Chapter Text
Don’t let them see, don’t let them know you exist. If one should see you, pull them under until water fills their lungs, and they no longer could say a word. Draw them in with your song, it is your greatest weapon, your voice especially, they told him. A merman born with a voice that could charm any human, draw them in. A merman born with power over the weather, to bring great storms and calamity. A savior to their people when the humans came and sought such destruction... He did not live for long until the day he swore he’d return, born anew in another.
That new life was Nagato.
But the story of the Savior was a long time ago, and he surely would not be needed. Humans no longer saw them as anything more than folktales, it was why they must always hide from seeing eyes. They wished not, by nature, to destroy them. They wished only to be left be. They warned Nagato, time and time again, that as the one who would protect them all when the time came, he should not swim to shallow waters.
He was too young, they said. While his powers only grow, he was still nothing more than a child in their eyes. Only just out of adolescence, but still nothing more than a child.
They all warned him, and yet he’d made the mistake no mermaid or man should ever. The shallow waters allowed Nagato to sneak a peek at those dwelling on the land, and excitement and nervousness grew in him. Even as the clouds ahead began to roar. He’d never been allowed this far out, and a childish curiosity is all it took. The rain didn’t faze him. He swam closer and closer. It was night, so few people were there; give or take a couple of sailors tying up their boats to the docks. He swam the other way, to the beaches, where no one was.
That was how it should have gone. A quick visit to the beach to get a closer look at what the land beyond the ocean looked like.
For a being who could control the weather, a storm was always brushed aside. He would notice in time, right? He could handle it and the waves of a storm could do little to him when he could brush them aside. He thought that would be the case... until as he was entranced by the beauty of the foreign land before him, a wave crashed into him as he was so close to the beach. A storm hit, one he’d brushed and forgot about until the waves threw him back and forth. They crashed and threw him around where he could not stop the storm until the wave threw him against the beach.
His head hit a rock protruding from the ground, he felt and sticking to his body in a way it never had underneath him. He felt heavy against the land beneath him, dizzy from the bump on his head. It hurt, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as panic set in. No, he didn’t need water to live immediately, he had some time, but moving was becoming difficult. It was night, he knew it was night and no one should be here, but it would be just his luck that-
“Obito, this storm is dangerous, we should really head back! We can come back for it tomorrow!”
“It’ll be really quick, I’ll be right back, don’t worry about me!”
A distant voice of a young girl and boy made Nagato’s heart begin to pound. Why were humans out here in this storm? He shouldn’t have been, and he was meant to be in the water! He started to struggle closer to the water, dragging his body against the sand that scratched against drying skin and scales far too uncomfortably. But he couldn’t be seen. He needed to go, he needed to escape. The water was right there, he could touch the waves coming back in. The fear of the waves throwing him back again was strong, but he had no choice. He was just about there, half his body was touching the water, and he needed his tail in so he could swim.
A wave came, hopefully, his saving grace to pull him back in. As he started to inch his way back into the water, he saw him.
A human boy, younger than him though certainly not by too much, rushed across the beach to grab what looked like a little pouch. That wasn’t what was important.
It was much worse when he turned his head and met Nagato’s eyes. Nagato’s crimson tail glimmered as it slammed into the water to finally pull him the rest of the way in. But there was no mistaking it...
He saw him. The way he saw the human’s eyes slowly widen for but a moment before he was thrust away by the waves... he knew.
Once he was back in the water he swam and swam and swam as fast as he could all the way home. He couldn’t tell anyone about this. But he should, shouldn’t he? Someone saw him, and even in a storm, there was no way he didn’t see what clearly made him not human, right?
He’d endangered everyone. He didn’t mean to, but if one human knew...
He couldn’t tell anyone. Telling them that their reborn savior endangered them was too much to bear. This was his burden. He would not trouble his friends nor his guardians. This was his mistake. He’d deal with it when the time came...
-
That had been years ago. Four, to be exact. Nothing had come of it. No humans came in boats looking to hunt them down. Such tragedies did not need to be repeated once more. But the memory of that meeting remained Nagato’s own secret. He never went back to the shore, no matter how much he wished to gaze upon that beauty again. No matter how curious he was about the only human he’d ever ‘met’ if you could even call it that.
Today, he was sent to hunt for food. A typical job for someone of his age. Find a few fish, and bring them back. It should have been that simple today. But many of the fish decided, much to his dismay, to swim further away from the depths. Perhaps they’d been overhunting them in this one area a bit too long...
If he stayed away from the shore, he believed, it would all be okay. A little closer and he'd catch a few fish, it'd all be okay. Closer and closer... he swam after the fish. And right when he almost had them... he looked up from the depths as a shadow came over him. Humans. A human, to be precise, was right above him, floating on... something. Those boards that he often saw them carrying from a distance but never understood what they were for. Now he did.
He was going to swim away, far, far away. They were up there, but who knows how long that would last. And he was right to consider that, he’d just considered it too late.
A wave came, and far above him, the human rode the wave. He could distantly hear sounds of excitement, though any words were lost between water and air. The wave’s pressure underneath played no small part in creating Nagato’s struggle to move further away.
And when the wave started to crash, down came the human. He’d fallen off and went down, but he was fine. He seemed prepared for it. That was the worst-case scenario. His eyes were open in the water below, and those dark eyes noticed him.
And Nagato remembered him clearly. He saw those eyes widen, shock spreading across the spiky-haired human’s face as he quickly began to swim to, the surface. For both air and likely, he guessed, to let everyone know. Nagato hardened his resolve. He couldn’t run away, not this time.
The human had to disappear.
A song began, a beautiful one, a serenade only for the young man whose hand almost touched the surface of the water before it froze. He looked back, entranced. Nagato’s singing pulled him in, keeping him in place like prey. Nagato swam closer to him, took hold of his hands, and began to lead him further down until he had a hold of him.
And as he saw the human slowly be unable to hold his breath any longer, Nagato got the closest look he had at him.
Spiky black hair, deep dark eyes, light scarring on the right side of his face. He’d matured since then, he had more masculine, less boyish features than before, but still so young. Pale fingers ran over that scar, over his jawline, down his neck. The closest he’d ever been to a human. Cuter than he’d imagined, even with the scars perfectly across half his face. His hand moved further down with his eyes, following a line of scars down the whole side of his body. They continued down a toned chest, a stark difference from Nagato’s thin body. Someone who had been through something awful... but still brought himself out here to do something exciting. Who worked his body back to strength...
And he was drowning. He was struggling in Nagato’s grasp, the moment Nagato’s song ended. Thrashing and desperately trying to swim up. Nagato knew what he had to do, he knew exactly what was expected of him... and yet...
The young man began to lose consciousness, his body began to sink. Nagato’s grip on him became tight, and up he swam with the other. He shoved him above the surface, he swam to where that board drifted alone in the water and threw him over it. He heard the cries of a young girl.
“Obito! Obito!”
Nagato dove back under the water as quickly as he came up. And as he swam away, he swore he saw half-opened dark eyes staring at him as he swam away.
He shouldn’t have let him live.
He wanted to see him again.
He was a fool.
-
Once again, nothing came of it. No boats seeking their end. Even though a few months had passed, it was as peaceful as ever. That human surely understood what nearly happened. So why...?
“What’s on your mind, Nagato?”
Yahiko spoke up swimming up by Nagato’s side. It was always Yahiko who could tell something was up. Even those four years ago he was the one who noticed he was hiding something but never pried. He trusted him... and Nagato couldn’t be more grateful for that fact.
“It’s nothing. I just...” Well, Nagato knew that giving him nothing to work with would just make Yahiko come to his own conclusions, so he continued, “I met someone that I want to get to know.”
“Now that’s not what I expected.” Yahiko’s curiosity was piqued, and a smile began to form, “Now is this an ‘I want to get to them as a friend thing’ or a ‘this is my future lover’ kind of thing?” He was teasing, Nagato knew he was, but that didn’t stop the slight blush that began to form.
“As a friend, Yahiko.” Nagato barely knew the human, of course it wouldn’t be something like that. “I haven’t even been able to talk to them yet.”
“Seriously? You’ve gotten way better at talking to others. You used to be much more distant than you are now. You should talk to them.”
“It’s not that simple, Yahiko. We’re... very different people.” Nagato looked upwards with a sigh. More different than Yahiko could ever understand.
“You and I aren’t all that alike but we’re friends.”
“It’s... really more complicated than that.”
“Why not give them something anonymously first?” Yahiko suggested.
“Do you mean... like a gift?”
“Yeah, let them know someone is thinking about them! You don’t have to talk to them to give them a gift.”
Nagato had a feeling Yahiko was taking this the wrong way, as though he wanted something more with someone he barely knew.
Ludicrous.
And yet here he was after that little talk, searching around for the most beautiful seashell he could possibly find on the ocean floor. This was ridiculous. The human would have no idea who it was from and even if he found out, surely, he wouldn’t want a gift from the creature that nearly killed him.
Still, when he found a seashell sparkling as beautifully as the full moon, he’d found one the one that felt right.
Now just came trying to find a way to bring the human this gift...
-
He had not returned to this area where the human was riding the board since that day. It was closer to the evening than before, but he could only hope that he would show up. It was silly. There was no way he’d be so fortunate. It was more probable that the human realized he should never return here. Who would?
Yet as he sat at the bottom staring at the seashell anxiously, he saw a shadow move across the ocean floor, a very familiar one. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest as he looked up. That had to be him. The board was the same, and the silhouette seemed to be as well...
But this time, he didn’t go further out towards the waves. He seemed as though he was... waiting. Looking around. Was it... for him?
After a few minutes and the human had not moved, Nagato slowly began to swim up behind the human. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he placed the seashell on the board. Hopefully, he would notice it and it wouldn’t simply fall off. He swam back down, though perhaps a bit too loudly because the human jumped and looked straight to where he’d just gone under.
He saw him reach for the seashell, take hold of it in his hand, and it warmed Nagato’s heart far more than he would have thought to see the blurry outline of a smile. He was content. He was ready to leave, swim away and never see him again...
“Wait! Don’t go!”
He froze at the voice. He looked up; he could see the blurry image of the other looking straight at him. His hand in the water, seashell in it, and reaching out to him.
Everything he learned was thrown out the window. Nagato cautiously swam up, and his head began to peek out from the water. He looked up at him, and their eyes met for far longer than they ever had before.
“You’re...” The human breathed out slowly, as though the reality were setting in. “You’re real, right?”
Had he thought him nothing more than a figment of his imagination? And yet he still came out here, hoping to see another glimpse of him. He’d never spoken to a human before. His heart was pounding.
“I am.” He slowly reached out, placing a hand on the front of his board.
“I knew I hadn’t lost my mind.” The human chuckled, “All those years ago I thought I was crazy... then there you were again.” He did remember him. “I thought I was a goner. But here I am. Still breathing.”
“You didn’t tell anyone?”
“I’m not the most liked in my town to begin with, didn’t need them thinking I’d gone crazy too. I told a friend of mine, I know she believed what I thought I saw, but she couldn’t imagine what I’d seen...” He seemed as though he were reminiscing on a pleasant memory, despite what happened. “I’d never seen something so... beautiful before.”
That was all it took, Nagato was turning as red as his hair and slowly dipping back into the water. His tail flicked back and forth in the water, and he cursed it.
“You’re a strange one...” But Nagato was smiling, “Do you not care what I am?”
“As far as I’m concerned, I could have died. And besides...” He held up the seashell, looking over it with a smile as it glimmered, “This is a gift, right? Can’t mean harm if you’re bringing me this. Oh, thanks for it, by the way.” He was beaming. “I can add it to my collection.”
“You collect seashells?”
“Yeah, ever since I was a kid. Rin and I, my friend, by the way, always visit the beach together. We live close by and ever since we met, we’ve been coming back here. She gave me some seashells herself that she found, and I’ve been keeping them ever since.”
The little sack he seemed so desperate to get back all those years ago suddenly came to mind. Of course, it was important enough to him to risk a storm near the ocean... As trivial as some might consider it when something is given to you by those you love it means more than anything.
“We... don’t get to go as often as we used to. She had to move away, but she still comes out here with me sometimes.” He spoke with such fondness, and Nagato understood exactly what he must be feeling.
Adoration for another.
“But... I guess maybe the beach doesn’t have to be such a lonely place anymore.” Now, the fond smile turned to face Nagato. “At least, I hope not.”
He wanted... to see him again. He slowly pulled himself further out of the water, coming closer to him. He swore he saw a tint of red on his cheeks. So, it wasn’t just him...
“I want to see you again,” Nagato admitted, slowly reaching out and placing a hand on the unscarred side of his face. He was beautiful in his own right, a mystery, a kind heart within...
His heart wouldn’t stop pounding. And he felt heat radiating off his hand, but the smile on the human only grew softer. He took hold of Nagato’s arm, as close to him as he could be without falling right off his board.
“I’m Obito.”
“Nagato...”
To think, they didn’t even know each other’s name until that exact moment, but Nagato already wanted to see him again, and again, and again. He wanted to lean forward, hold him, press those lips to his. No one had ever made him feel this way... it was maddening but in the best possible way.
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the cheek of the human named Obito. Smirking with playful delight at the way his face became redder than before. A compromise he gave himself if he could not yet have what he wanted.
“I’ll be waiting for you, Obito.”