As soon as Ryan dove into the water from the cliff top he and Steven stashed their clothes on with no one somehow around, he felt freer than he had imagined in a long while, despite only having done that marathon length swim only a few days or so ago now.

He also felt like he'd been given an energy drink and swam around in circles for a bit, stretching himself out, dipping and diving before he finally looked towards the surface and gasped, bubbles flying out of his gills and nose at the shock of the image above him.

Steven was face down in the water staring down at him from above, grinning and eyes wide like his own, only his formally coloured hair had gone back to its normal black as he pulled up and swam down towards him, tail practically shouting out at him that he wasn't alone.

Steven's tail unlike his own blue & green iridescent one (that, if he really wanted to compare to anything, looked like a giant Mahi Mahi fish was eating him in half) looked almost like a koi fish had just come from behind and swallowed him to waist height. It was incredible.

Mostly white, but covered in black, orange and red patches of patterned scales, the fin on the button was more streamlined and less bumpy than Ryan's was, but still got the job of moving done quite fast by the looks of it. Steven didn't have a fin running down the back like his either, but instead had two double fins protruding from the sides, a short pair at his waist and another, longer set, that went from directly under them to mid-tail.

There were some similarities between them, however. Both of them had neck gills and webbed hands, sharper nails and better eyesight (given both wore glasses on a semi-daily basis) as well as scales across their arms, but while Ryan's were raised like fins and cut through the water as he did, Steven's own were flat and speckled only here and there.

Feeling a grin split his face in two, Ryan almost wanted to laugh seeing Steven in front of him now and held up a hand to high five, which Steven took advantage of to show Ryan just how merman he really was, flipping quickly and using his tail to smack his hand with a snake-like feeling that made Ryan burst out laughing, bubbles escaping to the surface once again.

(He also tried to do the same for the latter, but fell just short, doing a full 360 before his eyes almost rolled in the back of his head, Steven practically dying as he found his, uh...bearings)

He didn't expect to learn a lot from Steven that day without talking, but was surprisingly easy for him to take cues from the other without many words needed. Steven was practically giving him a lesson in "Accidental Merman Survival 101" as he learnt how to collect seafood without damaging the reefs below, how to weave and use seaweed, how to sharpen rocks and driftwood into weapons, how to listen out for predators and so on.

He knew that Steven couldn't teach him everything that day, of course (Sara and others Steven informed of what they were doing would murder if they said they were going out scouting locations and then come back when everyone was leaving), but he kinda wished that time didn't exist right now as he really wanted him to do so.

Eventually, both breached the surface and Ryan couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief again, treading water as his tail swooshed underneath him, keeping him steady. "How in the hell do you manage to hide this? I've fucked up so many times I'm surprised I'm not covered in bruises literally every single day."

"Well, it was easier when I was a kid. Everyone other than the mermaid/merman families we knew thought I was just wearing an elaborate costume and that it was really funny and weird how I could do tricks and swim so well with the tail and not get hurt or worn out because my legs were stuck inside." Steven laughed back. "After that, especially when I was a teen, it was harder. I had to watch drinks and people, couldn't go to waterparks or lakes and do swimming in PE. My Mom made them think I had a skin condition that was aggravated by the water and she wasn't wrong. Just had to lie a little bit."

"Amen to your Mom, dude." Ryan smiled, but remained curious at some of Steven's information. "There are other mer-families here in the United States?"

"Heaps, most live on the coast, however, like here in Cali and also on the East Coast and around the southern states as well." Steven nodded, flicking water from his hair around as he talked. "I've met a few here, most have just left pods to be own their own for the first time or to start families on land with mer or human partners. Other than that, I spent time with a couple of kids on the East Coast when we went to Adam's Beach, which was the closest mer-family meet up spot to Ohio even though it was all the way over in Virginia. I don't miss that six-hour drive I had to take with Alvin being annoying and Mom and Dad having to almost throw us out of the car a few times, but I miss the weekends."

"Was it fun for you guys despite all that? Was it like, a family vacation thing or something?"

"Hell yeah. Adam's Beach was really hidden back then, before they made it part of the tourist trails and stuff. Mer-families were always camping down there so we usually stayed for a couple of nights or so before we had to come back home because we had school and my Mom could only walk on her tail for so long. We'd swim, as it was deeper than most of the lakes and such at home, before my Mom and Dad would dry us off with all the other kids to get out legs back and the adults would make or bring food and we'd have a big campfire cookout with songs and marshmallows and everything. My Mom's singing of traditional songs from her pod were always my favourite to hear as most of the families weren't from Asia and they were always impressed with her voice."

"Where were most of the families you interacted with from?"

"Here and there. Not originally from America though, with the exception of Hawaii maybe, as I've heard there might be some families there, but that's only rumoured. I met mer-families from up in Ireland, Seychelles in the Caribbean, Scotland, Australia, England, Iceland, Greenland, one was from Russia even, which was a surprise for me. Pods and mermaid caves and scared grounds usually end up being off the coasts of different areas and not usually inland, so a lot of mermaids and mermen aren't like, American or Mexican and other backgrounds like that unless a pod managed to set up something in one of those places. Others just like to travel, so they don't stay for too long if not needing to."

"Wow." Ryan, despite not exactly being a homebody since his job at Buzzfeed required a ton of travelling around, couldn't /imagine/ just travelling for-ever. Like, forever swimming, on and on and only staying in one place for a while and then going again. Even if the thought made him feel a heap of a lot safer right now thanks to the newness of everything and the ever-present terror he had in daily life now. "Sounds like a dream for the constant adventurer."

"I mean, if you like that kind of thing, yeah." Steven snorted. "Not really for me, though."

"Yeah, same." Ryan annotated quickly, almost a little too quick. Hopefully, Steven wouldn't notice that he gave the option much more thought than he should have. "I'm a California beach bum though and though."

"Of course you are, Ry-guy." Steven grinned, looking out towards the horizon and then back at him. "Come on, we'd better get back to land. We still have to pretend to be human today."

"Awww, but Dad, I wanna stay longer!" Ryan pretended to be a little kid, pouting and everything as Steven just rolled his eyes with a smile before he slapped him on the shoulder, grinning again. "Oh, come on you big guppy. I'll even race you to the shore."

"Sure, sure." Ryan took one last long look at the ocean, before he finally turned and followed Steven back towards the golden sands and screaming pier noises of the beach.

At least Steven couldn't see that he didn't even try to pretend to leave broke his heart just a little bit.