The days following the second meeting with the mysterious merman proved to be interesting to say the least. He soaked up information like a sponge; it seemed like he was not only mimicking words back to you but actually understood the context behind certain words and phrases. Holding a proper conversation was still a faraway possibility, but he understood the meaning of "yes", "no", "hello", and "goodbye" after only a few hours. You never thought yourself any sort of teacher, but helping an adult - well, you assumed he was an adult, his physique certainly didn't seem like that of a child - wasn't so bad. The smug look on his face when you praised him for getting something right was worth the effort.
You also found out that he refused to eat anything unless it smelled marginally of fish, spitting out the food and turning up his nose at whatever he found unsatisfactory; he was not dissimilar a curious cat who only ate specific things under the right circumstances. The behavior was almost cute…until he tossed a half-eaten snack in your face again, at which point you put your foot down on those shenanigans.
Groaning as you wiped stray grains of rice from your face, you decided to see how good his comprehension skills were at this point. "Nope, not today. You wanna be rude, I'll just leave." The look of amusement on the merman's face as he leaned against the edge of the pier disappeared as you promptly stood up and went to gather up your things several hours earlier than you usually did.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, reaching forward in an attempt to grab your ankle before you pulled it away.
"Nope!" you protested, bending down to shove a stern finger in his face, red eyes nearly crossing to look at it properly. "If you don't like something that's fine, but you can't keep throwing shit in my face. I'm aware you know what 'nice' is, we went over it yesterday and you had no problems then. You gotta be nice or I'm leaving," you said, emphasizing the word. He growled and promptly tried to bite your finger, but you retreated just in time. "Well that's it, have a good night Mr. Merman. MAYBE I'll come back tomorrow…" Turning on your heel you headed down the pier, ignoring his whines and angry yelling before hearing a distinct splash.
Pausing in your walk you turned around and sure enough, the merman was no longer on the pier, an empty familiarity mirroring the days before he came along.
"…Well, shit. Was I too harsh? I shouldn't scold him like a pet, he's too smart for that…but I'm tired of getting food and water in my face." With brows furrowed and a sigh, you returned to the end of the pier and looked down over the edge. The murky water remained undisturbed as you called out gently. "Hey, uh…sorry. If you're listening, just stop spitting in my face and we won't have an issue, OK? You're fun to hang out with, even if we can't really talk to each other…" No response. Waiting around for a few more minutes, you resigned and stood up running a hand through your hair. "I was just joking, by the way. I'll be back tomorrow, and I'll bring a good snack. Promise." You weren't sure why, but the thought that he might not return brought a chill to your chest. As you walked away towards your apartment, you missed discerning red eyes following from a distance before disappearing under the gentle shift of the ocean current.
On your way back to the beach the next day you stopped by a fish market to grab some fresh fish - no rice or frills this time, just meat. It was more expensive than what you normally bought, but hopefully, a peace offering of something a bit nicer might pacify him a bit. However, you stopped short in the pier. Today you weren't alone.
A couple of dark silhouettes contrasted sharply against the orange of the sky at the edge of the pier. Creeping closer hoping not to draw too much attention to yourself, you set down your package of fish and sat down on the side far away from the end where the two strangers conversed. The creak of wood under your weight made a head turn in your direction, though it turned back around after a second, continuing on a loud conversation with his companion.
"Well, he probably won't show up now…" you whispered under your breath. Until now the merman only came around when you were alone, no one else in close proximity of the pier to disturb vocabulary lessons and snack time.
Something touched your foot.
Glancing off to the side at the talking strangers to see if they were watching, you looked down to see a familiar webbed hand retreating from your ankle, the rest of him hidden below the water under the pier. After a second blonde hair emerged, crimson eyes fixed at the end of the wooden walkway with an obvious scowl. It seemed like you didn't scare him off yesterday, though the reunion was disrupted by a pair of loud fishermen who seemed perfectly settled in their spots.
This could quickly turn into a bad situation, you realized. As far as you were aware, the only person who the merman revealed himself to was you; if anyone else saw him search parties and dive teams would have swarmed the area by now, or at least a news story on a slow night of local reporting would have surfaced. You had no way of controlling what he did, though it seemed he was wary enough of most humans to keep his distance…which made you wonder why he revealed himself to you in the first place.
A familiar claw touched your foot again, silent and undetectable except to you. Your eyes shifted to look down but a voice across the way snapped your head in the stranger's direction.
"Ey! You got any bait over there?" grunted the distinctly gruff voice of an old man.
You shook your head. "No…sorry." The raw fish was hidden from view on the side opposite the fishermen. Without a reply he turned back around, satisfied with your answer. If they were nearly out of bait, then they might leave soon.
Fifteen minutes went by with no change in your company on the pier. Every glance down into the water proved little adjustment in the merman as well, eyes glued to the men on the pier, motionless aside from bright blonde hair drifting in the dark teal water below.
Finally, an idea formed in your head. It was a huge gamble - and probably stupid - but it seemed like the rascally nature of the merman wore off on you.
Carefully you unwrapped part of the package of fish, the strong scent of unrefrigerated meat filling your nose. You tilted the package over the edge of the pier, the fin-like ears of the merman perking up at the crinkle of paper, nose in the air and eyes wide as he recognized the meal. You put a finger to your mouth signaling for him to keep quiet. He nodded.
"Hey, you guys!" you called out, the two fishermen stalling their conversation to look over at you. "I actually do have some bait for you, if you want it. I lost track of time out here, so now it's no good to eat. You can have this fish if you want." Rewrapping the package you pulled your feet up from the pier and walked over to the men.
One looked skeptical, the other more eager. "You really don't want it? We'll pay ya for it, maybe we'll catch somethin' big today with some half-decent bait, huh?" The excited man said, elbowing his dubious partner on the arm.
"…What's the catch?"
You shook your head, handing them the package. "No catch. Well, not for me…you might catch something interesting, though." Before they could argue you set the package down and made your way back to your original spot farther down the pier. Looking nonchalantly down into the water a pair of incredulous red eyes stared at you, fanged mouth gaping as he watched you give away HIS FISH to those other humans! The absolute nerve!
You winked, tilting your head in their direction. You both watched as one of the fishermen hooked a large piece of fish onto a pathetically small hook and cast his line out, the bait plopping into the water like a small brick.
Turning his angry eyes back towards you, he watched as you mimed a gesture subtly with your hands, hidden from the view of the two men. It only took a second for him to register what you meant, a devious smirk appearing on his face before diving under the water, undetected and unnoticed to everyone but you.
…However, the idea you had in mind was turned upside down as a live fish came flying out of the water hitting the man holding the baited pole right in the face with a deafening slap, causing him to drop his fishing pole from shock. Your hands flew to your mouth, tears gathering up in the corners of your eyes from trying to hold back laughter. Rather than simply steal the fish from the hook, the merman took it ten steps further and interpreted your flicking motion as "toss food at his face." Well, the plan seemed to work as you watched the struggling fisherman fling the fish back into the water with a yell as he watched his fishing pole promptly sink into the darkening water, pulled downward by an unseen force.
"What the hell was that?! What happened?" yelled the other fisherman, mouth agape at the spectacle.
"Fuckin' hell, I don't know! Some damn fish just came FLYING at me outta nowhere! Now my damn pole's gone! Keiko's gonna kill me anyway for staying out so late…shit, this was a terrible fishing spot, anyway. C'mon, let's go," the angry one exclaimed, snatching up a tackle box and marching his way down the pier, his friend quickly gathering up his own items and following behind. He didn't bother grabbing the leftover raw fish sitting on the edge of the pier.
Gathering yourself up to keep from laughing, you watched the two men hop into a battered-looking car and drive off. Once you were sure you were finally alone, laughter spilled out of your mouth, feet kicking above the water.
"H-holy shit…you threw a fish at them you deviant! That's not what I meant at ALL but I guess it worked?!" After a minute your laughter died down. Swinging your legs up onto the pier and walking over to your normal spot, you sat down next to the open wrapper of fish, a smile lighting up your face in the dim light left over from the waning sunset. After a minute blonde hair broke the surface of the water, a satisfactory smirk on his face at getting the intruders to finally leave.
"Well, I guess your expertise in hitting faces paid off…" Grabbing up the remaining piece of fish, you held it out as the merman licked his lips below you. He easily caught the piece in his mouth as you tossed it down, wiping your hand on your pants of the fishy residue.
It wasn't long before the meal was gone, the merman wasting no time on the treat. When red eyes met yours, it only took a moment for you to sputter about, another round of laughter bellowing from your chest at the antics. He mirrored your laugh happily, orange and gold fishtail slapping against the water. However, he abruptly stopped and dove under the water, disappearing in a flash.
"Wh- hey!" You looked around quickly to see if any other intruders were around, but you were still alone on the pier. So why did he…?
Leaning back with surprise - you still weren't used to his sudden airborne entrances - you watched as he hooked himself onto the side of the pier with his strong arms before pulling himself up to actually sit next to you for the first time. The discarded fishing pole lay in his webbed hands, empty of bait, fishing line tangled in a knot. With what looked like surprisingly little effort he snapped the rod in half and dropped it behind him, the echo of plastic and metal vibrating gently against the old wood of the pier.
Swallowing hard you tried not to stare but it was…difficult. This was the closest you'd ever been to him on equal footing, and hiding under the water did him little justice. The human-like part of him was ripped, the lean muscles of a strong swimmer running from his neck down to his torso where he transitioned into glittering scales of orange, black, and gold. Though the light around you was dim, the moonlight from the sky echoed off him like a shimmering ghost; how someone could encapsulate the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the moon all at once was something you couldn't even begin to comprehend at that moment as he turned his head towards you, crimson eyes gazing into your very soul taking your breath away. He was glorious.
You were about to turn your head away from embarrassment but something else caught your eye - his tail. It was the first time seeing it up close out of the water…and scars ran up from his fins nearly to his waist. His red eyes followed your gaze and, seeing where you were looking, growled low and made like he was about to jump back into the water.
"Ah, wait! Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to stare…" you mumbled out, putting your hands up defensively. He paused in his movements, waiting for you to say anything else. "I guess that explains why you don't want anyone touching it…Um, did humans," you said, pointing to yourself. "…do that to you?" pointing then to his tail littered with marks long and short, thin and wide.
He looked away with a sneer, but shook his head in a definite "no." You noticed his clawed hands gripping tightly to the edge of the waterlogged wood, knuckles straining and muscles tense. As much as you wanted to comfort him, you thought it a bad idea to try and touch him at this point. He'd let you see him completely, unhindered by illusions of the sea water; it would be foolish to push closer contact unless he instigated it.
"Sorry…you don't have to tell me where they came from. It's not my business." Scars - both emotional and physical - were always the most difficult to reveal to someone, riddled with painful memories or stories of loss. It wasn't your place to meddle, no matter how strong your curiosity. "It's very pretty, though. Your tail, I mean. Scars and all."
Turning his head slightly to look back at you, his expression was unreadable as he lifted his tail slightly off the pier, giving you a better view. You'd seen artist renderings of mermaids online and in storybooks, and on more than one occasion you'd seen what looked like knees as if they drew a tail on top of regular human legs. Real merperson tails didn't appear to work like that, however; though strong and sturdy, there was no bend in the middle, only a perfect curve of scales and fins reflecting against the moonlight.
The silence stretched on between the two of you, unsure of what to do or say at this point. Surprisingly, the merman was the one to break the awkwardness.
"Thank…for fish," he muttered out, turning away from you once again. It was one of the few complete sentences he'd spoken, proving that your teaching wasn't completely in vain. Your face lit up at his simple words.
"Oh…you're welcome! I felt bad about yesterday, but…please don't flick food in my face anymore. Deal?"
"…Deal," he said in response. Hopefully, he meant it.
"Maybe tossing that fish into that guy's face got it all out of your system, hm? It really was funny, though. As long as it's not at me, keep tossing fish. Just don't get caught." He snickered at your words, apparently confident in his ability to stay hidden. No other human knew he was there, knew he existed; a secret kept in present company.
While you stared at the reflection of the moon across the horizon of the ocean that met the sky seamlessly, he stared at you, and only you.