Michael hunched over as he walked, his hands in his pockets as he walked by the dock.
His girlfriend of three years, Lindsay, had just dumped him, and he was feeling pretty out of it. He was a mixture between upset and sad, and that's a very bad mixture for Michael "Rage Quit" Jones.
He sighed as he sat on the dock, his feet hanging just a foot over the water. He thought about quite a few things; what he was feeling, what he might have done wrong, why Lindsay suddenly flipped and dumped him- but his thoughts soon went to one thing and one thing only.
"..The fuck is that in the water?"
In the water, maybe twenty or thirty feet out, there was a little mop of brownish-blonde hair, and what looked like a bit of blood around it.
"What the...Hey, you okay, man?" Michael shouted, waving his arm up to get the man's attention. "Dude, are you bleeding?"
The man disappeared under the water, and everything went eerily quiet for a moment, before the same mob of hair appeared not four or five feet in front of Michael. From that close, Michael could see that he was hurt pretty badly; he had a large cut on his lip, and there was something, like a fishing hook, caught in his leg-
Wait a fucking second.
That's a fucking tail.
He had three little slits that looked like gills on his torso, and these (cute) little flipper things over his actual ears.
"Fucking christ..!" Michael breathed out, trying to get away from the other male, though he grabbed Michael's ankle.
"I'm not- I won't hurt you! I just- My tail-.." His voice trailed off, and he glanced down to his tail. "Help me up?" Michael nodded slowly, pretty sure he had fallen asleep on the dock and was dreaming. He grabbed the man's arm, which also had little fins on it, and helped him onto the dock. The man gave a strong flip of his tail, and he was sitting next to Michael. He noticed how shiny and..surprisingly beautiful the other man's scales were in the setting sun's light.
His tail was a bright shade of blue, green highlights playing through some of the scales. His fin had little points at the edges, those colored bright yellow, then green, then to a darker shade of purple that faded into his bright blue scales. His flippers were see-through, though they were tinted a soft purple. The flippers on his ears were the same colors as his flipper.
"Dude..What the hell are you?" Michael asked under his breath, absentmindedly running a finger over his smooth scales.
"I believe you humans call us Mermaids, but whatever floats your boat!" He said, hissing slightly at the hook in his fin. "Hey, be a mate and help me get this out of my fin?" He asked, propping himself up with his elbows. Michael nodded again slowly, turning to the large hook in his fin. And shit, it was actually bleeding. The damn tail wasn't fake. Michael let out a shaky breath, gently taking hold of the multi-colored fin, eventually slowly pulling the hook from the rubbery flesh.
The Mermaid(?) sighed, sending a wide grin to Michael, revealing many sharp teeth. "Thanks mate! Shouldn't 'ave been swimming so close to the fishing boats. I'm Gavin, you are?" He introduced, flapping the fins over his ears once.
"..Michael. Now, explain to me what the fuck is happening?"
"Oh! Well, you see, I'm really curious about you humans! Curiosity killed the cat, I s'pose. I see you walking around here a lot, and I swim my way to the docks from where I dwell to come and see you! You seemed down in the dumps today, so I thought I'd come in closer to introduce myself, but I got mistaken for a catfish or something." Gavin explained. He coughed suddenly, and his gills started to flare up, the skin around it turning red. Michael took a moment, but realized he probably couldn't breathe and splashed a bit of water on his gills. Gavin's gills took in the water, and his tail flapped once. "Thank you, Michael!" He said, smiling. "I should probably hop back to the bottom of the sea." Gavin said, slowly making his way back into the water. Michael grabbed his wrist, frowning.
"No you fucking don't. Listen here you piece of shit, you don't come around all hurt, reveal an unseen species to humans, and then pop your scale-y ass off back to Atlantis or some shit. You're staying right by this dock, there's no way in hell I'm letting you swim off when I'm confused about what you even are."
"...Okay, Mi-cool."
