Chapter Text
Patroclus had heard tales of the nereids before. Or merfolk. Sirens. Whatever you wanted to call them. It was inevitable, really. Living and working as a fisherman came with its fair share of old wives tales, but the nereids were by far the most dangerous of them.
He remembered old, barely-there memories with his mother. They would sit upon the beach, watching the waves with their toes poked into the sand. She would point out the flick of a dolphin’s tail as it dove back under the surface, telling a story of how it would bring news back to a pod of nereids that lived in the undersea caves.
Other times she would tell him stories of how the nereids had lured men to their deaths. She described coldly beautiful women who bewitched unsuspecting and unprepared sailors. The way they would coax them into the icy waters by pretending to drown. And as soon as the sailor dove in, they would get dragged to the depths.
Her tales had always seemed to teeter just on the edge of realism when he was young, and Patroclus had almost believed them to be true.
“Pat?”
He sighed, leaning against the railing of his small fishing boat. The salty breeze was cool against his cheeks. Even now that his mother was long since gone, he still took comfort in the memory of her and the stories she told. It was a reassurance that the odd bump against his boat was just a wayward merperson, and not a shark that might try to rip a hole in his fishing net.
“Pat!”
Patroclus jerked from his thoughts with a start, blinking at the frustrated figure before him. Briseis stood, hands on her hips and looking expectantly at him.
“I could leave you to tie your boat on your own alone,” she said.
He gave her an apologetic smile and tossed a thick rope to her from his place on the deck. “Sorry. Just distracted, I suppose.”
“I couldn’t tell.” Swift, sure hands secured his boat to a small wooden dock. She extended one out to him, helping him back onto solid ground. “A good haul today?”
Patroclus shrugged, reaching back to grab the cooler where he had stored his catch. “No different from normal. I don’t think I got out early enough today.” He shaded his eyes against the late afternoon sun that now hung high in the sky. “I think the nereids must be taking my fish. Normally I don’t have to be up before six to get a good catch.”
Briseis let out a soft chuckle. “On that again, are we? I didn’t realize that they targeted you so often,” she teased.
“Hush, you. Go home. Isn’t your father waiting for you?”
“My father thinks I am playing the role of a fishwife every time I come to help you.”
Patroclus could not help but snort at the implication. “Yes, because that would be the only reason to have you over. Not as if trying to do this on my own is difficult.”
“Trust me, Pat. I’ve tried to tell him a thousand times that you’re not interested in women at all. He’s just not having it. Or he doesn’t want to listen to me. Either are valid options, really.” She kept pace a few steps in front of him, leading the way back to Patroclus’ small beach-side cabin. “But again, you really have nothing to worry about. All you have to do is find a nice man to settle down with and he’ll give up. Probably.”
“You make it sound so easy, Bri.” Patroclus heaved the cooler up the few steps to the porch of his cabin, setting it down in front of a large outdoor freezer. “What am I going to do? Take my boat out and catch one up in my net?”
“Well have you tried that?”
He only laughed, rolling his eyes at her words. He knew she meant well, but when he didn’t see himself as the catch Briseis insisted that he was, it wasn’t exactly easy to want to put himself out there. This compounded with his introverted nature just made dating even more difficult.
“You’re self-sabotaging, Pat.” She perched on the railing of his porch, her dark eyes looking at him pointedly. “You can’t hide forever.”
“I am not hiding.” Patroclus shut the lid of the freezer, hopping on top of it to sit and face her. “It’s clearly my impossibly high standards of needing to find someone who will put up with a constant fish smell. And who will also just appear before me without me having to do any work.”
“Yes, yes. Your incredibly realistic standards. My mistake.” She chuckled at his words. “But really, Pat. I worry about you. You’re all alone out here when I’m not around. Humans are social creatures. Being isolated like this isn’t good for you.”
“I’ll be okay. I promise.” In front of the cabin, the sun beat down hot and bright on the sand. The tide had begun to recede, revealing shells and kelp that had been brought in with high tide hours earlier. “You should go before it gets too much warmer. Your father may think the worst.”
“As if he won’t already,” she sang. Briseis took his hand with an appreciative smile as Patroclus helped her down from the railing. “But I get it. You want me out of your hair. I’ll see you later.”
Later that evening, Patroclus sat on the steps of his porch. The moon hung high in the sky, and the incoming tide lapped quietly at the surf. Briseis had not been wrong earlier when she had said he was fairly isolated- and it did get lonely from time to time. It was especially evident on nights like these.
He would sit alone with his thoughts, watching the waves for hours on end, occasionally seeing a fish leap out of the water. Sometimes he would entertain himself by imagining that it had been the tail of a nereid that he had seen, come to breach the surface for a moment. But reality would be quick to set back in. His father’s sharp words to ignore his mother’s fantastical stories came swiftly to his mind.
“Get those ideas out of your head. You will never be successful out on the ocean if you are too busy looking for made up creatures.”
His lips twisted down as he frowned to himself. Even if he liked to imagine it, his father was right. If Patroclus could not focus on a catch, then that would mean no fish, which would mean nothing to sell, which would mean no money.
Patroclus’ nose wrinkled at the thought. Thinking like that definitely meant it was time for him to turn in. Tomorrow was another day.
Patroclus had set out early the next morning. The sun was barely beginning to peak over the horizon, and early morning winds batted against the material of the windbreaker he wore. As he pushed out into the open waters, he settled in for a long, uneventful morning. His net was cast and secured over one side of the boat, a small breakfast sandwich sat beside him, and all that was left was to wait.
An hour passed. Then two. Then three. Patroclus’ breakfast now sat mostly finished on the small table beside him. The waves had been stronger today, jostling his small sailboat with more force than usual, and nearly knocking the book in his hands into the sea on several occasions.
And then the bar holding his fishing net secure began to bend.
A noise of surprise left him. Whatever had caused it was heavy enough to pull his boat dangerously close to capsizing. Patroclus got to his feet quickly, tossing his book aside and running to peer into the dark waters to see if he could catch a glimpse of what had gotten caught. As he pulled the net up, he prayed that it was just a large piece of litter that had snagged and not something worse.
Instead, as the top of his net surfaced, he was faced with a pair of startlingly green eyes.
He screamed and scrambled backward quickly. The creature that had caught itself in his net returned with a snarl of its own, and thrashed about violently. The movement made his boat rock dangerously again, and Patroclus had to grab the railing to keep himself from being thrown overboard.
He crept close to the net again, his hand on the fish knife he kept close by to quickly gut his catches before he returned home for the day. Whatever it was that had been thrashing around seemed to have stopped for now, but Patroclus certainly did not want to resort to harming the creature. What if it was endangered? And it certainly wasn’t the first time something had gotten caught in his net like this- though it was the first time something so big had gotten entangled.
Patroclus peered carefully over the side again. Bright green eyes glowered up at him, and it snarled again. He was able to see the creature a little more clearly now. Scales ran up from it’s shoulders over its neck and cheeks, all the way to its brow bone. Golden hair caught the sun and glimmered in the dark blue-green of the ocean. Its mouth was still vaguely blood-stained from the fish it had followed into his net and eaten. His eyes traveled over the creature and recognition finally clicked.
A nereid.
It was at this moment that the nereid decided to thrash again, and Patroclus was nearly pitched overboard once more. He yelped and grabbed the railing at the last second, groaning as the metal bar hit him hard in the stomach.
“H-hey-! I’m not going to hurt you, okay?” He spoke slowly, waiting for recognition from the other. The nereid said nothing, only glowering up at him from the net. “I, um, look. I have to pull the net up a little more so I can let you out, okay?”
Still no response, but it was better than being snarled at again. Patroclus slowly pulled the net further up. He would have to release his catch and start over now, but it was a small price to pay to avoid being drowned by the nereid.
He made sure to move slowly, acutely aware of the creature’s eyes on him the whole time. As he moved to let out the net, the nereid immediately made to swim away. Patroclus would have been content to leave it at that, but the creature let out a sudden, pained yell. His boat rocked again and as he looked down to see what had caused the creature such pain, he swore he could feel the air leave his lungs.
The nereid had gotten one of it’s slim wrists caught in the net, and the heavy duty material of the netting had dug into it’s skin and was already starting to leave a bright red mark. Patroclus dragged an exasperated hand over his face. Of course this would happen to him. It couldn’t be as simple as just letting out the net and allowing the nereid to swim away.
He sighed and reached for his fish knife again, trying to lean over the side of the railing to get at them. No dice. The nereid was too far down for him to be able to reach down and cut their wrist free. Plan B then.
“I need to cut you free,” he said. Patroclus continued to speak slowly, doing his best to mime out his intended actions. “Can you try to pull yourself onto the deck? I can’t reach you.”
The nereid continued to watch him warily, green eyes fixed on the knife in his hand.
Patroclus shook his head quickly. “No, no- I’m not- it’s not- I don’t want to hurt you. This is just to cut the netting away. I promise.”
They did not move for a long moment. It bared its teeth in a threat, preferring to instead bend down and attempt to saw the netting away with sharp, serrated teeth. Patroclus was well aware it wouldn’t work out well- a serrated edge would only unbraid and fray the material of the net rather than cut it. He waited patiently for them to give up, and at last move to pull themselves up onto the deck of his boat.
Instinct took over at perhaps the wrong moment when he decided to reach out to try and help them up. The nereid lashed out with talon-like nails, scratching through his windbreaker and leaving three bright red lines on Patroclus’ arm. He hissed in pain and drew his arm close. Painful as it was, he did not want to lash out in response; he knew they were only trying to defend themselves from someone they probably saw as a predator.
“Sorry. I was just trying to help,” he murmured.
His tone seemed to have an affect on the nereid. They looked at him, curiosity flitting over their features for a moment. Slowly, they extended their trapped wrist out to Patroclus. Their movements were still hesitant, and he responded in kind, giving them ample time to pull back if they felt uncomfortable.
Patroclus swiftly slid the thin blade under between their wrist and the netting. He turned the blade upward and with a quick movement cut them free. As soon as their hand was free, they dove back into the open waters. Patroclus was barely able to get a last look at them before their figure disappeared into the dark waters.
“I’m sorry, you what ?”
Briseis was looking at him in disbelief as he cleaned out the wound the nereid had left on his arm.
“I got scratched by a nereid,” Patroclus replied simply. “It got caught in my net, and I had to cut it loose. End of story.”
“Um, no. Not end of story.” She put her hands on her hips, lips pursed. “What was it even doing in your net? Are you sure you weren’t just like. Seeing things? I know you get really tired out there--”
“Is the scratch on my arm not proof enough?” He winced a bit as he pulled the cloth bandage tight on his arm. “I know what I saw, Bri. Scales, a fish tail, sharp teeth. Human-looking. Definitely a nereid.”
“I...I guess. But, even if it was a nereid, what was it doing out where you fish? Those waters are deep, but not deep enough for where they supposedly live, right?”
Patroclus shrugged, carefully checking over his arm once it was fully bandaged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they just wandered too far? I think it followed a fish into my net. It looked like it had been eating.”
“I thought they were supposed to be intelligent.”
There was a moment of silence before the pair of them burst out laughing. “I don’t think it would take too kindly to you calling it unintelligent.”
“Has to understand me first.” She paused for a moment before asking, “Did it even talk? Or...understand you at all?”
Patroclus made a so-so motion with his hand. “Maybe? They might’ve been too scared to actually talk to me. But...they seemed to understand me well enough. Eventually.” He touched his arm gently where the scratch was, frowning some. “I mean, I can only imagine what it must’ve been like. Trapped and alone like that? I didn’t even see another nereid close by.”
“Could’ve been hiding. But…Pat, don’t worry about it so much. It was probably just a one off thing, you know?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. He could tell that Briseis didn’t quite believe him, and he didn’t blame her. How many times had they made up their own stories about the nereids that dwelled in the deep-sea caves? And she had always been more firmly rooted in reality, anyway. Still, he might have brushed the whole thing off as a fever dream himself, if he did not have the evidence of the scratch on his arm.
But, as usual, Briseis was right. He probably wouldn’t see that nereid with the golden hair again. Stories his mother told had always been of strange, teetering on the edge of human creatures that kept to themselves. What reason would it even have to come back.
But that didn’t stop Patroclus from holding out hope that he might see them again.
The next day was more of the same. One last trip out before he brought his haul in for the week to be sold.
Above, the sky was clouded over, casting the already dark waters to a pallid shade of gray. The waters were less calm today, constantly rocking his boat back and forth. Were he not used to it by now, he was certain he would have been sick.
Patroclus was lost in the pages of a book when he heard a plop on the deck behind him. He frowned to himself, setting his book aside to glancing over to investigate. On the wet wooden deck, a mackerel flopped and gasped for breath. Odd, he thought, but not completely out of the realm of possibility. Fish did tend to jump, but they usually only ended up landing on the deck if the tide was particularly rough.
He shrugged and got up from his seat, carefully nudging the hapless creature back into the water and watched it swim away. He turned to return to his seat, but before he could take more than a single step, there was another plop behind him. Patroclus turned quickly, just in time to see a clawed hand disappear back over the side of the deck and another fish flailing back toward the water.
“Wh- hello??”
Water splashed against the side of his boat as he leaned over to try and see what had very clearly dropped a fish on his deck. But all that he could see were the dark depths below him, and a passing clump of seaweed.
No, not seaweed. A head of hair, darkened by the overcast sky and the blue-green waters it tried to hide in.
“I know you’re there.”
There was no response, but the mass of what he had thought was seaweed did not move. Patroclus was about ready to give up, when up popped the same fair-haired and fair-skinned nereid from the day before.
Seeing them again now without the shroud of fear and anxiety hanging over him, Patroclus could make out their features a bit better. On first glance, he might have mistaken them for a woman. The long hair and delicate features certainly pointed to as much, but as they rose further from the water, that was clearly not the case.
Broad shoulders and muscled arms defined from pulling himself through the current on a regular basis were visible to Patroclus now, accenting the nereid’s other, more delicate features. Now that he was less afraid that this creature might attack him again, he would even go so far as to call them attractive.
“You threw away my gift.”
“What?”
Patroclus blinked in confusion as he spoke. His voice clear and high, like chimes on the wind. It suited him, Patroclus thought. Despite him being a creature that supposedly dragged sailors to their deaths.
“My gift.” The nereid pointed to the fish that had ceased moving, it’s now dead eyes staring into nothing. “You threw the first one away.”
“I...thought it jumped onto my deck,” he replied. The gears turned slowly in his brain, trying to piece together what was being said.
One: the nereid had brought him a gift.
Two: the nereid was upset that he had apparently tossed away said gift.
Three: the gift had been a now-dead fish.
“I- sorry, you were giving me a gift because…?”
The nereid let out a small huff, green eyes narrowed in obvious frustration. He held up his wrist where a faint mark still was from the day before. “Because you didn’t try to hurt me. And you let me go.”
“I...oh. Okay. Um. You’re welcome, I guess?” Patroclus scratched his beard absently, unsure what else to say.
“Also because I stole one of the fish you had in that...thing.” His eyes crinkled at the thought of the net. “And you looked upset when you had to let them all go because of me. So I brought one back.” His green eyes darted to where the ‘gift’ now lay on the slowly warming deck and frowned. “But now it’s dead.”
“Ah, it’s okay,” Patroclus said quickly. “I, um, probably wouldn’t have had use for it anyway. But I do appreciate the gesture. I just...I didn’t even think you were real. I mean- my mother used to tell me stories about nereids and all that, but I never thought that--”
“Of course I’m real!” Below, he could see the nereid’s tail jerk in irritation. “Why would someone tell stories about something that’s not real? My mother told me stories about humans, and I always knew you were real!”
Patroclus held up his hands defensively. “Okay, okay, sorry- I didn’t mean any offense by it. I just...you’ll have to forgive me if I find the existence of a human-like sea creature a bit far-fetched.”
“Well I think the idea of a nereid with legs is a bit far-fetched! And you don’t even have any gills!” The nereid was pulling himself out of the water now, squinting to try and get a better look at Patroclus. “How are you even breathing? And no scales, or claws?”
He winced as he was poked and prodded at with sharp nails, and the nereid continued on. “I mean it’s no wonder humans die in the ocean so easily! You have no way to defend yourself, no way to even breathe .” The nereid prodded at him again. “And so squishy! It’s like you’re asking for something to come take a bite out of you!”
Patroclus did not realize he had backed up until his legs hit the back of the chair he had been sitting in only minutes prior. The nereid had pulled himself out and onto the deck of his boat, sitting at the edge with his tail only just dangling into the water.
“Okay, okay, I get it. You think I’m weird. I think you’re weird--” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to offend. I appreciate the gift, um…”
“Achilles."
“Achilles. Right. Patroclus,” he replied, gesturing to himself.
“Pa-tro-clus.” He watched as Achilles sounded his name out. There was something different about the way he said it. Not rushed, or in a hurry to get it out of his mouth. “Patroclus. Okay. Well then, Patroclus. Since you left my gift to die, I will have to bring you something else.”
Patroclus shook his head quickly. “You really don’t have to--”
Achilles held up a hand sharply. “No, Mother says that a gift must be brought live and intact in order to properly show your appreciation for the other,” he said firmly. “So I will bring you something that I know will survive on land. At least for longer than the fish did. Do you like crabs?”
“I…”
“Right. I will bring you a crab next time.” Achilles nodded firmly to himself. “This will have to do for now, though.”
“Wh--”
Before Patroclus could even think to string two words together, Achilles had reached for him and yanked him so that they were eye to eye. Cold lips pressed into his sun-warmed cheek, and he felt just the barest scrape of one of Achilles’ serrated teeth bite into his skin.
“A promise,” Achilles chirped. “That I will be back with your gift.”
Patroclus could only nod in response, too dumbfounded for any other reaction.
Achilles waved a hand in front of his face, frowning a bit. “Hello?? Well. I’m pretty sure you heard me. I’ll keep an eye out for your boat, so don’t keep me waiting!”
Without another word, Patroclus watched as he slipped off of the deck and back into the sea. He was still having trouble trying to put together what happened in his mind, but he knew one thing for sure:
Briseis was never going to believe him this time.