There is one spot, at the end of a beach, where Jamie loves to spend his days when he has nothing else to do. Despite being a high schooler with a part-time job, he often finds himself at the quiet beach.

It's not a popular beach- Jamie is typically the only person there and, even though he often has the whole beach to himself, he tends to stay at the far right side where he hasn't seen anyone else before. There are a handful of large rocks in the water and on the shore and Jamie loves to watch the water and sea life move around them with the changing tides. Sometimes he'll sit on a rock or lean against one while sitting in the water.

The entrance to the beach is narrow, uneven, and through a wooded area, which makes it a little difficult to find. Only people who know it's there can find the path and- as far as Jamie knows- no one tells other people about it. Jamie doesn't. He doesn't like the idea of tourists flooding his beach. It's best, he rationalizes, that they stay at the over-commercialized beaches with shops and assigned lifeguards. He'd rather keep 'his' secret beach to himself.

It's because of this that he knows- or at least recognizes- all of the few people who do know and visit his beach. He doesn't have many friends- or any, really- but he likes the other beachgoers. He'll stop and talk to them a bit when he passes them.

The other end of the pathway leads to the opposite end of the beach and Jamie takes off his flip flops, stepping into the water. He walks along the shoreline with the water lapping at his ankles, picking up little shells when he sees them. So many of his art projects have or use shells in them- he can't help but collect a few every time he goes. Especially the cute, small ones.

Arriving at his end, Jamie walks a few feet up the beach to set down his bag and shoes, rummaging around in the bag for the mini jar he keeps for his shells. He then turns to the ocean and breathes in the salty air. When he opens his eyes, Jamie startles when he sees someone in the water near one of the rocks furthest out. The person- it looks to be a boy, maybe his age?- looking back at him.

The boy has dark brown hair plastered to his honey-coloured forehead and he looks startled as well, as though he didn't expect to see anyone either. Jamie doesn't recognize the boy and the boy doesn't seem to recognize him.

"Hey," Jamie calls, pushing his sunglasses up into his hair. "Are you okay?"

The boy sinks lower in the water; his mouth is submerged and only his nose and up are out of the water. It doesn't even look like he's treading water properly and Jamie's worried he might drown.

"Do you need help?" he asks, stepping into the water and climbing on a rock. From it, he steps to the next one. Then the next.

The boy's eyes widen a little in panic. He drifts out a little, moving subtly with the outgoing tide. He might not know how to swim, and being pulled out by the ocean can be terrifying even for experienced swimmers.

Keeping his voice steady and calm, Jamie says, "It's okay. I'm a lifeguard, I can help you."

Without saying anything, the boy dips a little lower in the water as he floats further out. The waves lap at his nose and he's still staring at Jamie. His eyes dart between Jamie's face and the rest of his body- mostly his legs, which Jamie finds a little strange. He's just wearing a pair of swim trunks, which is not an unusual sight for California's coast. They're also at a beach.

Speeding up a little, Jamie asks, "Can you tell me your name?"

As he reaches one of the last few rocks near the boy, the boy's head slips under the water. So much for a quiet, peaceful day of painting.

Jamie jumps to the next rock and uses his momentum to dive off the other side, planning on swimming out to the boy and helping him out of the water. But when he opens his eyes to find the drowning boy, what Jamie sees has him stopping where he is in the water, holding his breath. In place of the boy's legs is a tail. A gorgeous tail with bright reds and oranges and looking like fire, especially with the soft curves and feathered points. He's so close, Jamie thinks that if he reached out, he could touch it.

Looking over his shoulder, the boy's- merman's? merboy's?- eyes widen when they land on him and he hisses at Jamie, exposing razor-sharp teeth, not unsimilar to those of an anglerfish. It sends a burst of panic through Jamie and his blood runs cold, bubbles of air escaping through his lips. His heartbeat is erratic and almost stops beating when the merman lunges, his teeth snapping shut only an inch away from Jamie's face and he knows it was only a warning.

He flails back, pulling himself up onto the rock closest to him. It's surrounded by water and too far from the others to jump to the next, leaving him stranded unless he wants to get back in the water with those teeth still nearby. He doesn't dare move, praying that the merman is leaving and Jamie can go back to shore.

He gets his answer when he glances down and sees a distorted face watching him from beneath the moving water. Then a clawed hand breaks the surface, quickly followed by a second, both gripping onto the rock and a second later, the merman's head and upper body surge out of the water. Jamie scrambles back as far as he can without falling off the other side of the rock.

The merman's eyes are murderous, his pupils vertical slits, and Jamie knows he's as good as dead. There's hardly any space between them when the merman snarls and hisses, "If you tell anyone, I will rip you apart. Piece by piece, shred by shred."

"Sorry!" Jamie cries, desperate to stay alive. One of his hands slips off the rock behind him and his body jerks down toward the water, his heart skipping a beat in terror. "I-I'm sorry! I won't, I swear I won't!"

He gets only silence in answer and he watches as the merman backs up a few inches to scan him over. Mainly his lower half- his legs again- Jamie notices dimly. This time he thinks he knows why.

"You're bleeding," the merman says and Jamie is too shocked to answer. The sudden lack of hostility throwing him off as he glances down to the cut on his leg, at the blood mixing with the water dripping off the merman's chest. Probably from scrambling onto the rock. A part of him relaxes for half a second before merman's eyes lock on him and his tone is icy again. "Get out of my sight," he says, before pushing himself off the rock, taking off into the ocean.

Jamie doesn't need to be told twice as he takes the offer of escape. Turning, he kneels and dives, making for a quick getaway.

From underneath the water, Mason hides behind the rock, watching the human dive and swim back to shore. Even though Mason just terrified it, it's still graceful as it moves through the water and Mason can't take his eyes off it. Even when the human reaches the shore, he doesn't stop watching. Instead, he swims closer, careful to keep his distance but close enough to watch the human.

It's fumbling as it tries to gather its things, hands shaking too much to effectively do anything. It pauses a moment to look at its hand and Mason sees the streak of red that matches the one on its leg. The human resumes packing up and picks up its bag, scurrying from the beach.

As he's about to leave, Mason notices something shiny on the sand below him, moving with the water. He knows what it is. It's the sunglasses the human was wearing. They must've fallen off when it dived in the water after him. He doesn't know what it was doing- it spoke as if it wanted to help him, but humans don't help anyone, especially anyone it doesn't know. Still, he swims down to grab the glasses. Cradling them in his hands, he looks at them then back to the beach, even though the human is long gone.

Mason can't stop thinking of it, either, as he swims back to his family. He thinks of the legs, so bizarre and foreign and useless in the water. Nowhere near as efficient as Mason's tail. But the human's legs were close enough that Mason could touch them if he wanted to, and part of him did. He got distracted by them, being so close for the first time in his life, and he mentally slapped himself. That kind of recklessness will get him killed. His father has always warned him of humans and their vicious, selfish ways.

Lost in his thoughts, the swim passes quickly and Mason soon finds himself back home. Gabe is the first one he comes across.

"Hey!" His brother says, joining Mason in his alcove of their family's cave. "Where've you been?"

"Exploring," Mason says. It's not a lie. He was exploring when he spotted the human on the beach and chose to watch. It's not his fault it turned into more.

Gabe pokes at him. "Aw, look at you, growing up and going off on your own. Soon that's all you'll be doing."

Rolling his eyes, Mason is about to deny it, but then he realizes this could be it. The chance to actually learn things about the human world. His dad never let him or his two siblings get close to the shore. But he remembers when Gabe was his age and how he would go off for long periods of time and how his parents dismissed it as something everyone did at that age. They had assumed he spent his time with other merfolk- and he did- but Mason remembers whispered secrets of Gabe visiting humans. Mason could pretend to do what Gabe did, only more. He could get close and learn things forbidden to him…

"Where'd you go?"

Mason flashes a devilish smirk. "Up."

Gabe's jaw drops as he gasps dramatically. "Mace! You went to the shore? Who knew you had it in you? Did you see any humans?"

"One."

"What happened? Did you get close? The thrill of getting close is exhilarating, but what's even more exciting is scaring them. I remember I once got a chance to scare a human- it was terrified! Ha! It was the best thing ever!"

Mason, knowing what his brother expects from him, gives a smug smile.

Gasping for real, Gabe says, "No way! You scared a human today?"

"Yep." Mason tries to sound prouder than he feels- pretends that he actually likes that the human was panic-stricken because of him. He's never wanted anyone to be afraid of him before, and that hasn't changed. He's not proud of, or finds anything amusing of, the absolute terror on the human's face. "It cut itself on a rock- twice- to get away from me."

A small part of him wants to pull out the sunglasses he hid away just before Gabe showed up, show them off as a trophy or souvenir, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to share it with anyone, not even his brother. There's something about the glasses, something about the boy, Mason wants to keep for himself.

Gabe laughs and punches his shoulder. "Aww, my baby brother's all grown up and scaring humans! Where has the time of Mr. Following-Dad's-Rules-to-a-T gone?"

Mason punches him back. "Shut up!"

With a tackle, the two of them roll through the water, playfully fighting and wrestling until they hear Londa's voice.

"Hey!" Their sister calls. "Fight later. Dad sent me to get you two. It's time for hunting."

Immediately, Gabe lets go of him, taking off in Londa's direction. "Race you!" he calls over his shoulder. Mason shouts and curses his brother for cheating as he swims after him.

They always hunt in packs. It's always been that way; the whole family and friends. It's not that it's difficult to hunt alone- Mason has more than enough claws, teeth, and quick thinking to take down a seal on his own- they're just more effective and efficient working as a team. They're ruthless and cunning, cornering and cutting off any escape of their prey, with a kill rate of 90%. It's quick and bloody and they're all satisfied before too long. Soon, Mason is swimming back home, talking and laughing with his cousins.

"Hey, Tia!" Miguel shouts from somewhere behind him. "Check this out!"

As his youngest cousin, Miguel is almost constantly showing the family things he finds or learns about. It's almost always things that everyone else already knows, but they always indulge him on his latest discoveries. Mason glances over to see what it is this time, but his view is cut off as Gabe swims alongside him.

"So," Gabe says quietly. "Are you planning on going up again?"

"Shh!" Mason looks around quickly to see if anyone overheard Gabe. The last thing he wants is for his dad to find out where he was. "Not so loud."

"Alright, alright!" Gabe holds up his hands defensively. "But no one is close enough to hear. Plus, the best way to get away with something is to pretend it's normal. If we're whispering and you're acting shady, they're going to wonder what you're up to. If we don't, no one will think twice." With that, he punches Mason's shoulder.

"Hey! Stop doing that!"

"Make me."

They end up fighting again and Mason realizes his brother is right. None of their family members bat an eye at the two of them fighting because it's something they always do.

"I remember when we used to do that," their Tio Carlos says with a laugh. "Remember, Antonio?"

"Used to?"

Mason's tired by the time he's back in his alcove. He wants to go to sleep, but he can't help but think of what happened during the day, and he mentally curses Gabe. He had forgotten about the surface and human while hunting, but Gabe just had to bring it up and remind him.

The human hadn't been what he expected. It wasn't violent and didn't try to kill him like his father said it would, instead it seemed more concerned, then petrified when Mason threatened it. It was also kind of… cute, in a weird way. It looked so similar to him; part of it, at least. The face, torso, and arms, though the legs and feet were new. And so strange. The mixing of like and unlike fascinating. Mason knew, logically, what human legs looked like but to see it up close and in person was different than he ever imagined.

The difference between him and his brother, he realizes, is that Gabe found amusement in inflicting terror on the cruel creatures, while Mason found the way the human moved to be more amusing. No, not amusing. Intriguing? He couldn't take his eyes off the human as it made its way along the beach line and hopped from rock to rock. Even as the human got closer and closer to him, he couldn't make himself leave until it was too late. Until after the human saw him.

He wonders if he would see the human again, if he goes back…