Chapter 4

"Heeey Phannntom…" Danny called out, tossing three small pebbles from his pocket into the ocean in front of the grotto. They made a small, familiar noise—plip! Plip! Plip!

With the next lap of water that glided over the worn stone, the merman appeared, rumbling gently as he lifted himself from the surf, watching Danny curiously.

"You hungry?" the human tugged the small cooler into the water and pulled off the top. "Look what I got, some cod, salmon….a tuna I think…" He moved over to let the merman look for himself, fins fanning out and twitching as he sniffed. With a happy, high pitched noise 'Phantom' went head first into the cooler, digging around like he was bobbing for apples.

"Woah, hey!" Danny laughed, moving to sit on his rock as Phantom pulled back with a fish tail hanging from his jaws, he grinned around the fish at Danny and crunched down into the scales, slurping the fish oil off his chin as he gobbled the tuna down.

"…good, right?" Danny had to admire the guy's fearlessness.

The merman gave a long, rumbling murmur and dug back for some more. He certainly didn't seem to be a picky eater, but he did seem to pick out the salmon first and take the most time in knawing and crunching through it.

Danny leaned back on his palms, watching the sea creature clean the fish for a while, before he bucked up his courage. Quietly he sipped his goggles on and his flippers for good measure, before sinking gently into the shallow water and stepping round the merman, trying to get a new look from a different side. With the water up to his shins maybe, Danny slunk round the creature's long spread out body and crouched a bit, examining it.

Let's see…that long fin on top was the dorsal fin, for staying upright. Arms aside, on his lower fish body, though they were now folded tight against him, were pectoral fins. His were thicker than anything Danny had seen before, and must have had some bone and muscle in there somewhere. They didn't just seem to flick, but really seemed to steer him. Phantom suddenly coughed out a fish head, and it landed in the water with a plop. Danny glanced at him, hoping he wouldn't be caught to close and get a whack with that tail. But the merman only stuck his head and a clawing hand back in the cooler and rumbled away, tail waving in the water.

So what if he'd spent all night pouring over his parent's books until the sun rose? This was for science.

Quietly Danny craned over as much as he dared, watching the sun hit those luminescent scales and marveling at all the different colors. Fish outside…but that tail moved like the flukes off a dolphin so…seriously, wow. The tail itself was well over four feet in length, and all the scales seemed to change color. Danny recalled something he'd read in one of those books, about fish brightening their scales during a fight or trying to get a mate. He'd also read that while some fish spoke with croaks or clicks, they mostly relied on body language. Danny stared at the faded old gold rings round the tail, and realized there were matching ones on Phantom's wrist. Huh. Had Phantom just found these? Or made them? Were there others down there that could make them? These questions and more chased each other in his head as he narrowed his blue eyes, focusing less on the huge merman before him and more on his inner trains of thought.

In fact, Danny was so caught up he didn't even notice Phantom had finished his fish and was spitting out the last of the bones. Food no longer a distraction, he'd become aware of the body right next to his left, and slowly he stiffened, spreading those long pectoral fins. Just as Danny looked over to see this…challenging smirk on the creature's face, Phantom twisted and lunged at him—Danny closed his eyes and flinched, half imagining this to be the end.

Water lapped higher, a great mass passed him and something caught hold off his swim trunks. With a yelp and an ungraceful tangle of limbs Danny was pulled unceremoniously in the water, carried out a bit deeper into the ocean. Instead of being dragged to his death he was abruptly left to fend for himself just below the surface though. His feet left the bottom but he didn't panic, simply righted himself and opened his eyes, staring into the depths.

Suddenly Phantom was three inches from his face, eyes wide and unfazed by the stinging salt water as he stared at Danny. Danny stare at the odd film that appeared to cover those eyes, making them seem to glow under the water. A webbed finger poked his goggles and those frills flicked open. Recognizing the curious look, Danny grinned and pointed to Phantom's own eyes and face. A few bubbles issued from Danny's mouth and nose, and since he was basically floating on the surface he lifted his head up for a proper lungful before diving back down this time. He gave a kick and ventured out and deeper over the small underwater sand dunes. Maybe a few kicks away the ocean got darker and it looked like there was a small decline into a reef, where farther out still he knew was a drop off. Danny paused to look for Phantom, he didn't have to look far, because he surged under him with an effortlessly flick of his tail and swung in a lazy crockscrew, giving Danny an aerial view as one fin folded and opened to allow him the maneuver. Danny treaded water, lifting to the surface a bit as Phantom spun around, spotted him and grinned, darting over. Danny waved and Phantom tried waving back, though he seemed much more interested in Danny's web-less fingers.

Just as Phantom neared him Danny became acutely aware of the tightness of his chest. Glancing at Phantom he pointed up frantically, more bubbles issuing forth. He hoped the merman got the message because Danny could wait no longer, and kicked for the surface. He broke the water and sucked in air with a moan of relief; just as Phantom lifted his head out and gave a questioning mrr at him.

"Air…sorry…hang on Phantom…" Danny held up a finger, the international sign for his words and floated in the ocean, making sure to keep the shore in his view.

"…O-okay, phew, I'm good." He wondered if he was imagining that look of faint concern on the mermans's face. "Let's head back to shore okay? Land? Rocks?" He pointed and started paddling with slow strokes for the grotto's shallow sandy bottom, feeling a different kind of tightness in his chest when Phantom swam after him trustingly.

Danny dropped on shore and lay in the sand, taking a breather. He'd swam farther out than it looked like, huh. Have to be careful about that. He lay on his back, having found the dry sand was really warm around all the rocks and watched the sky for a second, until he heard a scraping noise. He sat up and chuckled as he watched Phantom shoving the water cooler around, watching it bob for a moment and then filling it with water, blinking when it started sinking.

"Careful…I'll need that back buddy." Danny smiled when Phantom turned to look at him. The merman pointed at him, and Danny blinked back.

"…Phantom?" The boy asked without thinking. The merman wiggled onto shore more and stopped before him, long body lying in the lapping waves still. Phantom propped himself on his arms and hummed lazily, watching with fascination as Danny yanked off the flippers and goggles and set them aside.

Phantom made a strange croaking noise and coughed, wrinkling his nose. But it sounded different this time.

"…Phan…tom?" The merman stared back at him quietly, then pointed to him again, but lower—oh…

"My legs?" The merman nodded and then pointed to his own neck. Danny mirrored the action before it dawned on him.

"Neck…Gills—gills! I don't have gills, right! Those help you breathe under water, you know? Like, inhale, exhale, inhale." Phantom gave a snort and cocked his head, watching Danny try and elaborate. It took him several minutes and little diagrams drawn in the sand and all, but Danny did his best to pantomime his explanations, all the while the merman watched him with raised eyebrows, blinking a couple times in bemusement.

"…I can't tell if you're getting any of this or if all your hearing is the crazy two legged guy prattle on about stuff." Danny finally deflated and flopped back in the sand. It didn't help that Phantom made a noise vaguely like a snigger and shifted up lie alongside him quietly. One was for certain Phantom certainly read tone very well. After a moment the body was closer, Danny could feel those pectoral fins brushing against swim trunks.

"….what happened to me not being able to touch you?" Danny muttered halfheartedly as he closed his eyes and let sun wash over him, drying him out. The warmth and swim were making him sleepy, and coupled with the face he'd gotten little to no sleep last night, well…he was already feeling kind of groggy.

He heard a faint rumbling mumble, a sort of vacant response he felt. Dimly aware of the situation, Danny felt his left hand lifted from the sand and his fingers moved apart, as they stayed mostly limp in the other hands questioning, inquisitive grasp. Cool fingers prodded and played with his hand lightly, the touches so simple and rather lulling Danny didn't notice he'd fallen asleep or that the sun had nearly set until the cold tide started slinking over him.

"You're late for dinner Danny, where have you been?" It was said so easily, Danny didn't understand why he felt like throwing up or hiding under his bed. He wasn't past curfew but he had forgotten to call—not like you got good reception out in the ocean—so really, they had every right to ask, even though the lackadaisical tone made Danny want to confess right then and there. He slunk by his parents, eyes on the stairs which meant freedom. His mother kissed his cheek and Danny just begged she didn't smell fish on him.

"Danny?"

"Ohhh ah—Sam's! I was at Sam's yep, just hanging out, lost track of the time—" That was true. "We hung out all day and played video games and I just forgot to look at the clock!" That was more certainly not true. "Sorry guys…I'm not very hungry actually, I think I'll just head upstairs and uh, go to bed…"

"Bed? But it's only—"

But Danny had already pounded up the stairs and shut his door.

"…that kid gets stranger every day." Jazz commented blithely without looking up from her book.