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The sun shimmered down through the waves, sending dappled spots of light over the sandy floor of the ocean, where it danced over the shimmering blue scales of his tail. Bucky liked this spot, far enough away from the little village he’d grown up in, where each shelled roof and open doorway was full of nosy neighbors and idle gossip. It was peaceful here, quiet and bright in the shallower water.
Every now and again a shadow passed up above, and he was reminded of the children’s stories he’d grown up with, of creatures who lived on the land, breathed air and traversed the seas in vessels made of wood.
His dad used to tell him about the time one of those vessels had sunk below the waves, before Bucky was born, and how they’d found all kinds of treasures in its depths while the land creatures all either swam back to the surface or passed away.
There was still an assortment of objects on shelves and in boxes in Bucky’s childhood home which his father claimed to be from that wreck. They were all strange, and seemingly useless, but Bucky’s favorite was a narrow stick made of a solid material, with a lock of hair on one end, which tickled when Bucky brushed it against his scales.
Another shadow passed overhead, and Bucky wondered how true the stories were. The creatures had to be real, but he couldn’t see how they lived up there. What would it be like, to spend his days above the waves, the sun shining directly on his face? He closed his eyes and let his mind wander. What did the land-creatures eat? Did they have scales, or fat and blubber like seals and dolphins? Seals spent a lot of time on the surface as well as in the water, so that seemed more likely.
When he opened his eyes again, the large shape had moved out of his sight, but there was a smaller shape in its place, growing bigger by the moment. It was coming closer, sinking. Was it something from the vessel? It grew closer and closer and after a moment Bucky made out the shape of a head, four limbs, and a torso.
It wasn’t an object, it was a creature , a being – like Bucky from the waist up, but instead of a tail, the torso split into two, and the sight was both strange and intriguing to him. He knew he wasn’t allowed to swim to the surface, but his curiosity got the best of him and he pushed up towards the being.
The stranger’s eyes were closed, a stream of bubbles escaping from his mouth. They can’t breathe underwater, Bucky realized, just as he couldn’t breathe in the air. This person was going to die if he didn’t make it back to the surface. Bucky hooked his webbed fingers around his arms and began to swim upwards. It felt like forever before they breached the surface, and Bucky was careful to keep his own mouth and gills underwater while holding the strange person up above, hoping that would be enough.
After a moment, he heard a spluttering gasp, then loud coughing, and the stranger began to move, limbs thrashing in the water, catching Bucky in the chest and pushing him away. Bucky let go, and after a moment, the movements slowed, becoming less frantic, more controlled.
The stranger made a sound, like speech but in a language Bucky couldn’t understand. He was looking at Bucky, eyes wide and blue, hair golden in the bright, blinding sunbeams. Bucky could see the moment the stranger recognised Bucky’s tail, his much darker eyes and shimmery skin, because he shouted out and almost sank back under the waves in surprise.
Bucky reached out to help him again, laughing a little at the reaction. The stranger let him, and put a hand, five fingers with no webbing, on Bucky’s arm.
Bucky was breathing heavily, and he couldn’t explain the flutter in his chest – was this just what the surface felt like? He ducked back under the waves for a moment and bobbed back up, but no, it wasn’t that.
The stranger gestured at himself with his other hand and said a single word. Bucky frowned, and he repeated the gesture. This time, Bucky could make out the shape of the word, and he repeated it back.
“Steve.”
The stranger nodded excitedly, extending a hand with four fingers closed and the thumb raised. He said the word again, pointing back at himself. “Steve!”
Then it clicked, the stranger was telling Bucky his name. Bucky nodded, pointed at Steve and repeated his name, then gestured at himself. “Bucky.”
Steve listened carefully, but didn’t say anything, so Bucky repeated his name until Steve repeated after him.
“Buck-ky,” he said. Bucky grinned – it was close enough. They stayed together like that, until Bucky noticed that Steve was trembling.
“Steve?” he asked.
Steve looked around, and gestured at the vessel in the distance. Bucky realized he must have fallen off, and he probably wasn’t built for staying in the water like this.
“Do you need to get back to the vessel?” Bucky asked. Steve didn’t seem to understand, but he pointed at the vessel again and said something which Bucky assumed to mean the same thing. Bucky nodded, then ducked under the water. He whistled out, hoping someone would hear him. Steve was looking at him funny when he came back up, like he hadn’t expected to see him again. Bucky smiled in what he hoped Steve would see as a reassuring manner.
He heard a series of clicks and whistles behind him and saw Steve’s face turn from doubt to confusion to happiness as the dolphins came to a stop beside them.
Bucky helped Steve climb onto one of their backs, and then together they swam at full speed towards the vessel. When they got there, Steve seemed to shy back, nudging the dolphin to hide near the edge of the vessel. He held a finger to his lips and gestured up. Bucky could hear more voices up above, and he frowned.
“Are they not your friends?” he asked. Steve seemed nervous, reluctant to climb up the ladder which was conveniently hanging down into the water. He guided the dolphin around the edge until he saw what he was looking for – a small opening in the side, about halfway up from the water.
Bucky wasn’t sure why Steve was trying to sneak back up there, but he figured there was probably a good reason. Steve could just about reach the opening, Bucky thought, if he had something to climb up. Steve seemed to be thinking the same.
Bucky gestured down below and tried to mimic the thumb gesture Steve had done earlier, and it seemed to get the message across, because Steve nodded, and he didn’t seem surprised when Bucky dove down again.
This time, he swam all the way back to his village, avoiding conversations and greetings until he found what he needed. The rope was strong, sturdy, used for herding animals on his father’s farm. He grabbed as much as he could and wrapped it around himself so he could swim with it. He hesitated for a moment, went inside to grab the stick with hairs, then swam back to Steve.
Steve’s face was worried until Bucky breached the surface again, but as soon as he saw him his frown split into a smile. He took the rope. It took a few tries, but they managed to get it through a loop just above the opening, and it held secure. Steve held the rope, and Bucky braced himself to watch him climb away into the dry, foreign vessel.
Bucky held out the object which he’d kept hidden as they secured the rope. Steve looked at it in surprise, then plucked it gently from Bucky’s hand.
“Paintbrush,” he said. Bucky didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway.
Steve touched the hairs reverently, then offered it back. Bucky shook his head. Steve smiled again, then tucked the paintbrush into a fold of his clothing.
He said something else in that strange language of his, then looked up at the side of the vessel and back to Bucky.
He reached out a hand, looking like he was trying to make a choice about something, but Bucky couldn’t figure out what it was. Then Steve leaned over, sliding off his dolphin but keeping a hand wrapped around the rope. He ducked his face underwater and pressed his mouth to Bucky’s, then resurfaced and started climbing. Bucky floated there, frozen in surprise until he realized what had just happened. He reached for the rope too, holding his breath as he pulled himself up beside Steve and returned the gesture, kissing his strangely warm lips before falling back into the water.
Bucky watched Steve climb up and pull himself in through the hole, a smile on his face the entire way.
He popped his head back out a moment later and waved at Bucky. Bucky waved back from the water, and stayed there until the vessel floated away in the water.
Bucky flapped his tail and did a twirl in the water before turning and swimming towards home. He didn’t know if he’d ever see Steve again, but he hoped he would.
He really hoped he would.