Luca. That was his name. A kid raised in the sea, enamored by the land. Maybe, like Alberto, he didn't quite belong in the world he was supposed to; maybe he did and just wanted out.

They were going to be best friends. Alberto knew it from the moment Luca pointed out the vespa on the wall of his stone tower. There was something to the kid, some curiosity hidden behind his anxious nature that made him quick to listen—to anything—and hesitant to try. He had wanted Alberto to tell him all about the world outside of water, had asked so many questions that Alberto didn't even know the answers to… he hadn't been so enthusiastic about the idea of trying the vespa they had built.

Alberto would work on that.

He lay on his back, staring up at the fish, unable to sleep. His mind whirring from the activity of the day. He could scarcely believe he had met Luca, that they had hung out the whole day and just existed together. It hit him that Luca was the first young sea monster he had actually met… the only others being watched from a distance but never approached.

But a melancholy sort of weight settled in Luca's absence. Like a hole in a bucket that has been patched only long enough to let you know how much water you would have if the hole wasn't there.

He didn't know if Luca was actually going to come back.

They had fun.

Well, Alberto had fun.

Luca may have actually hated him.

May not want to come back.

Then in the handful of good memories that Alberto had, he would be left with a finger's worth dedicated to Luca. Nothing more.

And he wouldn't blame the kid if he never returned.

Luca was a good kid. He had parents he needed to get back to. He had stuck around all day, building and talking—and Alberto had tried to keep it cool, pretend like he did this all the time, but inside he was screaming that his voice wasn't just bouncing off of reactionless rocks.

Then dark fell and Luca left. He returned to his family and Alberto returned to the empty sand and open sky.

They were going to be best friends. Alberto knew it. Deep in his heart he felt the assurance that this could be true. But you couldn't be best friends if the other person never returned…and his heart wasn't so sure about that one.

It was fun while it lasted. Alberto willed himself to believe that Luca was going to come back. He ignored the nagging in his head—the Bruno telling him that there was no reason for him to return. And Alberto found that if he worked hard enough at it he could pretend that he really had seen Luca nod in agreement when he'd said "see you tomorrow" instead of goodbye.


"Hello?"

Alberto jumped at the sound of Luca's voice coming from the shore. He inched forward, looking down from the hill towards the direction of the voice. The boy stood tentatively by the water's edge, like he wasn't sure if he should move further into land or leap back into the water.

Alberto's heart soared.

"Hey!" He called. "Are you coming or what?"

Luca looked up, a grin splitting his face. "I'm coming!"

He ran—or attempted to run given how shaky he still was on his legs—clambering up the hill as fast as he could. When he reached the top he gaped at the vespa, sitting firmly on the ground.

"Whoa! How'd you get it down?" Luca gasped, crouching down to check on it.

Alberta waved a hand in front of his face. "I rode it down."

He hadn't.

Luca's round eyes turned up towards him in shock or fear. Maybe a hint of admiration. It was nice to see… but he felt a little bad leading him on.

"I didn't." He clarified. "But I pushed it out the back window."

Luca glanced up at the tower. "And it survived?"

Alberto shrugged. "It took awhile to put it back together bu-"

"You broke it!?" Luca cut in.

"...but it's fine now."

Luca inspected it once more as if he didn't believe him. Which… was fair.

"So, you ready to test it or what?" Alberto asked, bouncing on his toes.

"Uh… Where?"

Alberto pointed down the steep side of the hill. The path was smooth, practically begging to be ridden on. And the sea lay just under it, so if anything went wrong it wasn't like they would be dying.

Luca shook his head. "Uh…well… thank you, but no thank you. I mean…I just think maybe I would die."

Alberto shrugged. There would be no dying. It would basically be impossible.

He passed over a sturdy piece of wood he had come across long ago. He'd always known that particular piece would come in handy for something truly important. "Fine. I'll ride. You hold the ramp."

And Luca did.

For hours he rode down the hill, trashed their Vespa, rebuilt it with Luca. For hours they chatted under the heat of the sun, and in the pool of deep blue water.

Somewhere along the line, hours turned to days, turned to weeks, turned to months. The chill nip of the colder season slowly receded from the air, grass sprung up with new vigor, ready to take on another chance at life. Luca's birthday came around, Alberto's probably did too, or maybe not yet.

Hanging out with Luca was the highlight of Alberto's life. He had worried, for a time, that it would get boring after they had spent too much time together. That Luca would decide Alberto wasn't worth his energy and stop coming back. His dad had done the same after all, and he'd had more reason to stick around. But Luca just seemed to get more insistent on showing up. He didn't manage everyday, or even every week sometimes, but he had gotten inventive in the times he left: late at night, early morning, when his parents were out and his grandma napping, when he was supposed to be running an errand away from home.

"So…" Luca said one afternoon as they lay under a tree to avoid the sun's most unforgiving heat. "Where's your dad now?"

Alberto swallowed hard. It was a question that came up rarely, despite Luca's curiosity in almost everything else asking about his father only happened every now and then—mostly when he was worried they were going to get caught. And Alberto had come up with a story: that his father frequented human towns for business, that he spent a lot of time away but always brought back loads of new finds from the humans, that his job was dangerous and rewarding, something Alberto was probably going to help him with when he got older.

"Oh…" Alberto waved his hand in front of his face, trying to brush away the cloud of sadness that was beginning to form above his nose. "He was just here yesterday, you totally just missed him by a few hours." He chuckled, his heart dropped lower in his chest.

"So where is he now?"

Alberto shrugged. "He couldn't have gone far at this point. Probably just over there." He sat up, pointing at the little town they often saw on the other side of the water.

Luca perked up. "Maybe we should go try to find him."

Alberto choked on his own spit. "Find him?"

"Yeah! We should go visit the town and meet up with your dad. Then I could meet him too."

Alberto's chest tightened.

"And your dad's cool like that, right? My parents would freak out if they met you, but your dad would be fine with it I'm sure."

Alberto nodded slowly. "Sure."

"Would he not be?" Luca turned to look at Alberto, eyes crinkled in confusion.

Alberto shrugged. Words seemed unable to form.

"What's wrong, Alberto?"

"Wrong? Pshh…nothing." Alberto said. "I just don't think we should go to the human village. It's probably dangerous."

Luca nodded carefully. "Probably…but I don't want to go home."

Alberto felt a pang at those words. His father had felt the same, and he hadn't come home. "You could stay here with me?" He offered, the words tripping over one another.

"But my family would come looking for me when they found out I was gone. This is the first place they would come…"

"Maybe not. They might go the other way, end up in the human village."

"...maybe."

Alberto wasn't sure—had never been sure—about going to the human village. There was too much uncertainty. And he didn't want his father coming back to find him gone… What if he left tomorrow and his dad showed up, what if he missed seeing him again to satisfy simple curiosity.

"So? Should we go?" Luca asked.

"I…uh…" Alberto shrugged. "I don't think it would be such a good idea."

Luca sighed, dropping back down onto the hard ground.

"We should build another vespa," Alberto said, trying to bring up his friend's mood.

"I wonder what a real vespa would be like."

Alberto felt heat rising in his cheeks. "Don't you have to be getting home?" He asked. Maybe too forcefully, he wasn't sure.

Luca's mouth opened and closed a few times, like he wasn't sure how to respond. Alberto wasn't sure how he wanted him to either. Never in the time they had spent together had he suggested Luca leave, he was always the one insisting he stay longer.

"Yeah." Luca finally settled on. "I should probably be heading back home. See you later, Alberto."

Alberto nodded, watched as his friend made his way to the coast and slid into the water. Luca looked back one more time, throwing a wave over his shoulder, before completely submerging below the depths.

Alberto closed his eyes. He tried to steady his breathing, but every intake was harder and every release of air more strangled. Warm streams rolled down his cheeks. Skin rippled under the tears. Scales emerged in trails on his face.

"Where are you, Dad?" He whispered.


Luca didn't return for seven days. Alberto should have been worried that the other boy wasn't coming back, that sending him away had meant the end of their friendship. He should have been unable to sleep, beating himself up over being too harsh.

He wasn't.

In truth, he was almost glad.

Luca wanted to see more, leave the island, venture into towns full of humans. Alberto needed to stay—wait for his dad.

But Luca did return. Seven days later, in the middle of the night, Luca was back, just as he always was. Face alight with a smile as he shook Alberto awake.

"Wanna build vespa?" Luca asked, grinning.

Alberto didn't know what had him in such a good mood, but it helped distract him from the dark pit his own mood had been falling into the last few days.

They made trips up and down the tower, now wise enough to know that they had to build on the ground or deal with dropping the fully built vespa over the edge and rebuilding it at the bottom.

"So? How have you been?" Luca asked when everything had been moved down.

Alberto shrugged. "Good, of course. I've just been hanging out. How about you?"

"Well, my parents are going on a trip for the next three days!"

Alberto perked up at that. "Oh? Where are they going?"

"Harvest. There are some good kelp farms out West, but they're too far to go and come back in a day!"

"What about your grandmother?"

Luca waved off the concern. "It's the weekend. She always goes to visit her friends for the weekend."

"Cool! I mean…" Alberto shrugged, trying to not appear too excited. "Now you can experience real freedom." He slung his arm across Luca's shoulders, his other hand splayed outwards towards the sea. "You should stay with me, I'm basically an expert on freedom…I can show you how it's done."

Luca grinned. "You're basically an expert at everything."

"Of course I am." Alberto settled into the grass.

"So I can stay the night?"

Alberto shrugged. "Totally."

They sat in the grass, hands filled with scraps of wood and metal, piecing together their newest vespa until light touched the farthest stretch of water. Glittering light broke across the ocean's surface returning the world from its dark quiet to life once again. They stayed there until the morning dew dried from the ground and any sign of scales disappeared from their bodies.

"The ocean is more beautiful from out here, isn't it?" Alberto asked.

Luca hesitated for only a moment. "It is."

If Alberto was ever to talk about those next three days. He would name them the best days of his life. The time spent with Luca passed by quicker than three days normally did despite not sleeping until well into the night.

Luca was excited about spending so much time outside of the water; they didn't swim the whole time. Alberto taught Luca how to cook fish on a fire, something he could have done earlier but was glad he hadn't.

Then the third night fell and Luca had to leave. "Before Mom and Dad get back. Who knows they could arrive really early tomorrow."

Alberto nodded. He didn't want Luca to know just how much having him around meant to him, didn't want to seem too attached and scare him away.

"True. I'll see you later."

Luca nodded, diving in the waves. As human skin hid behind blue and green scales Luca turned back with a grin. "I'll bring back some kelp to cook on the fire!"

Alberto gave a thumbs up. "I'll make sure to have some fish saved."

Then Luca ducked under the water, moonlight chasing him until the deep water swallowed him whole.


"Alberto! Alberto wake up!"

Alberto sat up, confused. It was still dark out. His head was still filled with the cobwebs of sleep. Luca was yelling at him to wake up.

"What's wrong with you, stupido?" Alberto mumbled as the last of his sleep clung to him.

"Alberto!"

He finally opened his eyes. "What?"

Luca sat on the ground beside him—a small patch of grass not far from the water, where he'd fallen asleep only hours ago. The boy's face was a mosaic of bright scales and pale skin as water dripped from his hair, cascading over his panicked face in streams. It took Alberto a moment to realize that mixed in with the water of the ocean were tears.

"What's wrong, Luca?"

"My parents got back early." Luca gasped, fighting against a sob. "A day early and I wasn't there."

Alberto only had a second to register what that meant before Luca broke down completely.

"They know, Alberto. They know I've been sneaking off and now they know where I've been going and…" he buried his face in his hands. "They want to send me to the deep to live with my uncle."

"The deep!?" Alberto had only heard stories, long ago when his father was still around, the deep was not a place you wanted to be. "Doesn't that place seriously mess people up?"

Luca nodded, finally lifted his head. "I need to get out of here."

"You can stay here with me."

"No. This is the first place they'll look. I need to get out of here."

Alberto understood where this was going…he didn't like it, but he also didn't disagree. If anyone came looking for Luca here he had nowhere to hide, at least not for long. He would have a better chance of staying hidden among many faces.

"Will you come with me?" Luca asked, already inching back toward the water.

"Of course. You won't survive in a human village alone… and I've lived on land all my life, I'm basically an expert on humans so…" He shrugged nonchalantly. Tried to stay calm, to reassure Luca that everything would be fine.

It seemed to work; Luca's face lit up. He wasted no time crawling into the water, tail already propelling him away from the island as fast as possible. He was on the run now and he couldn't afford to be caught.

Alberto slipped in after him. Tried to ignore the squeeze of his heart as he left the one place he'd ever called home behind. Tried to stay calm and reassure himself that everything would be fine, that his father wouldn't return tomorrow and find him missing…think he'd run away from him.

He chased the trail that Luca made…

something in him shattering.


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