Blaine sat there for a moment, trying to process everything Kurt was saying and found that he couldn't. All of his friends. Wes. David. Nick, Jeff, Thad…. All of them gone? Ea- No. He couldn't even think that.

He shook his head. There would be time to process and mourn later, if (and that was a big if) he made it out of this alive, and when there wasn't a cannibalistic merman staring down at him.

The merman in question adjusted himself slightly, his enormous tail dragging across the sand, and cocked his head to the side, studying him. Kurt's glasz eyes trailed up and down Blaine's body, before finally resting on his face, boring into him. Blaine shifted nervously, eying the other boy warily, "What?"

Instead of answering, Kurt dropped his eyes again to Blaine's torso and reached out a tentative hand. Blaine tensed but the merman didn't seem to notice. He rested his fingers lightly on Blaine's bare chest and traced them slowly over his body, his eyes sparking with curiosity and wonder. Blaine was too scared to move; he just sat there, watching. An involuntary shudder ran through his frame.

"I've never seen a human this close up before," Kurt confided, "At least not one…," he paused and unconsciously licked his lips, "…intact." Another shiver ran up Blaine's spine as he met Kurt's eyes. His heart was beating so loudly he was sure Kurt could hear it. Or at least feel it, seeing as his hand was still covering his sternum.

"Gl-glad to be of service," he managed after a moment, not entirely sure how to answer something like that.

Kurt's eyes flickered in surprise for a second before a huge smile broke out over his angelic face, transforming it completely. And, holy hell, if it wasn't the most gorgeous thing Blaine had ever seen.

"You're adorable," Kurt said, "I'm really glad they didn't eat you."

Blaine blushed a little, "Th-thanks." After a second, he decided now was as good a time as any to address the giant elephant on the beach.

"Why didn't they?" He asked quietly, eyes dropping.

Kurt cocked his head to one side, "Why didn't who what?"

"The mermaids," said Blaine, still staring at the sand, "Why didn't they kill me...Why," he took a breath, "Why did you save me?"

The merman was silent. He removed his hand from Blaine's chest.

Blaine looked up and saw the boy studying him intently, his head still tilted to the side.

"You did save me, didn't you?" Asked Blaine, his mind flashing back to those stellar blue eyes he'd seen moments before passing out.

Suddenly, Kurt looked down and nodded his head jerkily and... oh my god, was he... blushing?

"So, then...why did you? -Not that I'm not grateful," he added hurriedly, eyes wide, "I am, really. Thank you. That is, provided you're not going to eat me. 'Cause that would kind of suck."

Kurt looked up. He still looked bashful, but there was an amused twinkle in his eye. "No, I'm not going to eat you," he said, "Although, you do look delicious. And you're welcome, I guess."

"I thought you said you didn't like men."

"I said I don't eat men."

Blaine stared at him. Was he...? No. There was no way. But... the way Kurt was looking at him...

Was the merman flirting with him?

Before Blaine could respond, he was treated to a sudden jolt of pain, upon his uneasy shifting, to remind him of his current ship a la leg problem.

He groaned, his face scrunching up in pain, as he squeezed the sand beneath him, frustrated that the sediment didn't offer more resistance. "Fuck," he gasped. The fire in his leg seemed to have gotten fed up with being ignored as it was now dancing around inside his muscle, burning with a vengeance. Blaine held his breath and bit his lip to keep from crying out.

He grit his teeth and fought to control his breathing until the flames had died down some. When he could look up again, he found Kurt staring at him with concern. And something else. The merman opened and closed his mouth several times as if debating with himself whether or not to say something. At last, he appeared to come to decision.

"If you come in the water, I can help you," he spoke hesitantly. As though apprehensive about Blaine's reaction.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I can help you. With that," Kurt replied simply, nodding toward's Blaine's infirmity, "If you can make it to the water."

What did he mean help? Why the water? Blaine glanced from the merman to the crashing waves a few yards behind him, uncertainly.

"How?"

"I'll tow you."

"No, I meant-"

"I know what you meant," Kurt cut him off, his azure eyes locking on Blaine's, "There's just no good way to explain it. You're just going to have to trust me."

Trust him? Trust a mermaid? A mysterious, wide-eyed, shark-eating merman who apparently had no problem with his siblings attacking, murdering, and eating (shudder) an entire ship's crew? And all that aside, he didn't know anything else about this boy. And now he was being asked to put his life in his hands. With his leg like this, in the water he'd be completely helpless (not that he wasn't already helpless) and utterly at Kurt's mercy.

On the other hand, Blaine had to admit, he did seem... different from the others. At least from what Blaine had seen so far. This boy had quite possibly saved his life, so far had not eaten him, and was now offering to help treat his wound (could he do that?) While the other mermaids had attempted to do just the opposite. If he was going to trust anyone, Kurt might very well be his best- and only- prospect. After all, what choice did he have really? His options at this point were scarce to say the least.

Blaine stared up into the merman's icy blue eyes and felt a sort of warmth flood through him. And he found he did trust him. Okay... not trust. He still didn't know Kurt, and trust takes time, experience, familiarity. But he felt like he possibly could trust him. Like he wanted to. Faith, Blaine decided, was a better word for what he was feeling. He was going to take a leap of faith with this man.

"Okay," he said.

No, Blaine thought, no, no, no. Not okay, very, very NOT okay! If Blaine thought his leg was on fire before, it was a gentle tingling compared to what he was feeling now. I changed my mind. Why the hell did I agree to this? Jesus Fuck! The moment the salt water had invaded his wounds it was as if all of hell had broken loose inside his flesh. He would have screamed had he been able to get air in his lungs. As it was, he was thrashing about beneath the waves and swearing up a storm inside his head that could have rivaled the actual one that had landed him here in the first place.

"Calm down," Kurt's voice cut through his panic and reached his ears as clearly and easily as if they weren't underwater. Blaine blinked open his eyes until he could make out the merman's blurry figure, floating before him. The boy moved toward him and took Blaine's face in his hands. "You need to relax, Blaine," he said, locking his shocking blue eyes onto Blaine's hazel ones, "Or this isn't going to work."

Almost immediately Blaine felt the fear and agitation drain from him limbs as though Kurt's voice and touch were acting as some sort of balm. His was leg was still in flames, but somehow he didn't care as much. What was this boy doing to him?

Kurt gripped the sailor by his shoulders and pulled him upward. Blaine gasped as they breeched the surface and he sucked in the much needed air. "You okay?" Kurt asked when they reestablished eye contact. Blaine nodded, though honestly he wasn't sure. "Good," the other boy said, "Can you keep yourself afloat?"

"I think so," said Blaine. Kurt let go and almost at once Blaine felt himself disappearing beneath the waves. He tried to kick but his left thigh screamed in protest at his efforts. He felt the strong hands grip him again and pull him back into the air.

"No," he coughed, "I meant no."

"I can see that," Kurt said, biting his lip, "You're going to have to hold your breath, then."

"Hold my-"

"Take a deep breath."

Blaine quickly obeyed and the roar of the waves abruptly cut off as the sailor once again dipped beneath the heavy silence of the water. The liquid was cool against his scorched skin and Blaine could feel the merman's smooth, strong hands running along the muscles of his thigh, twisting it, slowly, gently. He blinked his eyes as best he could and looked downward, both curious and terrified as to what the other man would do next.

Kurt studied the wound for a moment longer and then, in a sudden blur, his arm shot forward and back, simultaneously causing an enthusiastic flash of pain to bolt through Blaine's frame. The sailor cried out, earning himself a mouthful of seawater. A moment later, Blaine saw the other boy was now holding something dark in his hand. He couldn't really make out it's shape, but when a crimson cloud bubbled up before his eyes he realized what must have just happened.

Blaine fought down his panic, keeping in mind that he was underwater and hyperventilating was not an option. Still, it was difficult to say the least and his lungs were already starting to burn with want.

Blaine squinted, struggling to see through the fog of blood and fear, and suddenly a chill shocked through his system that had nothing to with the cool ocean waves. Somehow, Kurt had... changed. Gone was the charming, shy, adorable little mer-boy. And in his place was something far more sinister, and reminiscent of the carnivorous demons of the storm. Kurt's eyes were dark and his teeth and nails were sharp and pointed. Before Blaine could even think about totally freaking out, the boy did something that, if at all possible at this point, shocked him even more. Kurt brought his own hand up to his mouth and bit down and the heel of his hand. Hard.

Immediately, a shimmery, luminescent, ruby liquid emerged from his pale arm and drifted upward through the waves. Blaine was too stunned to react and could only watch, wide-eyed, as the other boy pressed his bleeding palm into the now-open gash on his thigh.

Blaine gasped, surrendering the last few bubbles of oxygen from his lungs. He couldn't help it. The sensation was like nothing he'd ever felt before. If he had to put words to it, he'd say it felt a little a bit like getting really drunk. Only, better. Blaine felt like all of his insides were glowing. A wonderful, numbing, warmth was swimming through his blood stream from the point of contact of Kurt's palm on his thigh, washing away his pain, and filling his body with a pleasant tingling sensation. Blaine flexed his fingers experimentally, delighting in the blissful fuzziness of it all.

After a few moments, the tingling died down to a soft, cool, rush, as gentle and calming as the water surrounding him. The waves beneath his skin washed over and over the fire in his thigh, dowsing the flames, until nothing was left but a mild prickling. Blaine couldn't believe it. Just like that. All his pain was gone.

The sailor's head was just starting to swim from the lack of oxygen when the strong hands returned to his torso and the two boys breeched the surface once again.

"What...what..." Blaine gasped. His head was spinning. This was too much.

"Shh. Calm down. Breathe."

"What-what the hell?" Kurt was still holding him afloat as Blaine rubbed the salt water from his eyes. "What the hell just happened?"

Kurt smiled at him, bitterly. "Congratulations Blaine," he said, "you've just become part-mermaid."

Blaine stared at his leg in amazement. They were back on the shore, perched on a small outcropping of rocks. Blaine was sitting on one of the drier boulders while the merman rested his elbows on a neighboring rock, his long tail oscillating slowly beneath the waves.

The sailor ran his fingers over the fresh scar that had suddenly appeared where on open wound had been only minutes before. After Kurt had pulled him ashore, Blaine had watched in morbid fascination as the bleeding (his blood was glowing. Glowing!) had slowed, then stopped. The skin had scabbed over and stitched itself together before his eyes. And all in under an hour.

Any part of Blaine that still thought he was dreaming shut up after that. He wasn't dreaming. His subconscious wasn't nearly creative enough to conjure up something like this. That left him with only two explanations. One: this was real. Or, two (and far more likely): he was crazy.

It would be quite comforting and far easier to believe that he was crazy. That he was safe in a mental facility somewhere, strapped to a bed, with a morphine drip stuck in arm. Or running around this deserted beach, like a wild animal. Stranded here, isolated, for days, gone mad with the heat. It would be so nice to think that his ship had, in fact, not been attacked by satanic and carnivorous merpeople, that his friends were still alive somewhere, that his body had't just defied the basic laws of biology and time and sense, at the hands of a gorgeous, sea-angel. With everything he'd seen and felt today, it would be so nice, so easy, to just let everything go and believe that.

But.

But.

But when Blaine looked down into that same sea-angel's eyes, he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he wasn't crazy. No matter how impossible, how incredible, or how terrifying the past few hours had been, no matter how much he wished all of it would just disappear, he knew that this beautiful boy gazing up at him was real.

And more than that, Blaine wanted him to be real. He wanted it so badly that he was willing to concede that he was sane and to accept that all of those other horrific events had indeed happened. Simply so that this beautiful merman would exist. So that he would have saved him, touched him, talked to him, and healed him. Just so that he would be here, now, watching him with that soft smile on his alabaster face.

As Blaine stared into Kurt's deep, crystal blue eyes, he could see the truth there. He saw the magic and the wonder. He saw in them a portal into another world. A world full of mystique and the supernatural. One where the laws of nature, and science, and reason didn't apply. And Blaine was afraid.

Blaine was afraid he would loose himself in those eyes. Somehow, he knew he could drown in their depths just as readily as he could in the raging ocean itself. In less than a day, Blaine's entire world had been rocked off its axis and his perceptions of reality and life and truth all thrown into question. A question that might never again be answered.

And yet, if there was one certainty about which he was absolutely positive, one truth in which he could place all of his shaken faith, it was in the realization that this boy was real, and alive, and here. And Blaine Anderson owed him his life.

Wow, guys. It's been forever, hasn't it? I have no excuse other than that real life has an obnoxious habit of butting in no matter how many times you tell it you're not interested. No means no!

Anyway, thank you guys so much for your patience. You really are the best. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much I enjoyed (finally) writing it. I don't know when the next update will be posted, but I've filed a restraining order against real life, so hopefully soonish. ;)

Drop me a review. Hearing your thoughts always makes me so happy!

Thanks for reading!

-Alaska