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The wind is surprisingly cool and harsh as Naib pokes his head above the water, his wet hair immediately getting tossed in front of his eyes. He dips his head back under the water for only a moment so he can slick his hair back out of his face properly before swimming to the dark rocks rising up out of the choppy grey-blue water, hands out in front of him so he can steady himself against the smallish waves once he’s touching a rock.
The larger rocks are towards the shore, gleaming beneath the crescent moon’s silvery light illuminating the sea spray. Naib hangs back, patiently awaiting the arrival of a familiar figure.
~
Eli hastily tosses on his cloak, pulling up his hood before he even leaves the house. A soft whistle rouses Poppo from her sleep, and she glides down from one of the ceiling beams of the old seaside cottage.
Poppo’s head turns until she’s looking at Fiona’s sleeping form, blue eye glimmering. Eli doesn’t bother to hide an affectionate smile before he eases the door open, stepping onto the worn path outside. He’s barefoot so his steps are quieter and he doesn’t have to clean any dirt from his shoes later. He can’t see anything clearly with his blindfold on at night, but he knows Poppo will lend her sight when it’s necessary.
He continues to walk, and as he feels the ground begin to slope downwards, light (even though it’s most dark) filling his vision as Poppo decides now is a good time to gift him sight.
When he first began seeing with Poppo, Eli’s depth perception and balance had been terrible, but now, he manages perfectly fine in the almost third-person view he has of himself. After a moment, he sees a flash of something that isn’t sea foam in the water, and he slows his steps, ignoring the pebbles and grits of sandy soil digging into the pads of his feet. He eases himself down the steep hill and manages to find the same small area of raised sand from before. The sand is a little damp, but he ignores it and he sits down.
“Naib?” he calls out softly, his voice mostly drowned out by the crashing of the wind and late-night waves. He pinches the ends of the long sleeves of his cloak, thankful for how much it protects him from the wind.
After a moment, Eli notices the flash again, and makes out a greenish figure languidly making its way through the water. Eli feels himself smile. He reaches up to untie his blindfold, sighing as Poppo’s vision fades and he’s left with his own faulty vision. However, it’s not a bad thing, and he smiles as he extends his hands to feel someone else’s hands come to settle in his palms.
“Hello, Naib,” Eli greets, already aware that he can’t intertwine his and Naib’s fingers since Naib has webbed hands, so he just holds one of Naib’s hands between his own two for a little bit. “How are you? What’s been going on?”
“I’m just fine. Not much happens to talk about,” Naib replies passively, closing his eyes and allowing himself to relax.
“Really? Are you sure?” Eli asks, leaning forward to bring Naib’s hand a little closer to his face. “I’m sure enough happens; your idea of what’s worth remembering just might be different from mine.”
Naib’s quiet for a moment, but Eli watches him ease himself out of the water and a little closer to Eli so that he isn’t reaching out so far to cup his cheek.
“I saw someone else, I guess,” he mumbles. “She’s another mermaid, yes, but she’s a pale blue and stuff. She looked like she belonged in the shallows. I saw her and a fisherman recognize one another today, farther out. She was pulled onto the ship, but she seemed calm, and the fisherman got really excited.”
“Huh? How is that, ‘not much’?” Eli asks, gaping. “That’s such a rare thing to see..! Hm, maybe we’ll hear news of it in the village soon?”
“I think you might.”
Eli laughs lightly and reaches out for Naib’s face with his other hand, smiling as his fingers makes contact with warm skin. He brushes his thumb over the scar near the edge of Naib’s mouth, and pauses as Naib makes an odd face.
“Is something the matter?” he asks.
“...No,” Naib replies after a moment of consideration, “it’s just fine. Don’t worry.”
He sounds certain, so Eli lets it be and slowly wraps a half-dry strand of Naib’s dark brown hair around his finger.
Naib tilts his head so that Eli can reach the rest of his hair easier, and after a little while, Naib ends up sitting on the sand with Eli, Eli more soaked than Naib at this point. The water from the mist and waves is soaked up by his heavy closk as he gently runs his fingers through Naib’s dried hair, rubbing sand out of a couple clumps now and then. Naib doesn’t seem bothered at all, head leaned back while Eli hums a song Fiona likes to sing as he brushes his fingers through Naib’s hair absently.
“...It’s going to get all dirty again onceI go underwater, Eli,” Naib comments as he gently pulls his now softer, cleaner hair over his shoulder.
“Yes, and? I can always do it again later…”
Naib closes his eyes. “Alright, as long as you just keep that in mind.
“Hmm, I will.” Eli looks up at the sky and smiles. “Have you noticed how pretty the moon is?”
“I have, actually.” Naib pulls his tail closer to him, and Eli is once again fascinated by the myriad of greens held in the wide scales. Naib absently rests his head on Eli’s shoulder, spilling a little bit of sand onto his clothes. “Very pretty.”
Eli returns to holding Naib’s hands, and they stay like that for a while until Poppo returns from wherever she flew off to, hooting moodily.
Naib glances at the owl and sighs good-naturedly. “If Poppo thinks you should leave, it might be a good call to leave.”
“Yes, it is,” Eli agrees, taking one last look at Naib before tying his blindfold on.
However, he closes his eyes for a moment instead of allowing himself to see through Poppo and draws Naib into a gentle hug, resting his interlaced fingers on one of Naib’s scaly sides while Naib fumbles momentarily to find a good place to rest his hands, setting on wrapping them around the back of Eli’s neck.
Eli can’t see Naib right now, but he can almost just tell that he’s smiling, so he smiles back.
Not wanting to ruin the fragile intimacy of the moment with a kiss, no care of whether sucha thing is long overdue or not, Eli rests a finger on his own lips for a moment before gently touching Naib’s lips. After a moment, the mermaid chuckles at the silliness of the concept and hugs Eli a little tighter.
Then he lets go, but Eli isn’t immediately left cold. While his cloak holds water, it also holds heat, so he forgives the finicky cloth and watches himself stand up in the usual third-person he uses on his night visits.
Goodbye sounds too final, even if it really isn’t. “I’ll see you later, Naib, and if I learn, I’ll let you know if the mermaid on the ship has become notorious.
Naib hasn’t sunk below the water yet like he usually does once Eli is no longer near. Eli feels a pleasant glow as he realizes Naib is trying to preserve Eli’s work on his hair, even if only for a little while longer.
“I’m looking forward to it, then. For now, don’t fall, and get some rest.”
“Sure thing!” Eli feels light enough to sprint, but he doesn’t, as he’s a bit preoccupied with trying not to cut the soles of his feet open on rocks while climbing up the way he came.
After a few minutes, he’s alright, and now a little too tired to break into a run, but he still feels like he’s gliding on the air. The incessantly strong winds, although a bit chilly, add to the sensation by allowing his cloak to flutter behind him. Poppo hoots a slight accompaniment to a song Eli begins to hum, another one that Fiona sings, though she might've learned this one from Patricia because it’s not her usual style.
The timing is immaculate, really. Right as the song ends, Eli reaches the cottage, and he shrugs off his cloak and dusts off the sand from the edges before stepping inside. He takes off his blindfold and Poppo’s vision slips away again. His pajamas are a little damp, but not enough to keep him from crawling right back into his bed after he puts his outerwear up.
Fiona shifts in bed, and Eli pauses, but when he hears her begin to snore quietly again, the tension leaves his shoulders and he finally closes his eyes.
“Good night, Poppo.”
Owls are nocturnal, yes, but she hoots what Eli likes to think is a, ‘good night,’ back anyways.