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The ocean has been rough, tossing Victor and his small boat around like the foreign object he is. Victor loves the ocean, he might love it a little less now admittedly, but he had grown up on the cusp of the waves, watching them break across the shore and tug at his small toes.
Yakov had always warned him of the dangers. “The ocean is as cruel as any woman Vitya. She will lure you in and drown you for her own pleasure.”
Victor had just assumed he was being dramatic, Lillia and him had recently divorced and Yakov felt the sting far more than Victor or Yuri did.
All Victor had ever wanted to do was show the beauty of the ocean to those around him. The swirling colors of blues and greens, the darker undertones of purple and grey. The power of the white waves.
He knew it was dangerous, he understood. Sailors lost their lives all the time, careless children and adults were drowned by the undercurrent dragging them out from the beach. It still had never swayed him.
The water would dance up to Victor as he lay on the shore and tickle his feet. Most days it was so gentle, lapping along his ankles like a lover laying kisses to skin. When the clouds would roll through the ocean would rage, waves throwing themselves over the pier. Droplets of water would rain down across his cheeks, sparkling with the flashes of lightening that broke across the sky.
It called out to Victor, begged him to find a way to share the beauty that he saw with everyone around him. His home town, his country, the whole world.
He had taken a boat on impulse one afternoon, borrowed it from a little old man who had it tied to the docks. The weather was warm, the sun shining across a pure blue sky that didn’t have a single cloud in sight. Perfect weather for Victor to go out on his beloved ocean.
“Yakov is gonna be mad.”
Victor turned to his adopted younger brother, winking as he placed a finger to his lips. “What Yakov doesn’t know won’t hurt him my little Yurio. Now run along, I’m sure Otabek is looking for you. I’ll be back by dinnertime tonight.”
Yuri had huffed at his nickname, kicked dirt in Victor’s direction and stormed off to find his friend.
The water had caressed the boat as Victor paddled out to sea. He moved along the beach shores, watching the waves break against the sand. It rocked him slowly back and forth, bobbing up and down. It was a gentle, playful touch. Sometimes water would splash up against his warm skin, cooling him. Victor leaned against his boat and let his fingers dangle in the water.
He truly had meant what he had told Yuri, that he would be home in time for dinner, but the sun had been warm on his back and the water cool under his fingers. The gentle waves had lulled his mind and drooped his eyes until Victor had let himself fall into a light nap.
He had awoken to the rough throw of a wave breaking over his back, soaking him through. Yelping, Victor bolted upright. The sky was an angry gray, rumbling with the promise of storms, powerful angry ones. Looking toward the shore, Victor’s heart had seized with the realization that he had been carried much further out than he had ever intended to paddle. It was all a very silly lead up to his current situation, soaked and huddled on the bottom of his boat as the waves toss him back and forth, his paddle held tight in his arms after he had almost lost it trying to get back to shore.
Thunder breaks overhead and Victor flinches, crying out in true fear. Out here in the open water, so closely connected to the sky above, Victor can feel the vibrations in his bones. The storm screams of a power to be feared and Victor is afraid. He knows the oceans might, he doesn’t wish to succumb to it like so many lost souls before have.
A particularly hard wave crashes into his boat, almost flipping it and Victor cries out again. Tears fall from his blue eyes, he weeps for his own stupid choices that have led him here. If he survives this storm it will truly be a miracle.
Among the roaring waves and the rumbling thunder comes a soft humming noise, not a song Victor has ever heard before but still soft and soothing to his shot nerves. There is a gentle thump in his boat and Victor cracks open salt crusted lashes to look at what new thing has befallen him.
Resting next to his face is a long body of black scales, the tail hanging over the edge of Victor’s tiny boat. Confusion helps Victor to lift his head, a wave splashing him in the face as he does so. There is a soft laugh and when Victor is able to rub his vision clear he is looking up into the face of a gorgeous young man, whose eyes are a sparkling brown and has hair as black as the night sky. He is bare chested, skin a delicious olive color that glistens with the ocean water that falls in little rivers along his muscled body. Victor trails over it with his eyes until he realizes that the black scaly tail and the very human torso are connected.
He gasps, looking back up. Scales are splattered in little patches across the man’s arms and chest, something very much looking like fins sit where human ears would be. Victor gapes at the gorgeous creature in front of him, sitting in his little boat, smiling at him.
A mermaid.
It’s really quite unfortunate, Victor realizes, that his mind would conjure up such a beautiful creature only to let him be self aware enough to realize he is hallucinating.
“You humans are all so silly.”
And oh the mermaid has the most dazzling voice, a low melodic sound that carries to Victor’s ears even over the sound of the beating storm. Distantly he realizes that the humming must have come from this creature as well.
“To think you can brave the ocean like this, so ill prepared.”
Victor’s mind would conjure up the most beautiful of creatures and make it sassy to boot.
Another wave crashes over the side of the boat, rocking it precariously back and forth until Victor’s stomach wants to crawl up his throat. “Am I going to die?” he whispers because that’s probably why he’s hallucinating. Thunder slams through the sky, lightning streaking across the clouds. Victor flinches toward the only other thing around, finding himself curled up against the scaly lower body of the mermaid. Surprisingly the scales feel smooth under his fingers and he would marvel more at how vivid his mind as made this if another horrid crack of thunder didn’t try to shatter his eardrums and stop his heart with fear.
“Shh,” the mermaid breathes and Victor feels fingers in his hair, pushing his soaking silver locks out of his eyes. “You aren’t going to die, I’ll keep you safe.”
Victor presses his face against the scales, shivering in his soaking clothes. “Do you have a name?”
“Yuuri.”
Well he certainly loses points in the creativity department for names of creatures he hallucinates but Victor supposes the mind of a frightened soon to be dead man can only stretch his imagination so far.
“What’s your name my foolish little human?”
Victor glances up, offended, but the playful grin on Yuuri’s lips and the way his eyes sparkle with mirth ease Victor back down. The mermaid is only teasing him, trying to distract him from the dangerous situation he’s surrounded by. “It’s Victor, Victor Nikiforov.”
“That’s a beautiful name Victor Nikiforov.”
Victor really likes the way his name rolls off Yuuri’s tongue and spills into his ears.
The storm screams above them again and Victor whimpers.
“It’s okay,” Yuuri says again, running his fingers through Victor’s hair slowly. “I’ll sing for you and when you wake up the storm will have passed.”
Yuuri begins to hum again, that same beautiful melody. It sounds like tinkling glass, so soft as it’s hummed yet able to drown out the sounds of the storm until it’s all Victor can focus on. His eyes are heavy, the hand on his head so gentle with its comfort. At least if he’s going to die, he’ll die thinking he was being cared for by the most stunning creature alive.
---
The sun is oh so warm against Victor’s back when he wakes up and isn’t that a surprise in and of itself, waking up. His clothes are stiff against his back, the salt water dried in them from the harsh rays of the sun. Already Victor can feel his neck startling to burn with the uncomfortable heat beating down on him.
Sitting up Victor looks around. All around him is open water, deep blue and so still unlike the night before. Surprisingly his paddle and bottle of water have stayed in the boat with him. Uncapping the water, Victor takes a long drink of the liquid. It’s also warmed from the sun but it tastes good sliding down his dry throat.
Once that task is taken care of, Victor focuses on his next problem. Where exactly is he and which way is shore?
He doesn’t really have a clue which way land is, paddling in a random direction might only bring him further out into the ocean. He doesn’t have food and his water is limited so it isn’t like Victor has a lot of time to figure out what he should do.
There is a thump behind him as Victor stands there thinking and then the boat shifts, rocking him back and forth as it resettles. Turning he’s met with shining scales and sparkling eyes and Victor isn’t really sure what he’d been expecting but it hadn’t been his hallucination. He screams, heart slamming into his chest as he stumbles backward. Except his boat is small and his calves hit the edge and then Victor is tumbling backward into the salty ocean water.
He resurfaces seconds later, yanked up by a strong arm around his shoulders. Victor hacks, lungs burning with the need to clear themselves of the salty liquid that had filled them moments before.
“You idiot,” Yuuri says, dropping Victor back into the bottom of the boat. “Now you’re soaked again!”
Victor stares up into the face he thought he had dreamed up last night, shocked silent, his mouth hanging open.
The mermaid hovers over him for a minute, watching Victor watch him before he sits back. His tail flicks over the edge of the boat, dropping into the water. Yuuri huffs and crosses his arms when Victor doesn’t move.
“You acted perfectly normal last night.”
“I thought you were a hallucination and that I was going to die,” Victor says, voice weak. His throat hurts from coughing up water but he doesn’t have much drinking water left. He eyes his half full bottle sadly.
“I brought you water, you can drink if you need it.”
Victor looks back up at the creature in front of him, startled again. Apparently not only is this mermaid real, which must make all mermaids real which is a thought Victor can’t really process to completion yet, but he’s apparently brought water. He watches as Yuuri lifts up a soaking sack that Victor had missed at first, pulling a heavy jug of clear liquid from it.
“I figured you would need it since humans dehydrate so quickly under the sun.” Yuuri offers it over with a small smile. “There’s a canal that connects with the ocean so it’s fresh water, don’t worry. I know you can’t drink salt water either.”
His fingers tremble as he accepts the jug, pulling it to his lips after he unscrews the cap. It’s cold and feels heavenly as he takes a deep sip, letting it sit in his mouth to wash away the taste of salt before swallowing it and taking another drink.
“I also brought you some fruit. There isn’t a lot I can transport that won’t be ruined by the journey through the water,” Yuuri explains. He opens up his bag, offering Victor a small bundle of fruits. “And I can’t get things that aren’t close to the shore.”
Victor lowers the jug, really looking at the creature in front of him now that he is pretty sure he isn’t hallucinating anything. Either that or he already has really bad sun stroke.
The scales that he had thought were a jet black last night are actually a midnight blue, light blue flecks scattered here and there sparkle like jewels under the light of the sun. The splattering of scale patches on his arms and abdomen, runs all along the length of his back. There are delicate looking fins that start at the top of Yuuri’s tail and run half way down, the fins slowly getting smaller. They’re tipped in the lighter, sparkling shades of blue. Victor’s eyes move as Yuuri lifts his tail from the water, flicking it lazily and the same amazing blue is at the ends of the fins there, making it appear almost translucent as the sun shines along it. The fins that blend with Yuuri’s hair are the same amazing colors.
“You’re… you’re so beautiful and you saved me,” Victor breathes, unable to believe what he’s really seeing. As if the mermaid in front of him wasn’t beautiful enough, a blush dusts his cheeks at Victor’s words and to his delight the blush spreads up to his fins, the delicate ones on his head turning pale blue with embarrassment. “There’s no way you’re real.”
Yuuri huffs at that, slapping his tail in the water so it splashes Victor in the face and breaks the spell. “Rude. I didn’t go around telling you that you weren’t real.”
Victor can’t actually tell if he’s offended the other or not but then Yuuri smiles at him so he assumes he’s okay. “Sorry,” he says anyways. “I just didn’t know mermaids were… well, real.”
“I get it.” Yuuri dangles his fingers in the water, watching Victor from the corner of his eye. “We stay far away from people for safety.”
“You didn’t stay away from me though?” Victor asks, tilting his head.
Yuuri flushes again, looking down at the calm ocean water. “I wasn’t going to just leave you to die.”
“Thank you for that.” Victor smiles at Yuuri, truly grateful for being rescued. “You sang to me,” he says after a moment, the night before coming back to him slowly as more than just some dream like haze. “It was beautiful.”
“You were distraught.” Yuuri shrugs but he’s blushing again, his fins turning that delicate shade of light blue.
Victor likes it, the way Yuuri flushes. He would love nothing more than to learn all the ways he could make Yuuri blush, sure that each way would be more stunning that the last. Unfortunately Victor also would like to try and get home, if that is even a possibility. “Yuuri, do you know which way shore is?”
“Oh.” Yuuri sits up, rocking the boat some as he shifts. “I do but you’re really far out. You’re going to need my help getting home.”
Victor blinks. “You’ll help me get back to shore?”
“Of course?” Yuuri tilts his head in confusion. “Why wouldn’t I? I can’t just leave you stranded out here in the middle of the ocean.”
“I just thought maybe you had important mermaid business to get back to or something.” Victor gives the other a weak smile, embarrassed again. Yuuri is saving him a second time, or maybe a third since he had also brought Victor food and water to survive on.
“I wasn’t doing anything. Just dancing.”
“You dance?”
Yuuri smiles some, shy. “Not the way you would, since you know.” He gestures to his tail, flipping it so the sun catches the scales and makes it shimmer with the warm light. “But yes, I love dancing.”
“I bet it’s beautiful.” Victor wishes he could see it.
Another blush but Yuuri still smiles, pushing himself over the edge and into the water. “It’ll take some time to get you home, so we should probably start. You’ll need breaks.”
Victor grabs the paddle that is also thankfully still in his boat and drops it into the water opposite the side that Yuuri is on. “Are you going to push me?” he asks when Yuuri doesn’t move from besides his boat.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you Yuuri, really. I would be dead without you.”
Yuuri’s smile is softer this time, understanding flashing in his eyes as he reads how grateful Victor really is, how badly last night had shaken him. “You have nothing to thank me for, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
They talk as they slowly push through the choppy waters of the ocean. Yuuri is surprisingly witty and sassy when he isn’t hiding behind a blush or ducking out under a wave when Victor asks him something too embarrassing. Victor doesn’t even notice time passing until Yuuri is hauling himself back into the boat with an exhausted sigh.
“Is it far still?” Victor asks, offering over half of his fruit for the mermaid to eat. Yuuri accepts it with a small brush of his fingers against Victor’s wrist before he’s pulling back to his side of the boat.
“A bit. The water is pulling us one way, the waves pushing us another. We’re making slow progress. It would be so much easier if we could swim but you don’t have a tail or gills.”
Victor snorts at that. “I wouldn’t look nearly as beautiful as you do.”
“Mmm,” Yuuri teases. “I am renowned for having the most gorgeous tail this side of the sea.” He flicks it up, dragging it into the boat completely.
Fingers twitching, Victor looks over at Yuuri. “May I touch?” he asks, voice soft.
“I suppose. Just be gentle and watch out for my fins. They can be sharp.”
Victor carefully lets his hand fall to the mermaid’s tail, tracing the black scales with a look of wonder on his face. The scales are smooth, like he had remembered from last night, but under it he can feel the power of muscle, trained from years and years of swimming through powerful ocean waters. Yuuri could like kill him with one well placed slam of this tail, snap his spine if he was stuck just right.
Yuuri giggles softly as Victor trails his fingers lower, toward his tail fin. The beautiful blue on the tips is so enticing. Ignoring the warning he was given, Victor traces the ends. He yelps, pulling a finger back when he feels a prick. Blood wells on the end of his finger, a thin line like a papercut sliced across the pad of his thumb.
“I warned you.”
“Why is it sharp?”
Yuuri reaches forward, taking Victor’s hand to look at the cut. He smears the blood off, kissing the wound gently with his lips. Victor feels his face flame red but doesn’t dare pull away. “To protect myself against predators.”
“What would hunt you?” Victor frowns, ignoring the answer he assumes is going to be humans. Undoubtedly, if humans did know about mermaids they would have been hauling them in and putting them in aquariums immediately.
“Everything has some sort of predator. We mostly have to look out for sharks, since they just take a bite of anything that looks like it might be food. They don’t usually mean to bite us, but I’ve had a couple close encounters with great whites before. They’re large enough to pose a threat.”
Victor shudders. Sharks are terrifying enough when he’s not in the water, he can’t imagine having to face one down while in it.
“Orcas can also be a threat, though mostly we just leave eachother alone. They acknowledge us as more than just a food source. The only time anyone has been killed by an orca was when they swam into their territory and provoked a mother. It was a gruesome sight. Orcas are not kind animals.”
Victor could listen to Yuuri talk all day about life in the ocean, he’s never been more interested in anything more in his life. Yet too soon Yuuri is jumping back into the water. He disappears below the surface for a moment and Victor looks over the side, watching as Yuuri swims in a circle, doing a small flip before he gracefully straights and his face resurfaces.
“Feel good enough to keep going?”
“Yeah,” Victor says, breathless from how beautiful Yuuri is. His arms still burn from paddling the boat but he doesn’t complain, he hardly notices it when Yuuri distracts him with conversation while they go.
They go off and on until nightfall starts and Yuuri comes back into the boat, letting out a tired sigh. “Is it okay if I rest up here with you tonight?”
“Oh… of course!” Victor says, flushing and happy for the dimming light so that Yuuri doesn’t notice. “But you don’t want to stay in the water?”
“It’d be too dangerous to stay in open water in the dark. Water gets murky, what’s to stop hungry teeth from coming along for a test nibble?” Yuuri says with a teasing smile. He clearly isn’t bothered by the idea but suddenly Victor is very nervous to what might also be swimming beneath them. Especially if it might mean harm to Yuuri.
“It’s okay Victor. You’re safe here in your boat. And if you did end up in the water, I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Thank you.”
Yuuri smiles at him and Victor feels like he’s been blessed by an angel with how radiant Yuuri looks. “You should eat and drink, so you can recover for tomorrow.”
“The water is low again,” Victor says. “I can save it.”
Yuuri shakes his head. “Drink it, if you need more I’ll go get you some.”
Victor takes the jug, looking at the low level of water. It must have been hard to carry full and then bring back to Victor yet Yuuri is willing to do it again so he won’t get dehydrated. Never had Victor met another creature that would act so selfless toward someone they didn’t know.
“I’ll never be able to repay you for all of this Yuuri.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” Yuuri smiles again and Victor thinks his heart might be melting out of his chest. “You can lean against me if you’re cold,” Yuuri says after a while, noticing how Victor has started to shiver.
Victor looks over at the mermaid, sitting on the opposite side of the boat. While he’s looking Yuuri makes a show of laying down, spreading himself out until there is room for Victor to lay right next to him.
“Wrap your jacket around you like a blanket and come lay down.” Yuuri waits until Victor nervously shuffles around, laying down facing the mermaid. Carefully Yuuri wraps his arms around Victor and pulls him close, flush against his chest.
Victor starts but slowly lets himself lean into the contact, pillowing his head on Yuuri’s chest. The mermaid is surprisingly warm, heat radiating from his skin like he’s a furnace. Victor had expected him to be cooler, maybe even clammy since he spends so much time in the water but Yuuri is the exact opposite. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
Victor lays there for a while, exhausted but unable to fall asleep. He thinks maybe Yuuri’s sleeping, since he had to do so much work in leading and steering and pulling the boat but eventually the mermaid hums under him. Fingers lift up and push into his hair, stroking it slowly like he had the first night and Victor shivers, leaning into the touch. The same beautiful tune Yuuri had hummed before spills through the air, dancing under the stars and the quiet night. It calms Victor’s mind, stills his racing heart until finally his heavy eyelids fall shut.
---
Yuuri is gone in the morning again but so is the sack that held Victor’s water and food so he assumes that the mermaid has just gone off to fetch him more to drink. Considering how long they’ve been traveling though and how long it seems to take Yuuri to return it must be quite a ways away that he has to travel. Again Victor is struck by just how much he has to be grateful for, that Yuuri has saved his life so many times just in their few short days together.
When the mermaid returns, hauling himself up into the boat with the sun just starting to rise fully, the pair share the small amount of fruit Yuuri has brought him back. The water is a blessing to his dried throat and when they’re done, Victor splashing some of the cool sea water on his face, he feels restored.
“We should be able to reach shore for you today,” Yuuri says, diving into the water.
Victor leans over the edge, watching mesmerized as Yuuri twists and turns under the water’s surface. He’s struck suddenly with the immense feeling that he doesn’t want to return back to shore. Returning to shore means he loses this. Never before has Victor felt his heart so captured by something to graceful or beautiful and yet it’s more than Yuuri’s unnatural beauty that draws Victor in. He’s fun to talk with, so sincere and kind in everything he says and does. Never before has Victor felt connected to another like he does with Yuuri.
“You okay?” Yuuri asks, surfacing.
With a grin Victor dips his hand in the water and splashes the mermaid.
Yuuri sputters as he gets a mouthful of ocean water and then he’s turning around and with one powerful slap of his tail Victor is washed over with a wave of water. He coughs and sputters, sitting up to glare at the mermaid but Yuuri’s delighted giggles are enough to quell the irritation that soaking clothes will bring Victor for the next few hours.
“You started it,” Yuuri reminds him.
“You were already wet,” Victor points out but both of them are grinning.
Silence reigns suddenly, each of them realizing how close they’ve gotten to one another. Yuuri hangs off the side of the boat, looking up at Victor and Victor leans down closer. Carefully he lifts his fingers up, brushing the delicate fins along Yuuri’s face. They’re soft, the skin very thin and almost rubbery. Under his fingers they start to tint light blue again as Yuuri blushes.
“Ah, we should go!” Yuuri yanks away suddenly, dunking under the water for a minute. When he returns to the surface his skin is cooled again.
Victor nods, schooling his disappointment at whatever it was that had been about to happen.
They paddle and swim in silence, the waves pushing them along. Today the ocean seems intent on helping Victor get back home, making Yuuri’s swimming easier, but Victor doesn’t want to return to shore. Yuuri is something that belongs to the ocean and Victor is not, but he likes talking with him, likes laughing with him.
Hours feel only like minutes until Yuuri is lifting a hand, pointing. “There.”
Victor is pulled from his thoughts, startled when he finds himself looking at the view of land just off in the distance. There isn’t really a way for Victor to tell Yuuri to stop so he stays silent, watching Yuuri’s tail move easily under the water’s surface.
When Yuuri finally stops the water around them is calm. The sun is high in the sky, a perfect day like it was when Victor set out. His skin is reddened from being directly under the warm rays but other than that, he’s unharmed. It’s unheard of, him returning home will be called a miracle by everyone in town. Somehow though, it doesn’t feel like one to Victor. Meeting Yuuri, that had been his miracle.
“I think you can get the rest of the way to shore on your own,” Yuuri says softly, looking toward the sandy beaches.
People are lying about, walking down the piers. Victor knows it’s dangerous for Yuuri to be this close but he doesn’t want to let the mermaid leave yet. “I… uh- Thank you Yuuri.”
Yuuri glances back up at him, his nervous gaze softening into a smile. “It was nothing Victor, I’ve quite enjoyed our time together.”
Victor leans down, brushing his fingers along Yuuri’s delicate cheek gently. “Maybe we co-”
“Victor!”
Both Yuuri and Victor jump, startled at the sound of someone screaming Victor’s name. Victor whips his head around, seeing someone that looks suspiciously like Yuri standing on the beach shore. When he looks back to the side of the boat, Yuuri is gone.
Sorrow tears at Victor’s heart but there is no sign of the beautiful mermaid that had saved his life. Sucking back tears Victor picks up his paddle and heads toward shore, arms so weary from paddling all day he almost can’t make it.
He didn’t even get to say goodbye.
---
Victor walks next to the ocean shore every day. He sits in the morning until late in the evening, watching, waiting. Hope is a fragile little thing in his chest. Every glimmer of light off a wave or flash of blue in the distance have his heart leaping into his throat, ready to call Yuuri’s name but it’s never anything.
Most days Yurio follows him, confused and angry at Victor’s desire to sit by the very thing that almost killed him. No one had believed it when he had paddled his little boat into shore, alive and whole. Yakov had berated him for days but he had still clung to Victor, mumbling quiet little thanks to the sky for bringing him back. Victor wants to tell him that it hadn’t been a prayer that saved him but a creature of unimaginable beauty with a heart of pure gold, selfless to the point of risking his own life to save a man he didn’t even know.
“Why do you insist on coming back to the ocean if it almost killed you?” Yuri demands for the hundredth time, furious with Victor’s choices. “It doesn’t have anything for you. Go get a job!”
Victor smiles, wistful as he looks toward the calm blue waters. “I’m a man in love with the sea.” His answer makes Yuri snarl and storm off. Victor knows he cares, he loves the younger man for his aggressive affection but not even Yuri would understand if Victor tried to explain. That he goes back each day in hopes of seeing midnight blue scales and sparkling brown eyes.
---
Victor sighs, looking at the calm water. The waves break softly on the beach, the gulls cry out above him. It’s peaceful without other people around but it isn’t what Victor came here looking for. He wanted soft hair, shining scales, a sassy smile, shy blushing cheeks. He turns some, intent to finish his walk down the beach when he catches sight of something so dark blue it almost looks black, draped along a rock in a shallow pool area.
“Yuuri!”
Victor slides down the bank, uncaring when rocks catch on the sensitive skin of his palms. The early morning sun spills over the water’s edge but Victor would know the shimmer of those scales anywhere.
He splashes into the water, ignoring the chill. It is indeed the mermaid he’s been longing to see for weeks but instead of a smiling face greeting him Victor finds Yuuri pale, skin and scales cut with slow trickles of blood falling down his damp skin. A fisherman’s net is tangled around him, one arm trapped against his side and his tail held at an awkward angle. It’s a wonder Yuuri had been able to swim to shore at all.
“Yuuri, can you hear me?” Victor drops to his knees, grabbing the heavily braided cord to try to yank the mermaid free. “Yuuri!”
Victor reaches for Yuuri’s face, startled when his hand pulls away covered in sticky red blood. Shaking, Victor turns the mermaid slightly finding a nasty gash across the back of Yuuri’s head, matting his hair with blood. He must have smashed into the rocks trying to get to shore Victor realizes. He’s terrified because he has no idea how to care for an injured mermaid, isn’t sure how he can even keep Yuuri hidden when soon the docks will be full of people.
Yanking his coat off Victor makes a split second decision and lifts Yuuri up, wrapping the other’s tail in his coat enough that he hopes it isn’t noticeable. Lifting the mermaid into his arms, Victor turns and takes off as fast as he can toward his home.
Victor probably should have asked if Yuuri could survive outside of water, he has no clue, but when he gets home he locks himself in the bathroom and lays Yuuri in the tub. He fills it with water just to be safe. Next Victor grabs a knife and starts slicing away at the net, piece by piece. Each part he pulls away reveals the rope burned skin underneath. Yuuri must have been trapped in it for hours to have gotten this tangled.
When he’s getting the last pieces off of Yuuri’s tail, trying to be as gentle as possible with the fins, Yuuri groans above him. Finally brown eyes flutter open, looking at Victor in a confused and cloudy daze.
“Victor…?”
“Oh my god.” Victor throws the net away, carefully cupping Yuuri’s cheek. “You’re awake. How do you feel? Does your head hurt? What else hurts? What happened? Is anything broken?”
Yuuri stares at him, uncomprehending.
“Hold on, I need to treat your head.” Victor pulls away, reluctant to leave Yuuri’s side for even a minute but he has to make sure that the cut to the back of the mermaid’s head isn’t more serious than it looks.
Yuuri hisses as Victor presses a cotton ball full of rubbing alcohol against the gash, trying to jerk away.
“Hold on, I know it stings.” Victor runs his fingers up and down the fins on the uninjured side of Yuuri’s head. “You’re doing so well,” he says, trying to distract the other. Yuuri whines but doesn’t struggle again as Victor cleans the blood away. Victor isn’t a doctor but the wound doesn’t appear deep enough that Yuuri will need stitches. Instead he presses a fresh gauze pad to it and carefully ties it there, smiling at the mermaid when he pulls back. “You look pretty banged up but you’ll be okay. I’m just not going to let you sleep for a while, in case you have a concussion.”
“Kay…” Yuuri winces but looks more aware now and carefully looks around, taking in his surroundings. “Where am I?”
Victor sits back, finally relaxing now that Yuuri is awake and the immediate danger seems to have passed. Adrenaline drains from his body, leaving him feeling exhausted. “You’re in my bathtub.” The idea of it is so ridiculous, also rather cliche, and Victor can’t help but burst into delirious giggles.
“What’s so funny?” Yuuri winces as he sits up some, tail splashing water over the sides of the tub.
“Nothing really, you just scared me so it’s all coming out in nervous energy,” Victor says, choking back the insane giggles. Instead he leans back in, cupping Yuuri’s cheek gently. It feels so good to see the mermaid again, touch him again but that doesn’t manage to override the confusion of why and how Yuuri had ended up here, snagged in that net. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Yuuri glances toward the slashed up net in the corner, glaring at it. “I was… I watch you walk along the beach every morning,” Yuuri finally grumbles, turning his head away from Victor. “I swim in while it’s dark so I can see you come down every morning. But I couldn’t see it, a net must have broken loose from the docks or something and I swam into it. It got around my tail and the more I tried to get it off the more stuck I got.” Yuuri sniffs, hugging himself. The tide dragged me in, slammed me against the rocks near the cliffs for a while before I ended up at the beach.”
“Oh Yuuri.” Victor leans forward, uncaring about how wet he might get. He wraps the mermaid in his arms, holding him tight against his chest. He’s both shocked and elated that Yuuri had been coming to watch him at the beach but it had almost gotten the other killed. “Why would you do something so reckless?”
“I missed you.” Yuuri sniffs, his fins turning almost completely blue before he wraps his arms around Victor’s shoulders and bursts into tears. “I thought maybe if I could just watch you from afar it would be okay but you looked so sad every day and I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t come up there to you.”
Victor strokes the mess of dark hair, pressing his lips to Yuuri’s forehead as he sobs. “I’m sorry,” he soothes, hugging him tighter. “It’s okay Yuuri, don’t cry now. Shh. I’m here, I have you.”
They had both been longing to see each other but unsure of how to go about it Victor muses, rocking his mermaid gently. It’s unusual but clearly they have something special between them and Victor isn’t going to question it, not when Yuuri clearly feels as strongly as he does.
“Well first off,” Victor says, voice low. Yuuri tilts his head up at the sound, letting Victor wipe his tears away with a brush of his thumb across his cheek. “No more swimming in so close to shore. It’s too dangerous. I was so scared when I saw you laying there.”
Yuuri looks crestfallen, nodding as he ducks his head.
“Second.”
The mermaid peaks back up again. “Second?”
Victor smiles and leans in, pressing his lips to Yuuri’s. His lips are salty like the ocean and he already feels addicted, holding Yuuri tight and kissing him. Victor never wants to stop.
Yuuri gasps under him and Victor pulls back for just a moment, worried he’s misread the situation, misinterpreted Yuuri’s feelings. Instead the mermaid grapples him back in close. “Please don’t stop kissing me,” Yuuri whines against Victor’s lips, sounding like he’ll be completely defeated if Victor does.
Victor has never been happier to comply with a request.
When they finally manage to unlock lips, though Victor is pretty sure that’s only because they really need to breath, Yuuri starts giggling. His is much cuter than Victor’s earlier adrenaline fueled one. Victor wants to listen to that sound for forever.
“I didn’t ever think I’d end up kissing a human, sitting in a human bathtub, no where near the ocean,” Yuuri says, eyes sparkling as he looks at Victor. “You certainly are full of surprises.”
“Yes well,” Victor says with a light blush dusting his cheeks. “I would say a mermaid singing to me in the middle of a storm was far more surprising.”
“Mmm,” Yuuri hums, nodding as he drags Victor back in close until their lips are almost touching again. “What a lucky mermaid that would have been, to find such a beautiful man out in a storm.”
The next time Victor has to pull away from Yuuri is because he’s pretty sure he’s going to be permanently stuck bent in half, trying to lean over the tub to chase those lips.
Yuuri seems to calm some too, flapping his tail against the cool bath water. “How did you get me here?”
“I carried you. I kind of panicked, it was going to get busy soon and someone would have seen you.”
Ducking his head, Victor watches a blue bloom across Yuuri’s fins. “Thank you. That would have been really bad. And thank you for putting me in water.”
“Would anything bad have happened if I didn’t?”
“My scales would have dried out and I probably would have gotten sick, being out of my element for so long, but nothing life threatening.” Yuuri shifts again, clearly trying to get comfortable in a tub that is far too small for him. “I suppose I have to stay here all day.”
“Yeah,” Victor says. “I couldn’t really sneak you back out in the middle of the afternoon.”
Yuuri sighs, flopping backward. He lets his head hang over the lip of the tub, looking at the bathroom from upside down. “I suppose that’s what I deserve, getting caught up like that.”
Victor strokes at Yuuri’s scales gently, running his nails up and down them until the mermaid under him melts with a contented sigh. “The net shouldn’t have been in the open water like that. It could have happened to anyone. ”
“Anyone?” Yuuri teases. “Do you know many other love struck mermaids that come sneaking up to shore?” He pauses after the sentence leaves his mouth and then flames red, slapping his tail against the water, splashing Victor and soaking him as he tries to turn away. “Forget I said anything!”
Victor’s laughter fills the room, hair dripping into his eyes. “It’s okay Yuuri.” Victor watches the other peak back at him through his bangs. “There was a love struck human just waiting to rescue that mermaid.”
Yuuri gives Victor a shy little grin. “Since I’m essentially stuck in your tub all day… will you entertain me? I’ve never been this far inland before.”
Victor’s on his feet almost instantly, grinning down at the other. “I’ll feed you all sorts of different treats and show you all of my cool stuff.”
The mermaid laughs but he indulges Victor all day. They look through Victor’s photo albums, Yuuri tries all of Victor’s favorite snacks, he reads Yuuri all the myths surrounding mermaids until Yuuri laughs so hard he’s crying. Somehow, all too soon the sun is starting to set.
“I should probably bring you back home,” Victor says, playing with a strand of Yuuri’s hair. His bed pillow is half immersed in the tub, completely soaked through so that Yuuri could lean his back on something soft. Instead of turning on the lights, Victor had lit candles around them kissing Yuuri between bites of the dinner he had made. He never wanted it to end but keeping the love of his life in a bathtub would be cruel and Yuuri needed room to swim. Already his scales seemed dimmer from having been kept in a small tub of water all day.
“It would be nice to stretch,” Yuuri admits softly. He lays his head on Victor’s shoulder, sighing against the other’s throat. “But this was wonderful. Thank you, for saving me and for staying with me all day.”
“Well I certainly wasn’t going to shove you in a tub and leave you,” Victor teases, kissing Yuuri’s hair. “Come on, wrap your arms around my shoulders.” Yuuri does as requested, letting himself be lifted as Victor groans, his knees creaking. “You are a hundred percent lean muscle my love.”
Yuuri huffs, swinging his tail. “You try swimming every day for the entirety of your life and see how buff you get.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Victor lifts a soft blanket, wrapping it around Yuuri’s tail gently. He slips one of his shirts over his head and arms next, smiling at how nice Yuuri looks in his clothes. “It’s not a long walk to the ocean, so just stay close to me and help me keep an eye out.”
Victor can feel how tense Yuuri is in his arms as they head outside. The mermaid buries his face against Victor’s throat, only peaking out from one side nervously.
“I won’t let anything happen to you Yuuri.”
“I know you won’t.”
Walking back to the water’s edge is the last thing Victor wants to do but going slow will only prolong Yuuri’s worry of being discovered. If Victor were a lesser person he might try to keep Yuuri to himself, locked away, but he had seen the smile when they were in the open water together and how free Yuuri was. The last thing that Victor wants is to rob Yuuri of what makes him happy.
The water tugs at his pant legs as Victor walks them into the chill ocean water.
“Why are you crying?” Yuuri mumbles, brushing Victor’s hair away from his eyes.
Even in the moonlight Yuuri is so beautiful, his fins glowing in the soft light. Victor tugs Yuuri’s fingers to his lips, kissing them gently. “I just don’t want to see you go.”
Yuuri smiles, his fingers pushing into Victor’s hair to tug him in close. “You’re the one that said I wasn’t allowed to swim close to shore anymore, that doesn’t mean we can’t see each other again.”
“What?”
“Silly human.” Yuuri presses their lips together, holding Victor tight. “There is a little cove you and I can meet at. Quiet, safe, away from people. Somewhere just for the two of us. I’m not letting you go now that I have you. I can’t.” Yuuri leans back, watching Victor carefully. “Please tell me thats okay.”
“It’s more than okay,” Victor says with a wet laugh. He kisses Yuuri again and again until the waves are almost knocking him over they’ve been sitting in the waist deep water for so long.
“Rest tomorrow and meet me there the day after,” Yuuri whispers, breathing directions against Victor’s ear. His fingers curl into Victor’s silver hair once more, his lips brush against his lightly a last time and then Yuuri is gone, splashing into the next wave and disappearing in the murky water.
---
Victor takes his boat out three times a week, more if time permits. He always brings Yuuri little treats, chocolates or biscuits for him to try. Most of the time they simply lay in his boat together, cuddled close while Yuuri peppers kisses along Victor’s chest. Other times Victor goes swimming with the mermaid. He’s nowhere near as agile in the water but he’s able to hold his breath for longer times now and it almost feels like Victor could live with Yuuri forever, safe in the gentle blue green waters of the ocean.
Victor doesn’t have to wait long, bobbing in his small boat. He drips his fingers into the water, eyes sharp for the signs of midnight blue scales shimmering in the shallow waters of their hidden little cove.
Yuuri pops up suddenly, draping himself up along the side of Victor’s boat with a delighted laugh. Water drips down around his face, hair pushed back and out of his eyes. He grins up at Victor, eyes a warm brown that reflect the light of the sun. “Did I surprise you?”
“Always my love.” A man in love with the sea indeed Victor thinks as he leans down, sealing his lips with Yuuri’s.