Work Text:
Percy had a secret- he always had secrets, even as a kid, but this was bigger; more important than anything he’d kept before.
Every Tuesday and every odd three-day weekend, he disappeared. Percy packed up a backpack, made sure his rabbits had enough to eat for the duration of his absence, waved goodbye to the baker and his family as he strolled leisurely out of time, and set out where nobody knew where. He’d been asked from time to time where he was going, and he’d always given different, flippant answers.
“Oh, you know-!”
“Crazy, honestly.”
Or, his favourite;
“I’m on an adventure!”
In reality, the truth was both much more underwhelming and overwhelming.
Just north of his little village was the sea- the bright blue, sparkling sea. The sand was peachy, and near where the water met the shore, was full of beach glass and shells; where Percy stepped, his feet sunk up to the ankle, sand clung to every free inch of skin.
He meandered down the shoreline, once he got there, watching the water wash over his sandals and feet.
It was a short hike to his intended destination, a desolate little dock that jutted far out into the sea, surrounded by large rocks that worked as steps up for him.
When he stepped on the rickety old dock, it groaned under the new weight and shifted. The poor thing always seemed one day away from collapsing, but it was long forgotten by everybody else; nobody would ever come to fix it.
Percy set his things down at the edge of the dock, peering into the deep blue for a moment, watching the sun slowly slip behind the horizon line- he let his legs hang off the edge, feet barely brushing the water.
It didn’t take long for what he was waiting for to show up; a head peaked out of the water some distance away, pale eyes zeroed in on Percy almost immediately, and then diving back down, only to show up at the end of the dock, pulling himself up to rest his long arms next to where Percy was sitting and accidentally getting his shorts wet.
He must’ve been at least 9ft long, Percy imagined- he’d never seen him fully, considering he was always in water, but what was above water was already much bigger than Percy.
“Toasty!” Percy whined, nudging the mer’s elbow with his knee.
“You always end up getting water on me.”
Toasty simply smiled, a chittering noise escaping past his lips. Percy didn’t know what it meant- Toasty had picked English up fairly easily, or at least intonation, but Percy had struggled; the chirpy, dolphin-like language that the mer spoke had no inflection for the human to pick up on. It was mostly facial expression that Percy had learned to work with.
Percy dug through his backpack for a moment, bringing out a wax paper package- he carefully watched Toasty’s face as he opened it, immediately met with the strong smell of peanuts.
The mer’s pupils immediately dilated, blinking down at the peanut-oatmeal bars that Percy had baked and packed specifically for him, and Percy couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.
“Made them specially for you, ‘cause you seemed to like peanut butter last time,” ‘Last time’ being when he ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich Percy had packed for himself. He watched Toasty blush furiously at the callback, but still sheepishly accept when he was handed a couple bars.
They ate in silence for a few moments, Percy peering at the razor-sharp teeth that Toasty occasionally flashed while he ate.
He was a pretty thing, if Percy was honest- long, peachy-blond hair and pale blue, almost white, irises that complimented the light green and pink scales that seemed to randomly dot his skin. The webbing between his finned ears was translucent, the occasional vein visible in the light.
When they were done, Toasty leaned off the dock, sinking down until only his eyes were visible above the waterline.
He motioned to Percy, ‘swim with me!’ he seemed to say, one of his hands gently patting the water next to him and creating tiny ripples.
“I can’t,” Percy shook his head and pulled his legs up the edge, wrapping his arms around
“I’m scared.”
Toasty rose a little and motioned to himself after a moment, a flicker of hurt crossing his face.
“No, no! Not of you!” Percy was quick to assure, unwrapping his arms from his legs just as fast as he’d put them there, leaning over the edge to bring his face closer to Toasty’s.
“… I can’t swim very well. The water scares me.”
It felt stupid to say out loud- he’d lived near the sea his entire life, his best friend was a fish person. He shouldn’t be scared of deep water, he should be able to swim, but it had been a lifelong fear that he’d never been able to fight.
Percy avoided Toasty’s eyes, embarrassment flooding his face.
Instead of laughing like Percy expected- or, chittering, perhaps, -Toasty tugged on the hem of Percy’s shirt with webbed fingers, still imploring him to swim. He didn’t say anything, but gave Percy a long look, sincerity plastered across his face.
Percy swallowed hard, debating for a moment, before standing up slowly and sighing. He took his shirt off, tucking it in his backpack, as well as placing his shoes next to it.
Toasty backed up in the water a little as Percy ever so slowly lowered himself in, glancing at the scars that ran just under each nipple. Only briefly, of course.
“Oh, motherfucker-!” Percy swore as he got in up to his neck.
“I didn’t realize how cold it was!”
He clung to the leg of the dock once he was in the water, listening to Toasty snicker behind him. A warm hand on his back surprised him for a moment, even more when it moved to pull his hands from the dock.
“No, Toasty, seriously-!” Percy moved his grip to hold tightly to Toasty’s wrist, fighting the rising panic in his chest that came with being turned away from the dock.
“I really can’t swim,” He reiterated as he faced the mer, who only grinned as he moved them further from the shore.
“Fine. Just… don’t let go of me, okay?”
Toasty pulled him a good distance before they stopped, and a hand on Percy’s back and another on his sternum coaxed him into floating face-up; he was only confused for a short moment until he looked at the sky. The sun had been going down when he got to the beach, and now the stars and moon were out.
He’d seen the stars before, of course he had, but something felt different; he’d never seen them from the middle of a lake, where if he looked beside him they were reflected in the water, making it appear as if he floated amongst them.
“… Pretty.” Toasty’s quiet voice came from beside Percy, warped by the water. It wasn’t the first time he’d used an English word instead of his chirping, chittering language, but it surprised Percy every time.
He turned his head to look at Toasty, only to find him already staring back. If it weren’t for the hand still supporting his back, he likely would’ve ended up dunking himself.
“I- um, I think you’re really pretty, too,”
Percy didn’t know why he was keeping his voice hushed, but it felt wrong to speak at a normal volume; he stopped floating on his back, reaching out for the hand that had been helping him and lacing their fingers together
“… I wish you could come back with me, sometimes,” Percy admitted, leaning his forehead on Toasty’s arm, wrinkling his nose at the water that lapped at his chin.
“I know you can’t- and even if you could, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea…” There was no shortage of whack-jobs in the world, even in the little town Percy came from; bring a random fish person in probably wouldn’t go over well.
“But I think about you a lot, when I can’t be here.”
Toasty hummed, a vibration with his whole upper body that Percy could feel against his face, and he moved Percy to be close to his chest, wrapping his free arm around the small of Percy’s back to reassure him that he wouldn’t be let go of.
A feather-light kiss to the crown of his head had Percy blushing so hard he was sure it was visible even in the dark that surrounded them. He couldn’t see Toasty’s face at this angle, but he was sure that when he placed a soft kiss of his own on one of Toasty’s collarbone that it would cause the mer to erupt in a magnificent blush, himself.
It took a moment for either to speak again, simply enjoying the closeness, but at one point Toasty chirped something out, motioning back to the beach and Percy’s backpack.
“I don’t want to set up my tent,” Percy admitted, moving one of his arm’s to rest over Toasty’s shoulder and play with a lock of his hair, twirling it around his finger.
“… can we stay here? Just a little longer?”
Toasty rested his head in the crook of Percy’s neck, totally not to hide his face, and nodded into his skin.
And so they did. It was just them, the sky, and a sea of stars that watched over at they floated, tangled together.