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They had met when Jamie was a young man who had wandered onto the beach the old shark had claimed as his own many years ago, and thus became one of the few people in the world who had seen merfolk in person this millennium.
Mako had been tentative at first, swimming into deeper water when the blond came to his hideaway, but the boy started to wait for longer and longer. When he found the human sleeping on his beach at the brake of dawn he had had enough. He woke the young man up with clicking noises and warning growls, he was surprised when the younger man didn’t move from the spot, but instead started to talk to him.
He had known human speech once, talked it with the people who had occupied this island before, before the light skinned people had come in big wakas from far away. They spoke like the blond man did, strange sounds, different from the first humans.
“Haere atu” he growled, the blonde stopped, golden eyes widening, a smile split his face. Mako could not get him to shut up after that.
Jamie was surprised when the growls and clicking stopped, he was happy though, how cool was it that he met a merman and he was allowed to get close and even touch him. He tried to teach him English, but quickly found it’d be easier if he’d learn te reo instead, since he could take night classes and he sucked at explaining things.
They learned each other's names, Jamie told him how he lost his leg, and Mako would tell him about the different scars when he asked. The old shark would take Jamie on the patrols around his territory, afterward they would laze in the sun. Mako’s head in Jamie’s lap, purring like a self-satisfied tiger, as the blonde’s fingers ran through his hair.
Mako was resting in the sun, his tail dipped in the water, sleep tugging at him. He heard the tell-tale click of a peg leg against stone, he opened one eye and cuffed, hiding a found smile from the human.
“Good morning, ya big lug,” came a shrill voice Mako had grown to enjoy, followed by cackling when the shark rolled into the water to get away. It had been a week since Jamie’s last visit, he had said something about work and the shark accepted it, a village needed many repairs and people who went hunting and fishing. Jamie sat down on the rock where Mako had sunbathed a few moments ago, he had the pants meant for swimming on. Mako had never understood why the pale ones needed specific clothes for swimming, but he had stopped questioning a long time ago.
Jamie started to take off his false limb, putting a fin like device in its place and another, shorter, one on his foot. Mako had seen it before, he knew the small human was going to join him in the water in a few moments. He chuffed and went under water, ignoring the yell for him to wait. The smaller one knew he never was too far away.
When he felt the water vibrate from Jamie jumping in, he turned around. He swam lazily over to the human, another chuff leaving his chest, he swam underneath Jaime for a while before raising and letting the human hold onto his back. Mako swam up to the surface when he felt taps on his shoulder, something he had quickly learned to do after the first time he dived too far down for Jamie to quickly get to the surface and the small weight on his back let go.
They swam around Mako’s territory checking the boarders, when Mako stopped, the smell of another male hung in the water, it was fresh. He swam up to the surface, looking around for a place where Jaime would be safe in case he lost the fight. He started to swim towards the shore when the other male crashed into him, the weight on his back was flung off. He snapped at the other shark and growled as they grappled. He tried to look for the human and saw him swimming towards the shore, the knowledge that Jaime would be killed if he lost this fight drove him into a rage and he bit down on the hand close to his face, snapping and clicking from both of them filling his ears.
Jaime swam in a blind panic, looking back and seeing the water turn red around the fighting giants made him swim faster. The adrenaline kept the cold at bay for now. Mako had told him he needed to swim to land if they met someone else, but he never thought it would happen. The pounding of his heart in his ears masked that the splashing had stopped, and he yelled in surprise when he felt teeth on his right arm. When he looked, he met the eyes of the other male, a smile on its lips before it bit down harder.
He might have screamed, he knew he had hit the attacker, he was being dragged down when he heard a familiar growl and mako came swimming up from under them and ripped the other males throat out with his teeth.
Mako saw red, to attack a mate or pups was the lowest of the low tricks to get a territory, and the smell of Jamies blood called forth an anger he had not felt since his mother had died as she and his father had defended their territory. He ripped into the other male and did not stop until the death twitches stopped.
He turned around and saw Jamie sink, he caught the human and started to swim towards the shore.
Familiar arms wrapped around him and the next he knew he was on the shore, arm burning in pain, a hand slapping his face. “Tai maranga, Jamie, tai maranga,” Mako’s voice sounded so far away. Jamie turned to his stomach and coughed up water, pain doing a comeback with a vengeance, and as soon as he could draw a breath he screamed.
Mako hid as the blue and red lights came to take Jamie away, he had to fight his instinct of chasing the strangers away from what was his, but Jaime had told him to hide after he had talked to a small smooth stone he had asked Mako to get from his bag.
A month came and went, Mako grew more and more anxious, his days muddled together into waiting for hours on the beach, a quick patrol, then back on the beach. He chased everything away, growled when he heard humans walk close to the beach. He knew it was sorrow and loss of a mate that had taken over his head, he remembered how his father had chased even prey away when he and his siblings tried to hunt. How they had to flee when he saw them as adults, he was glad he never had pups.
Two months, he knew he needed food soon, but the jittery feeling of keeping the territory safe for a dead mate stopped him from hunting. If the other male was alive, he would have attacked by now, but he was just a rotten carcass at the bottom of the seafloor.
He had not slept in days due to a pod of young dolphins that made a game of swimming into his turf, they knew, he was sure that it was the mer that hung with them that decided it would be fun to bother the old shark.
Footsteps could be heard, he gave a growl, they stopped. He waited for the sound of running away, but instead they came closer. He clicked in warning and got ready to attack whoever dared come close to him, but a familiar smell hit him, he opened his mouth just to be sure.
A person with blond hair came in view, and Mako could not stop the chuffs leaving his chest, a smile broke out on the other and he came running. Jaime jumped into Mako’s arms and laughed as the shark started to smell him. Mako looked him over and froze when he saw the stub where his right arm used to be, he let go of the human, wanting to go back to the carcass and mutilate it more. A small hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Hey, it’s fine, I’m fine,” Jamie imitated the chuffing noises and Mako looked at him.
“Could not protect you,” Jamie hugged him as tight as he could with one arm.
“You saved me, that is all that matters,” Mako shied away from his eyes, refusing to look at him “I tried to send friends to tell you that I was okay, but they were afraid when they heard you growl,” at that Mako looked at him, remembering the sounds of people walking towards the beach.
“Thought mate was dead,” he looked at Jamie, seeing the confusion in his eyes, “Chased away everything, everyone, make it safe for your soul,” his eyes landed on the nub once more “Getting ready to join,”
Jamie looked at the shark intensely, sure he had misunderstood something in the sentence.
“Mate? Who is your mate?”
Mako looked up once again, confused, did Jamie not know?
“You are,” Jamie looked lost so Mako continued “You stayed in my territory for days, you join on patrol, you spend time with me, you are my mate,” at this Jamie laughed.
Mako was once again confused, the people he knew before knew of the rule. They would visit him, sure, but in the same way dolphins would visit. Only on one side and gone just as quickly.
He was about to say something but was cut off by Jamies lips on his. They stayed on the beach, talking, Mako explained how shark courting worked and Jamie explained human courting. It was complicated and Mako decided his way was better. Jamie told him he could not join in the patrol for a couple of weeks, he was waiting for a swimming foot and Mako told him it was fine, he was already his.
When Jamie left Mako hunted, he fell asleep that night, content, and woke up the next morning to the voice of his very much alive mate calling for him.