Mason grabs one of Jamie's toes, moving it around a little. "What are these?"

He's sitting on one of the rocks where it's shallow enough for him to stand or sit- depending on the tide- but deep enough for Mason to swim comfortably. It's become the place they hang out. Jamie honestly didn't expect his first friend to be a mermaid, but he's not surprised it's someone who's at the beach as much as him.

He's a little bummed he can't show Mason his other favourite parts of San Jose and San Francisco, but he doesn't mind that much, considering how boring his days were with no friend at all. Especially when Mason asks about what it's like being a human and how his eyes gleam at the answers Jamie gives.

Like how Mason's curiosity about his legs peaks from peeks and subtle touches to prodding and outright questions.

"Toes. They help us balance when we're standing." He gives them a little wiggle and Mason's face lights up in interested delight.

"Huh."

Slowly, Mason works his way up Jamie's body, looking at the way his legs move and feel. It's endearing how Mason finds the movement and range of feet, ankles, and knees fascinating.

"You trust these to hold you up?" He asks, moving Jamie's legs around, as a doctor would at a check-up. "They move so easily and they're squishy."

"The flexibility actually helps. You can move easier and quicker if your body isn't as tense. Tight muscles can limit your range of motion."

"That's… hmm. What's up here?" Mason asks, pulling Jamie's swim trunks out from his leg, peering up. Squeaking, Jamie squirms as Mason's fingers brush his inner thigh. He doesn't care if people see him naked, but he's not used to someone looking up his pant leg.

"If you want to see there, just ask," he mumbles without looking at Mason, his face going warm.

"Okay."

His head shoots up and he finds Mason looking at him expectantly. Oh. He hadn't really meant it as a genuine offer, nor did he expect Mason to actually accept. Mason's unwavering, undivided attention has his face getting hotter as he pulls his trunks down his legs and steps out of them, draping them on the rock behind him.

He doesn't watch Mason as he pokes around at his thighs and hips, comparing where his waist goes into a tail and where Jamie's goes into legs.

"Your body is so… odd."

"Are legs really that strange of a concept?"

"Yes. Well, not on other creatures. But your top half is mostly like mine, but your legs are so bizarre. They look like arms but more useless."

Throwing his head back, Jamie laughs. He hasn't ever heard of legs being described like that. Mason asks more questions and Jamie answers them as best as he can; like about his freckles and how more will show up on his skin the more time he spends in the sun. He even forgets that he's naked until Mason asks about his dick and why it's outside of his body.

Jamie blushes and stammers through an answer, which Mason seems to find amusing.

"Are you okay? Your face is red."

"'m fine."

"Your skin is smooth and very soft," Mason comments, still holding one of Jamie's legs.

Grateful for the change of topic and intrigued by what's implied, Jamie asks, "Is yours not?"

To his surprise, Mason holds his arm out. Gingerly, Jamie reaches out and gently touches him, feeling little rough bumps like sandpaper. It reminds him of sharks or stingrays. But what sends shivers down his spine isn't the feeling of Mason's skin.

It's the way Mason holds eye contact the entire time, as Jamie's touch trails from his forearm down over his wrist. He catches Mason's hand in his and gives it a light, friendly squeeze before letting it slip from his fingers.

Two little red fins on Mason's upper arms are raised. Jamie hasn't noticed them before. They certainly weren't flared out, like they are now.

He wonders if it's the equivalent of the goosebumps on Jamie's arms.

He wonders if Mason's heart is beating as quickly as his.

The feeling of Jamie's fingers caressing his arm leaves a trail of heat and Mason's embarrassed when his triceptal fins flare out. He tries to pull them back down, but then Jamie's holding his hand, and it's just as soft as the rest of him. He's grateful when Jamie lets go before Mason can do anything he'll regret.

Jamie's cheeks are red again and Mason finds his breathing shallow.

He closes his mouth. Swallows.

He doesn't miss that Jamie's eyes flick down to his neck before meeting his again.

"Thank you for trusting me," Jamie whispers, breaking the intimate, quiet spell that fell over them.

All Mason can do is nod.

He's never felt something like this before.

Thankfully, Jamie's turtle friend, Kiwi, shows up and Jamie goes ashore to get him his seaweed. Mason uses those few minutes to slip under the surface and swim around a little bit to clear his head.

When he returns, Kiwi is gone and Jamie is back on the beach, but he keeps glancing up from his sketchbook to look out to the ocean with sad eyes.

"Looking for something?"

Jamie's head shoots up and his eyes light up as a dazzling, relieved smile spreads across his lips. "More like someone. I turned around and you were just… gone. I'm sorry, I won't touch you again, if that made you leave-"

"No," Mason interrupts. Ironically, he doesn't want to scare Jamie off and undo the progress they've made. Mason's pretty sure they could be friends if things keep going the way they have been. He certainly likes where it's heading. Plus, he likes how Jamie's fingers felt against his skin, and he knows Jamie won't touch him again if he tells him not to.

"No, I just needed to hunt really quick," he lies. Just because he's getting closer to Jamie, that doesn't mean he wants to tell him that he makes his tummy feel weird, even if it was in a good way. "I didn't say anything because you were busy with Kiwi, and I knew I'd be quick. Besides, I'm here, aren't I? If you scared me away, I wouldn't have come back."

"I'm glad you did come back." Jamie's smile goes shy at his confession.

"What are you drawing?" Mason asks, swimming farther inland.

Jamie stands and walks ankle-deep into the ocean before sitting down, carefully keeping the papers out of the water. They've done this before, sitting in the shallow water for Jamie to show Mason what he's working on. This time, Mason goes closer to him to prove Jamie didn't freak him out. And because he wants to.

He rests his chin on Jamie's shoulder.

His body is warm and firm under his smooth skin. He smells good, too; a bit salty like the ocean, but with a hint of something new that's somehow foreign and comforting at once. Mason never thought 'comfort' could have it's own smell, but it does, and it belongs to Jamie. He wants more, to just curl around him and press his face into his neck, which is a little terrifying. He hasn't been drawn to anyone like this, and he doesn't know what to do. So he does nothing, but look at Jamie's art.

Jamie clearly wasn't expecting it, because he startles, glancing at Mason quickly before turning back to his sketchbook. There's a hint of pink on his cheeks.

"It's a little comic," he says, his voice sounding weird. "We have an art assignment to make a mini-comic about whatever we want. I came up with this joke."

Mason looks at the two sea turtles drawn on the paper and the three circles between them, each filled with squiggles that he recognizes as human writing. Underneath the first two turtles are the same two, but they're wearing something. He doesn't understand what they're doing or what it means.

"What does it say?"

Jamie turns to him, looking confused. "You don't know how to read? I guess that makes sense. I just, I assumed because you speak English…" he trails off, rubbing the back of his head, and he looks so uncomfortable that Mason finds himself wanting to put him at ease.

He explains how he's come to speak two human languages without interacting with them directly. His father doesn't let them go to the shore near humans, but with them living close enough, they can hear the talking whenever they breach the surface. He's seen human writing on objects floating through the waters or on the side of ships, but he hasn't had anyone to teach him how to read it.

He asks Jamie if he speaks Español, who's looking at him with wide eyes, clearly impressed by something.

"What?"

"You speak Spanish, too? That's really cool- you must be really smart to know two human languages without interacting with any people. I only speak English."

Now Mason's unsure of how much he actually understands the language. "I thought it was called Español?"

"It is, in Spanish. Like, if you're speaking Spanish, you won't call English 'English.' You'd have a different name for it. I think it's something like Inglés?"

"Oh."

"Wait, so, if you speak Spanish, does that mean you travel south to Mexico?"

"I don't actually know the names of most human places, but we do go that way for a couple of months a year," Mason says, pointing along the coast.

Jamie looks, then smiles at him. "Yeah, we call that direction 'south.' Mexico is the country below ours- we're in the United States of America. Also known as America. Or the US. Or the USA. Or The States. There are a lot of ways to refer to here. Speaking of states, the US is broken up into a bunch of states, and we're in California. The city we're in is San Jose. San Francisco is pretty close, too."

Mason must look as lost as he feels because Jamie smiles apologetically. "Sorry. That was probably confusing. Next time, I can bring my tablet in its waterproof case and show you Google Maps."

He doesn't know what a tablet or Google Maps is, but he doesn't say anything. Jamie is promising to show him something, and that's good enough for him. And it's not just a random something. He'll be showing him where they live, and Mason wants to see. Wants to know where they are.

"So," he says, bringing them back to his original question. "What does your comic say?"

"The first one says; 'What do you get when you cross a turtle with a giraffe?' and the other says 'What?'"

"What's a giraffe?"

"An animal from the desert with a reeeaally long neck."

"Oh. So, what do you get when you cross a turtle with a giraffe?"

"A turtleneck!"

Jamie's face breaks into a wide smile as he laughs at his own joke. His amusement is adorable, and Mason finds himself gazing at him, a hint of a smile gracing his own lips. He likes the way Jamie looks when he laughs. Likes the sound of it, too. He thinks he could watch him laugh all day.

Jamie glances at him, then goes shy. His cheeks go pink as he looks down to where he's fiddling with his pencil.

"It's silly, I know," he says, sounding a lot more unsure of himself.

Mason realizes that Jamie must think he didn't find it funny, and he rushes to correct him on why he didn't laugh along. "Sorry, I just… um, what's a turtleneck?"

Blue eyes flick up to his, then back down to the paper. "It's the sweater the turtles are wearing in the second picture."

"Oh." Mason smiles. "I like it."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I think I would understand it better if I knew more about human things, but it is really cute. I like their tiny faces and smiles."

Jamie opens his mouth, hesitates, and closes it. Opens it again and turns to look at him, a considering expression on his face.

"What?"

"I was, um. I was just thinking, wondering if you maybe want me to teach you how to read?"

Something ignites in Mason's chest. Jamie's offering him a chance to understand human writing, and it's too good for him to pass up. First, he says he'll show him where they are, and now reading? Excitement rushes through him at the thought of learning something new. "Really? You'd do that?"

Jamie nods enthusiastically. "Of course! We can even start now, if you want."

At Mason's nod, he flips his sketchbook to a new page, writing out a bunch of squiggly symbols.

"This is the alphabet," he says. "It has all the letters used in the English language. Each one has a different sound- some have more than one- and when put together in certain patterns, they spell words."

He goes through all 26, making all of the corresponding noises, and Mason wonders briefly if he's in over his head. There are a lot more than he was expecting and he's not sure how he's supposed to memorize it all. Jamie is kind, though, and gets him to repeat the sounds slowly over and over again.

"That's it," Jamie says with a smile, and maybe Mason isn't as terrible at it as he thought.

Then they move on to combinations of two or three letters before going on to short words. Mason repeats what Jamie says while staring at the letters and words, but he doesn't know what a cat or dog is. He knows they're animals, but that's it.

"This is your name: Mason." Jamie says it slowly, dragging his finger from letter to letter as he sounds it out slowly. He then writes it out on a new piece of paper.

Mason stares. He's never seen his name in writing before. It fills him to the brim with an emotion he can't put his finger on, to see it now. After checking that his hand is dry, he reaches out, tracing the letters with his finger.

Jamie just sits and lets him have his fill.

"What's your name?"

As he did with Mason's name, Jamie points to the individual letters as he sounds it out, then writes it in full next to Mason's.

"Here," Jamie says after a few moments of silence.

Mason stares blankly at the pencil he's holding out. "What?"

"Do you want to write your name?"

He bites back a smile, trying not to seem too eager. "Really?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

It takes a few minutes for Jamie to show him how to hold the pencil, his long, soft fingers wrapping around Mason's as he positions their hands over the page. He moves their wrists for Mason to feel the range of motion. Then Jamie lowers their hands, so the pencil's tip is against the paper.

The movement is jerky and awkward as their hands move the pencil up and down, but soon there's an 'M' on the paper. Mason is grinning by the time the last letter of his name is written, satisfaction coursing through him.

"Congratulations! You just wrote your first word!" A second later, Jamie's arms are around him, squeezing.

Mason tenses, trying not to panic. He doesn't know what Jamie is doing, but he's pretty sure it's not something malicious. Still, he fights the urge to strike out in defence. He's never been grabbed before, and he doesn't know why Jamie has his arms locked around him.

Jamie seems to notice his discomfort because he immediately lets go. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to- I was just excited."

"What was that?"

"A hug. Have you never heard of a hug before?"

"No, we don't usually try to strangle each other when excited."

"That's not… sorry. Most hugs aren't like that. Like I said, I was just too excited about you writing your first word. I didn't mean to hug you so tightly."

"If they're not supposed to be like that, what are they supposed to be like?"

"They're supposed to be comforting or congratulatory or, well, anything else, really. I can give you a proper one, if you'd like."

When Mason agrees, Jamie wraps him in his arms again, this time holding him gently. It's… nice. Surprisingly, it's really nice, especially when Jamie lightly rubs his back. Mason leans into the touch tentatively, wrapping his own arms around Jamie's waist.

"I like that," Mason admits when he pulls back.

"Me too."

"Thank you. For everything; the reading and writing and the googoo thing."

Jamie tilts his head. "Googoo thing?"

"The thing that you said will show us where we are?'

"Ohh, Google. It's called Google, not googoo," Jamie says through a giggle.

Mason pouts, feigning hurt. "I couldn't remember what it was called."

"That's okay." Jamie puts his hand on Mason's arm. "You're welcome."