Chapter Text
Time was an odd concept to Oliver, the passage of light into darkness spanning over a millennia of no consequence to him as he and his kind kept to the deepest and darkest recesses of the sea. For centuries, his people had been counseled to stay well below the surface of the water, far away from the fisherman’s hook and the allure of the sun’s radiating warmth.
As a young boy, Oliver hadn’t understood the consequences of pushing the boundaries between land and sea until he and a friend had ventured too close to the surface and Oliver had found himself tangled in a human’s fishnet. The years had sanded down the memory until only the raw fear he had felt in that fateful moment was all that was left, save a head of blonde hair as a face blocked out by the sun hovered over him and a sense of peace washed over him.
Oliver had spent a long time thinking about that day, trying to remember even the most mundane detail, but it seemed the harder he tried, the more the memory began to fade away, but still the emotions were there.
From that day forward, Oliver grew to respect the warnings of those before him, heading their calls for absolute vigilance and secrecy when breeching the water’s surface, but neither did Oliver ignore the pull from somewhere within that seemed to always lead him to the surface.
Oliver could feel an odd attachment growing within him to the peace of shoreline where he had nearly lost his own life and it could be felt at any time no matter where he found himself beneath the oceans waves. However, at one particular point in the year, Oliver would feel it’s magnification seven fold and he knew that it was time to resurface once more.
Every year, for the past thirteen years, Oliver had allowed himself to be pulled to the same shoreline year after year. He allowed himself a brief moment, no more than a single night, to peer above the rolling waves of the sea towards the bustling town just off of the shoreline just until the sun would set and the lights in the village would flicker off just as the lights in the sky were snuffed out.
He had watched as the people within the village erected tall houses and places of worship along their cobbled streets, their markets bustling with the buyers and sellers chatting away with each other and haggling with one another over the goods brought to the village by the boats that sat in the eastern harbor.
Oliver imagined himself as a sort of guardian for the town as the years went on by. He was amused to acknowledge that the town’s welfare was actually very important to him, but he never could point as to a specific reason why.
When Oliver began to feel the familiar pull once more, he imagined that this year would be no more different than the twelve before hand and set out on his journey. However, what Oliver didn’t know was that this year, the thirteenth year, Oliver would keep coming back for another twelve nights. That first night would forever change the course of his life and that of everything he ever knew.
Oliver cursed at himself as he felt the sun slip further and further down the sky. He arched his powerful back and gave another burst of speed as he propelled through the cooling water.
For nearly two weeks, Oliver found himself swimming across leagues of open sea to settle along the same waves as the night before, but it was no longer the bustling village that kept his attention, but that of a beautiful woman walking along it’s shores.
The way that the young woman seemed to glide along the sand in her long, white dress was absolutely mesmerizing as it glowed below the gentle pink and orange hues of the sky above.
When Oliver first noticed the woman along the beach, he thought her to be one of Aphrodite’s many daughters as he heard stories of their immeasurable beauty, but it was neither the gentle sway of his small hips nor the way her blonde curls bristled in the wind that kept him coming back to this same shore night after night.
It was the look of immense sadness in her eyes as she gazed over the sea that had him returning to her night after night. His days were filled with the constant questioning of what could make such a beautiful creature so sad and yet radiate such beauty at the same time.
Oliver would often lift his eyes to the horizon as the young woman did, searching the horizon for whatever it was she was looking for, almost willing it to show itself, but never for more than a moment, for even the slightest moment of not looking at her was like a stab to the heart.
Each night the pull to go to her was almost too strong for him to resist, but Oliver knew that he could not chance it. If he destroyed this, the only thing in his life worth risking everything for, he would surely destroy himself in the process.
Even now as he soared just beneath the ocean’s surface he felt the urge to brush his fingertips across her skin, curious as to it’s softness beneath his roughened fingertips. His hands were so large compared to her smaller form, he briefly wondered what it would feel like to place his hand along her waist. Would she gasp as he pulled her flush against his form or would she let her hand slide up his arm and come to a rest on his shoulder?
He would lean in and bury his nose beneath the long, blonde tresses of her hair and breathe in a long breath, curious to know if it smelled like the sun as it rivaled its brightness in the sky.
Oliver quickly shook these thoughts from his mind, again cursing himself for allowing such thoughts to even enter his mind. He could never allow himself to get so close, not to her, not to any human. It was too dangerous.
Instead, he had to reconcile with what fate had given him for it was a gift as well. He would come here every night as long as she did and watch from afar as she watched on in silence. He would watch her until the last of the sun’s light had disappeared from the sky, the only light source on the shoreline a single, flickering lantern that the woman had brought with her the only thing to light her way back to the village. He would watch until even his enhanced sight lost her amongst the shadows of the village and only then would he return to the depths of the ocean once more leaving her world.
He hoped this would be enough.
On the third day, Oliver migrated to a rock formation that broke above the surface of the water. It allowed him the ability to watch the young woman without compromising his own safety while his focus was solely on her.
It was when Oliver began to see the ocean’s floor rise up as he ventured into the shallow waters that his enhanced hearing picked up the distant calling of the birds flying up above. He could feel the water around him ebb and flow as the tide rocked back and forth along the edge of the shoreline.
He was close.
Oliver lets out a sigh as he finally begins to make out a large, dark mass beneath the ocean’s waves and recognizes it immediately. He doesn’t break the surface of the water until he is certain that his whole body would be concealed behind the large mass above the water. He then launches himself out of the water with a couple powerful kicks of his massive tail and lands with a wet thud on the rocky surface. He grunts as his hands grip onto the solid foundation and he hoists hisself into a sitting position.
The uneven surface of the rocks allow him to peer through the formation without revealing his presence to the young woman or any one else who may happen to be walking along the shore. No one ever came to the shore this late at night besides the young woman, but Oliver wasn’t about to take any chances.
Oliver didn’t waste a single second in scanning the shoreline for the one whose face stayed with him all day and night. He felt his chest constrict painfully as his eyes swept along the sand, the young woman no where to be found.
Was she not coming tonight? Would she come again tomorrow night? Oliver didn’t know, but the pain he felt in having failed in his mission to see her once more was a heavy burden. He was about to turn back into the water when a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.
She was here.
She wore a long, white dress that billowed in the cool, sea breeze, the soft, thin material tantalizing his senses with the way they showed her smooth, feminine curves. Oliver swore he could feel a heat swelling in his hand, as if he was physically touching her right now, his hand large enough fully embrace one of her smaller hips. He imagined himself as a human and the way her body might feel against his as he pulled her closer to him so that she stood comfortably between his legs.
Using his other hand, he would gently brush the little wisps of golden hair from her face and anchor them behind her ears before leaning down to wipe the tears from her cheeks with soft, pliant kisses.
Once all her tears were kissed away he would pull her into his arms, cradling her head against his chest and run his fingers through her silky curls as they watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon together this time. He would keep her in his protective arms for as long as she allowed him to, never wanting to break contact with her of his own free will.
It was a scary truth, but a truth nonetheless and in that moment, Oliver wasn’t going to fight the feeling.
Oliver knew that he would be powerless against fighting any of the swirling feelings he held within himself. The tide of emotions was already as powerful as a raging storm, but still he kept his distance for he would surely die if he could never see her again.
It would be their secret, a secret that she wasn’t aware of, but a secret nonetheless. She would come by the sea to watch the beauty of the sunset and he would come to watch the beauty along the shore. That would be his fate- he hoped it would be enough.
The way that her white dress glowed under the burning hues of the skyline reminded Oliver of a very special something he had brought with him today.
Only taking his eyes off of the young woman long enough to rummage through a small pouch tied around his waist, Oliver dug around its contents until his fingers brushed the smooth outer shell of a seashell at the bottom of the sack. He pulled it from his pouch and examined the flawless, smooth surface with his eyes before prying the shell open at its seem revealing the pearlescent white jewel within.
Perhaps it was foolish of Oliver to believe that there would ever be a time where he could give this precious jewel to the beautiful woman along the shore, but just the same, he smiled at the shining object in his hand and felt the tension in his shoulders recede just a fraction.
Oliver was still smiling when he lifted his eyes from the seashell, hoping to gaze at the young woman for a few moments longer before all the sun’s light had been cast out of the sky. However, Oliver soon realized that the woman was no long in the same place he had last seen her standing.
He searched the sand for her petite form, but it wasn’t until his ears caught the sound of human legs walking in the water did his eyes focus along the water’s edge. His eyes immediately found her knee deep in the water and he felt his brow crinkle in confusion.
The woman never allowed herself to venture into the water, which was probably too cold for a human to enjoy swimming in. Still, she continued to wade into the water until only her head and shoulders were visible above the water.
Oliver watched her intensely, waiting to see what the young woman did next. He could feel an invisible pull to go to her, but he gripped the side of the rock in a death grip to keep him from throwing himself into the water after her.
Something was different about this night.
Something had changed.
Desperate to know what captivated the woman’s attention, Oliver strained his eyes over the horizon, hoping to find whatever it was that the woman saw or didn’t see so that he might understand. However, all he saw was the eerily still calmness of the sea before him. Never before had he seen the sea so calm and it almost unnerved him. It’s as if the see was also watching the young woman, waiting for her to make her next move.
Everything was quiet, not even the birds made a sound as all of nature seemed to be on the precipice of something none of them could see coming. Oliver himself found it hard to breathe a steady rhythm as his heart pounded in his ears. His stomach began to tighten in an anxious knot.
Something was wrong.
Against his better judgment, Oliver made to move to the water, his senses on high alert, but a flicker of movement from the young woman had him stilling once more. Ever so slowly, the woman sunk below the water until her whole body was beneath the surface.
Oliver had seen a lot of human’s swim beneath the surface of the water, some scouring for precious seashells while others believed that there were treasure troves buried beneath the stands. Still, they always resurfaced after about a minute or so- it would seem that humans were not capable of holding their breaths for a long period of time.
However, the young woman had yet to resurface and it had Oliver on the edge. His tail swung noisily in the water below him as an overwhelming feeling of dread began to settle in his chest.
It was the sight of a few bubble surfacing that had Oliver launching himself off of the rock in one push and diving head first into the freezing water below. He ignored the feeling of a thousand stabbing needles along his skin as the coldness surrounded him once more. His skin had the ability to acclimate quickly to any temperature change in the water, so he pushed any and all pain to the back of his mind.
The past thirteen years of keeping his distance from the humans, therefore ensuring his own safety, and that of his species, was the furthest thing from Oliver’s mind as he propelled through the darkening waters at back-breaking speed. He knew what he had to do in that moment.
There was no choice to make.