after a fright like that. Tucker had nearly jumped out of his tail.
That wasn't even to mention the fact that if that two-legger (who Tucker had seen even from a glimpse wasn't the usual Blood Gulch bozo or disinterested tourist) ran around town yelling about mermaids in a panic, he'd had to stay away for a while to let things cool off. That alone sucked major ass, because as much as it was a shithole, Tucker liked hanging around Blood Gulch. It was almost like a second home.
He moaned to himself and bonked his head against the wooden pole.
"Fuuuuck," he cried, casting his eyes about dramatically.
Something familiar-looking glinted on the seafloor a fair distance away, and he swam over to it. It was the human's phone, Tucker realised with a start, the one that the guy must have jumped in to save (and fucked up Tucker's whole day, and potentially life, over).
After a moment of consideration, Tucker reached down and picked it up, shaking off a few specks of sediment from the screen. He wasn't sure at all if it would still work (the one he and Grif had stolen had made quite a show of short-circuiting when they'd tried to use it) but maybe it could still be salvaged if it didn't stay in the water for too long. He'd once witnessed Caboose drop his phone into a full bathtub, something that Church hadn't been happy about, and then put it in a container of rice, and it had been fine. Humans may have been disgusting, polluting land creatures, but Tucker knew they could be damn creative sometimes.
He looked to the surface far above him, and then back at the phone, mulling over his options. On any other day, he mightn't have given a fuck about it, but a thought occurred to him- maybe, if the human hadn't left the beach yet, he could give back the phone and maybe even convince the guy not to run around crying 'mermaid'. That, or try to convince him that he was dreaming, and then clock him over the head with a heavy shell, or something. That was a possibility too.
Clenching the phone tight in his hand, Tucker decided that it was at least worth the shot. He pushed off in the direction of the land, swerving between the wooden poles and flapping his tail in strong, broad strokes to drive him upwards.
He broke the surface under the shadow of the pier, and twisted around to gain his bearings. He was instantly in luck- leaning against one of the supports under the pier on land was the very same human that had fallen on him. Tucker recognised him both by his clothes and the intense smattering of freckles that stretched across every inch of visible skin on the guy's arms and legs. Plus, the fact that he was soaking wet and breathing heavily like he'd swum a race was a dead giveaway.
Just the look of the two-legger's back made Tucker mad.
"Hey, asshole!" yelled Tucker. "You can't just fall on a dude while he's chilling like that, it's fucking rude!"
He pulled back his arm and threw the phone at the human- it glanced off his shoulder, making him whip around to look. The phone bounced off the sand and under the shadow of the pier.
The human yelled in shock and raised his fists like he was expecting a fight.
There was an awkwardly long moment of eye contact. Tucker blinked, and the human blinked back.
"You- you're a mermaid?" the human said, incredulous and wide-eyed. "I'm not crazy, you're actually a mermaid and I'm not hallucinating?"
"No shit. What gave it away? Was it the tail, the fact that I can live underwater or that I'm not wearing any clothes?" Tucker snarked back. He crossed his arms, and tried to look as unimpressed as he could manage.
The human spluttered for a moment, blushing, before dropping his fists slowly.
Tucker forced a calming breath and wiped at a dribble of water that came from his mouth.
"Listen dude- mermaids, magic and all that shit? Just don't think about it."
The human's mouth dropped open. "Wait, what was that about mag-?"
"Look, I brought your phone back," cut in Tucker, gesturing to where it had landed, "And now I would really appreciate it if you just, like, didn't tell anyone you saw me. It's this whole thing with us where when humans see us they freak out and there's this whole things with tourists and media and reporters showing up. It's a real shit-show for everyone involved, so if we both can just forget this ever happened, I'll call it even for ruining my day."
But the human didn't seem to be listening. Instead, he was stepping closer to the water, all terror seemingly gone and replaced with what looked like cautious wonder.
"Holy shit, you're a mermaid," the guy said. He rubbed at the back of his blonde head, the hair still plastered flat to his skull and dripping. "I mean, you- you're a real. Whoa."
"Dude. Don't make this weirder than it needs to be."
"Oh, sorry, I… it's just that you're the first mermaid I've ever met, you know?" said the human with an awkward laugh.
"Yeah, the whole 'screaming' thing really gave that away."
"You were screaming too, you know," replied the two-legger with a scrutinising eye.
It was Tucker's turn to splutter. "Yeah, only because you surprised the shit out of me!" he cried, curling his tail in closer to his body in annoyance.
The human's attention shifted at the movement, and he openly gaped.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Tucker snapped, self-consciously curling it behind him to hide it. It was bad enough that others in the colony judged him for his bumpy-ass seahorse tail, and he'd known a lot of them for years. Having a strange human see him in mermaid form was a hundred times worse.
"Sorry, I don't want to make you uncomfortable," said the human, holding his hands out placatingly. "It's just that… I mean, I thought that Palomo guy from the Marine Institute was just a crazy loud guy, the way he kept going on about mermaids in Blood Gulch, but… here you are." The guy chuckled a little hysterically, and rubbed at his arm.
Tucker sighed. "Fucking Palomo's still at it, huh? Geez, won't that guy ever shut up?"
The human huffed out a laugh, before shaking his head and sending droplets of water flying. The tension in the air diffused a bit.
"Anyway man, sorry about crashing into you like that. Uh… I'm Wash, by the way, David Washington. Nice to meet you? I guess?"
Wash stepped forward, still cautious, and got onto his knees at the shoreline. He held out his hand. Tucker looked at it, confused and cautious.
"Wait, do mermaids not shake hands? Is that rude to you?"
"I know what that means, asshole, I'm not an amateur to human culture," growled Tucker. "I'm just trying to work out why you're so ready to accept this. Usually you humans are either running off screaming or trying to dissect me at this point."
"What?" Wash squeaked. "No, no, I just- I'm just trying to say hello. I don't want to hurt you, alright."
Tucker eyed him suspiciously, arms crossed and guarding his chest. Wash appeared to be genuine enough, from all that he knew about humans. After all, Donut had turned out to be a good friend after his initial freak out, and Caboose had taken it surprisingly in stride, dumb as he was. Sure he'd met some bad humans in his time, but the same could be said for mermaids or other aquatic beings.
"Tucker," he said after a moment, unfolding his arms.
Wash blinked.
"It's my name, idiot," Tucker added, exasperated.
"Tucker. Cool." Wash replied with a flicker of a smile. "Err."
He stood up again and walked over to pick up his phone from under the pier. He shook it out and brushed at some of the dry sand that clung to the wet screen.
"You gonna do that rice thing and see if it still works?" asked Tucker.
"Probably. Man, I forgot about that trick, I might have to buy some on the way home."
Wash looked again at the phone, and sighed in disappointment (probably aimed at himself), before turning back to the water.
"Well, thanks for bringing this back then, Tucker. I appreciate it."
"Don't mention it, dude. Also, don't mention me, you know? Keep it on the DL, can't have the whole world panicking like you did. We're not supposed to let humans see us, you get me?"
"Right," muttered Wash. "I guess that makes sense. Your secret's safe with me, don't worry."
"It better be," Tucker said with an accusing finger. "Palomo better be the only one spouting off mermaid talk next time I'm in town, you hear me?"
"I hear you, don't worry," Wash said with another laugh. His gaze flickered again to Tucker's tail again, before looking determinedly away.
"I better get going and see if I can save this phone. Maybe I'll see you around sometime?" Wash said, and Tucker thought he could make out a glimmer of hope in his tone.
He snorted. "In your dreams, Washington. What kind of fucking name is that, anyway?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and glided out into the deeper water. Tucker glanced back when he was a fair way out to see Wash still gazing at him in awe from the beach. He had to resist the urge to flip the human off- there was no use being rude when he'd been so agreeable, after all.
Instead, Tucker dived down without another thought, just keen to get back to the colony, and put the whole incident behind him. His day was ruined, but maybe he could have a race with Junior through the reef before the sun went down.
And maybe if he was lucky, he would never have to see that Wash guy ever again.
Second and final chapter coming very soon!