"No…"

Len retreated from the opening into the kitchen, fear paralyzing him before he could get further than the doorway and causing him to sink down on the other side into the carpet, trembling and trying to shake the vision away.

"It's not real, it's not real…"

But it had looked so tangible, the monster with Barry's fin, the rest of it a deep blood red, with dark red hair, pointed ears, webbed hands with claws twice the length of its fingers, large black, empty eyes, and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. It had writhed on the kitchen floor like it was seconds from crawling after Len to swallow him whole, and still, he could do nothing more than squeeze his eyes shut.

"Wake up," Len hissed at himself, "it's not real."

"I am so sorry," came a whimper, too close, as if right in Len's ear. "I never wanted you to see me like this."

"Barry?" Len forced his eyes open, because either he was losing his mind or the monster was real and Barry was in the kitchen with it.

He couldn't be as close as he sounded though. Still, Len inched forward to peer around the edge of the door to be sure.

The monster was there, only the monster, yet it wasn't any closer. It was turned away from him, fin stretched his direction but face turned toward the wall. Its shoulders seemed to be shaking like it was…crying?

"I did not mean to lie, to keep this from you, but I never wanted you to look on me with such dread."

"Barry…?" Len repeated, unable to understand, especially with Barry's voice ringing in his ears. "How? I don't understand, what…what happened?"

"I failed. The spell is broken. I do not get to keep my legs or the form I made for you."

Made for…

All at once, the nightmare parted like a curtain, and Len was left looking at the truth. Barry could not be speaking from anywhere but the figure in front of him.

"This is what you really look like," Len said as the truth dawned on him, and he felt so foolish for not understanding sooner. "It was you. It was always you. Because of our connection, I… Barry," Len called tentatively as he crawled around the tail toward the frightening form on his kitchen floor, "look at me."

Only after several moments of silence, did Barry obey with a slow turn of his head, and while Len shrunk back at first, he told himself to stay strong, because those eyes, black as they were, were not empty. There was so much emotion in them, so much love and sorrow, and Barry was crying.

"It's okay. It's okay." Len was afraid, he was, but this was Barry. He had all the features of the monster, but he was still Barry, it was still his face somehow beneath the rest. Len didn't want to be afraid, so he reached out to hold Barry's cheek like he had in the living room, and Barry made to reach up and touch his hand in turn before he remembered his claws.

He opened his mouth as if to speak around his many teeth, but a mournful cry sounded instead like something from deep in the ocean.

"You can't speak like this, can you? That's why you sounded so close. That's why I didn't remember your mouth opening when I first heard your song. I was hearing you in my head."

Barry pressed his cheek to Len's hand since he did not dare touch him with his claws. We have no need for words underwater, Barry's voice spoke without his lips moving. The face you saw was your ideal, part of our magic to entrance. When I chose to step out of the water, that was the form I took.

"It was an illusion," Len said. "But I don't understand. What failed? Why don't you get to keep your legs? What did I do wrong?"

There was such depth of emotion in the red face and black eyes. You did nothing wrong. You simply do not love me.

"What?" Len gripped Barry's face more fervently, possessively. "What are you talking about?"

I could not tell you the details of the spell, the magic prevented it, but to keep my human form and my gentler merfolk form, I had to secure a vow of love from the one I left the water for. You did not offer such a vow and now my time is up. I had only until the next full moon, risen now outside with the sun set. I am so sorry I could not tell you. I am sorry for what I might have told you but was too afraid to.

"Vow? You mean because I couldn't say the words?" Len felt his heart break as he must have broken Barry's, all because he was selfish. All because of three words left unspoken. "I don't say it, I never say it, but I…I love you, Barry. Of course I love you. I love everything about you." Len pressed his forehead to Barry's, however frightening he might have once found him, and Barry gasped in his mind to hear it finally.

Even though you see me as I am? Ugly and terrible?

How did Len keep ruining everything that Barry could ever believe that? Now that Len had pushed past his fear, knowing that the creature he thought would devour him was simply Barry in another form, he saw how beautiful it was in its own way, simply different.

"You're fierce, and I was afraid, but you could never be ugly to me," Len said. "I still see you. This is still you. And I love you. I love you." He pressed his forehead to Barry's again for want of a kiss he wasn't sure he could risk with those fangs, but this was enough. Barry was enough.

It is too late. Another mournful cry left Barry's mouth. The spell is already broken. I must return to the water to accept retribution.

"Retribution?" Len snapped back.

My kin will come to slay me now that I have failed, drawn to me like a beacon from the trail of broken magic no matter what body of water I inhabit.

"What?" Len realized the horror of what his insecurities had caused and couldn't accept it. "No. I won't let that happen. We just…won't put you back in the water."

I must return to the water. With my legs, it was not as dire. I could have gone days without submerging. But in my true form, I will not last long before I perish. I can already feel myself weakening. If I do not return, they will know me dead on land; if I do, they will slay me.

No, Len couldn't let them win and take Barry away from him. "We'll…put you in the tub. You said all water is connected because of your magic, but the tub would be too small. They can't get you there."

It would not be large enough. I must be fully submerged as often as possible.

"The pool then!" Len grasped at whatever options he could think of. "It's not a real body of water. Maybe they can't reach you there."

I…I do not know. I had never attempted to connect to a pool before. But even so, it would not be a long-term solution. I cannot stay in the pool forever. Other humans would find me, see me, and they would not be as understanding.

They'd kill Barry the second they got a look at him.

"There has to be something we can do," Len said, still stroking Barry's face and holding him close. "I can't lose you just because I was too messed up to say the words."

Barry smiled, and even with his fangs, it was somehow sweet. To be loved by you is all I ever wanted. It is enough.

"No, no, I can't accept losing you. I'm going to take you to the pool and we're going to figure something out. There has to be something."

He tried to gather Barry in his arms before realizing he couldn't risk carrying him down to the pool like that, visible for everyone to see. He hurried to grab the sheets from his bed, and Barry told him to look in the back of the closet.

The old sheets were there, bundled into a ball. As Len unfurled them, he saw slash marks as if from…claws. That's why Barry had been pulling away from him all week, afraid to hurt Len; he was succumbing to his more fearsome form, and he hadn't believed Len could handle the truth.

Len almost hadn't.

But it didn't matter now. Barry was Barry, and Len would not let him go. He bundled him in the sheets and lifted him, struggling with how much heavier Barry was with his tail than with legs, but he could manage. He made it to the pool without anyone seeing him, locked the door, and carefully set Barry in the water.

He was still beautiful, the way he swam, the glitter of red and gold, the extra spots of darker red all over his body, not just on his tail, like his freckles, Len thought again, feeling silly for having ever thought this creature could be scary. He was dangerous, he was everything Barry said his kin could be, but he had a kindness, a gentleness in him that belied any ferocity.

The pool was as clean as it had ever been after Jesse's men cleaned it last week. Like many times before, Len took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his jeans, and sat on the edge to dangle his feet in the water.

You are not angry with me for lying? Barry asked before long.

"After the way I talked about the 'monster' in my head, of course you couldn't tell me. It's okay. It doesn't matter now."

Barry nodded. The red hair was becoming on him, but more Little Mermaid red than anything natural by human standards, so brunette made sense for his other forms rather than ginger or looking like a punk with a dye job.

Axel knows, Barry said. He saw most of this form after that man shot you. I got rather…angry.

That's why they'd had their hushed conversation, and why Axel was the one Barry had turned to this past week. "He still hugged you. He loves you, Barry. Any of them still would if they knew the truth, because they know you."

Again, a sweet, fanged smile replied. Although Barry had to disappear beneath the water every so often to stay wet, he always came back up again quickly. It was not you who failed, Len. We were given such terrible odds to face. When I am gone, promise me you will still open the shop and live the life you want.

"You're not going anywhere," Len affirmed. "There has to be a shelf life for this. If you don't die on land and they can't find you, there has to be a reset button somehow, so you can step out of the water again and this time I'll say it. I'll say it every day. I thought it would sound broken because I'm broken. I didn't want you to hear it like that when you deserve better. But saying it…saying it to you, feels different than I expected. I love you, Barry. I'm sorry…"

Now Len was the one crying, and when Barry floated closer to him, it was insult to injury that he could not touch Len or hold him because his claws were too sharp. Instead, he carefully rested his palms on Len's thighs.

Our skin and scales are tougher than a human's. Our claws do not hurt one another unless we use force. But I hate how easily I could cut you. There is no end to the magic, Len. Even if they never found me, I cannot grow legs again. I can never change from this form again. I could show you a false face, an illusion, but you could not touch it. You deserve better than a monster you would have to keep hidden from the world that could never even hold you again.

"You're not a monster," Len said, because he'd said the opposite too many times when he didn't know any better.

There had to be something they could do. Len was a planner. He was a good planner. But from juvie to a life of crime, magic didn't play much of a role. All he could think to do was place his hands over Barry's and lean forward to kiss his forehead.

Then the tip of his nose.

Then his lips, even if Barry had to keep his mouth closed or risk cutting him on the edge of his teeth.

Barry pulled back with a start, and Len's eyes sprung wide.

"What?" he asked, but even as he did, he saw something happening in the pool, the water starting to swirl and darken, with a strange light emanating from the center.

You must leave. Now, Barry said, pulling away and swimming out of Len's reach. They have found me. Please remember me as I was.

"No." Len shook his head as fresh terror filled him. "I'm not letting them take you. Who are they? How many will there be."

Two. They are hunters.

"Only two?"

Two is all they need.

Mere moments passed before two dark figures appeared swimming with the swirl of water like circling sharks, one in shades of yellow with edging in red, another nearly completely black. They started circling wider, intent on trapping Barry between them.

Len, please! Barry stayed in the middle as if accepting his fate. I recognize them. I grew up with these kin. You must get away from the pool!

Len wouldn't. He couldn't. He didn't have a weapon, didn't stand a chance against even one being like Barry, but he didn't care. As soon as they expanded their circle to encompass Barry and would soon pounce to drag him away, Len pushed from the edge of the pool to drop into the water.

Len!

If they're taking you, then they're taking me too. But I'm not letting either of those things happen without a fight.

Opening his eyes under the water, Len took in the full sight of the other merfolk. In general, they were much like Barry only larger, one blond, mostly canary yellow with red accented scales like the reverse of Barry, and the other, larger still, had dark hair and was almost entirely black trimmed in midnight blue.

Len, you don't understand! Barry swam to him, trying to guard him from the others. The spell has broken. You can no longer breathe underwater.

Shit. Len thought something felt different. That certainly made things harder, but he was not deterred. He could hold his breath long enough, even if the time they had left meant they would simply meet their end together as the others circled closer with their maws open and claws outstretched.

Don't accept this, Barry. Don't let them win. Go out fighting. You're allowed to defend yourself. It doesn't make you like them. You hear me, assholes! Len wasn't sure if they could, but he shouted in his mind anyway. If you want him, you're going to have to go through me.

Dark, foreboding laughter filled Len's mind in two overlapping voices as he swam to be back to back with Barry and fought against the natural inclination to swim back up for breath.

You wish to die? The yellow one said—somehow Len could tell though he wasn't sure how.

The black one completed the thought. Then we will gladly grant your desire.

They shot forward in unison, Black toward Barry and Yellow at Len. The strange center of light at the bottom of the pool remained with the swirling water, but Len paid it no mind and focused instead on every episode of Shark Week he'd ever seen and what parts of a creature from the deep might be vulnerable.

There were gills on this form along where a human's rib cage would be, so when Yellow came at him, fangs bared, Len kicked as hard as he could right at that spot and the merfolk sank with a gasp.

Barry had pivoted away and come up on Black's side to take a bite of his shoulder. Black might be larger, but Barry was faster.

Diving down to attack Yellow before he could recover, Len grabbed him by the back of the neck where fangs and claws couldn't as easily reach him, and swam down, pushing with all his strength until Yellow's face slammed into the bottom of the pool.

I am going to rip your throat out! Yellow raged in the aftermath, but Len got his feet on Yellow's back and used him to push off back toward Barry.

Barry was fighting hard, slashing and biting and constantly moving to stay out of Black's grasp. While Black's back was to Len, he swam faster to grip him around the middle and hold him in place for Barry to strike.

Human trash! Black hissed as he struggled to dislodge Len. We will rend you both to pieces!

Starting with you, Yellow came up on Len quicker than he'd anticipated, and Len was wrenched downward, pulled by stinging claws slicing his ankles, then dragged down farther and farther, deeper than the pool could possibly be until Len hit that strange light at the bottom and everything went white.

Len!

Len was still in the water, but he had no idea where when the light dimmed, and he found himself disoriented and adrift. He struggled not to breathe in as he had grown accustomed to, but his lungs were starting to burn. He needed air. He wouldn't last much longer and he didn't know where Yellow had gone.

Then he felt arms encircle his waist with a shock of panic spiking through his chest, until they shot upward with impressive speed and broke the surface. Len gulped in air as quickly as he could, coughing from the strain. It was Barry who had saved him. And they were definitely no longer in the pool.

It was dark, but Len still recognized the river by the docks. Their magic had ported them out to the nearest larger body of water.

Len, please, you must—

But Barry did not get to finish before he was yanked back under the surface.

"Barry!" Len cried, trying to stay afloat, unable to see anything beneath him the way he had more easily seen in the pool. It was too dark. The other merfolk could be anywhere.

A splash alerted Len to his right and the flick of a yellow tailfin. A moment later, another splash and flick of the fin was at his left. Yellow was toying with him, taunting him, while Black must have hold of Barry.

"Come and get me, you bastard!" Len yelled, running on pure adrenaline now.

Nothing happened for far too many seconds, and Len worried it was already over, that Barry was gone. Then, just as he'd been about to sink down in the hopes of seeing something, Yellow's arms clamped around his middle from behind and held tight, one hand coiling loosely around his throat to tap his claws along his jugular.

Not to worry. I will wait so that Bartholomew can watch.

Perhaps you are the one who needs to be watching, Barry's voice came next, and Len looked up to see him surface not far in front of them, holding Black the same way Yellow had Len, claws deadly and ready to sink into his throat.

Yellow hissed by Len's ear with his true voice, resonant and threatening.

I remember you, Barry said. Both of you. You are mated now, are you not? I can tell. I will kill your mate if you do not release him!

Len felt Yellow squeeze his neck in return, before he chuckled darkly.

You are no killer, runt. That is why you fled like your weak parents.

Too often these past few weeks that Len had known Barry, he had seen him have to be brutal, clean and precise in everything he did. He wasn't like his kin. He was stronger. Because he'd had to be a survivor.

I will kill him to protect my beloved, Barry threatened.

Beloved? Black sneered in his grasp. You still call him that? He shunned you. That is why we are here. He offered you no vow!

"Because it was about words," Len said, staring at Barry, only Barry, not caring that he bobbed in the water with death at his back. "Words I should have said but didn't. I love you, Barry. I'm sorry I said it too late."

I love you too, Len, Barry smiled, though it was a sad smile full of terrible grief, so please forgive me for what I must do. Release him, he turned his attention to Yellow, and I will stop fighting. I will surrender for you to take me back.

"What?" Len cried, feeling the claws slice his skin in his struggle. "You can't! Just swim! You always said others weren't fast enough, but you are, that's why you escaped them for so long. You can outswim them, Barry. Just go!"

If you flee, Yellow warned, I will bleed your beloved dry and feed his corpse to the young ones.

Len believed that, and Barry's eyes proved he did too.

Release him, Barry said again, and I am yours.

"No…" Len tried to catch Barry's eyes again, but he wouldn't look at him, kept staring at Yellow just over Len's shoulder, waiting for an answer.

Before Len could beg him to reconsider, he found himself airborne and could hardly breathe for how quickly he shot out of the water toward shore. They had only been just off the docks, but still Len had a long path to fall before he landed hard and rolled up onto the sand.

As dazed as he was from the force of hitting the beach, he clamored to the river's edge as soon as he had caught his breath. What he saw when he looked out at the water was Barry offering him one last wistful look of farewell, before the others descended and dragged him into the depths.

TBC...