Chapter Text
The morning after a storm was Rohan's favorite time to stroll along the beach. At dawn everything seemed asleep and still; just the salty, gentle breeze of the ocean hitting against rocks, sand, and Rohan's skin.
Just outside his summer home, the small dog house he had recently built was threatened by heavy rain and wind. The storm the night before had been violent. It was rare for the weather to get this bad during summer, and he couldn't shake the thought that it could only be some sort of omen. The feeling wouldn't go away no matter how hard he tried.
Rohan followed behind the small puppy running along the water's shoreline, playing in the sand. It was still too early to see anyone else along the coast, and yet Bakin stopped for a moment and tilted his head, cautious but curious.
Suddenly, Rohan heard barking.
Bakin sprinted and then stopped at the entrance of a huge sea cave. He was frenetic, trying to get his owner's attention, so Rohan sighed and ran after him.
When he finally caught up it took a moment to realize what Bakin was even barking at, only for the feeling from earlier that morning to wash over him again. "Bakin! Come here right now, boy!" His voice finally reached the dog, who then sheepishly stepped away from... "A corpse...? Here?"
Rohan's mind raced. The light couldn’t yet hit this corner of the rock formation, and what he could distinguish in the dark was barely the silhouette of a person, swallowed half by a body of water, and face down in the sand. Rohan had always been a very curious man, he’d seen his share of death and decay before, sure, but this time... this felt different. He stepped closer, and lithe slivers of light began to peek through the cracks in the cave's ceiling and illuminated the skin of the man laying there. It almost shone under the soft rays.
For a moment, Rohan could have sworn that he saw the body twitching, although still snarled in nets, scarred on one side and trickles of dried blood on the other. It was enough to make his heart jump and he suddenly found himself beside the body, trying his best to untangle the clump of nets and ropes entangling the man.
In the heat of the moment, Rohan's eyes were too focused on the broad shoulders—raw, hurt, and scratched—that he failed to notice... The tail. The tail?
His hand followed the man's spine down until it met with scales. Was his mind playing tricks on him now? His brows furrowed. No, that couldn’t be, could it? Just as the sea crashed against the rocks, so too did his thoughts, swirling around in his head, over and over.
He must have been dreaming, that must be it.
That was the only explanation for why his body kept working at untangling the net, and pulling out fish hooks out of this... fish-person, and why his mind was racing through all these, impossible, outrageous images. He was simply dreaming all of this.
Bakin let out a meek bark towards his master that echoed through the walls surrounding them.
The sunlight slowly crept further through the cove and finally, Rohan could see the rest of the creature in all its mesmerizing and terrifying glory. His tail was three or four times the size of his torso, it somehow looked alien yet at the same time familiar. He’d seen giant fish before, he’d been close to monstrous snakes just a month ago, but the sight of something that combined those traits with a living human body… those things simply couldn’t exist in real life.
And yet here he was, and here they were.
Adrenaline filled his body and Rohan somehow managed to turn the man face up, his dark hair covering an almost translucent face.
Dreams were a strange thing, Rohan knew that already. They could give you everything you had ever wished for in a moment, but they could also wake him in cold sweat. Right now, he would have preferred the latter. He checked the man for a pulse and his eyes widened.
"You have to be fucking with me."
He could feel his own heart pounding in his ears. Dreaming or not, he couldn't just let someone die like this, it would have been too cruel. He stood from where he was kneeling and ran into the water with nothing but a hope that his plan would work.
His hands wrapped around the scaly mass, around the unreal tail, and he pulled, pulled until he managed to slide the creature down into the cold blue water, until he could carry him in his arms and slowly move even further.
The merman was weightless like this, and for a brief second, Rohan could look at what he actually held in his arms... He’d never imagined hair this deep, dark blue, or known skin to shine like this under sunlight, as if his chest was painted with thin, delicate veins. Icy but almost alive by themselves. Was this working? Was submerging him helping at all or was he just wasting precious time?
"Come on. Please wake up, wake up so..." his words stopped in his throat. So what? What would happen if he did wake up? Old folklore tales etched themselves in all corners of his mind. Sirens tricking their prey, dozens and dozens of Greek myths about beautiful creatures of the vast endless ocean that ate foolish men alive. Rohan liked to believe he was not a fool.
Once again, his body wasn't on the same page with his mind. His legs kept going further until the water reached his own chest, and it slowly began to cover the merman's features.
"...so I won't have to leave you here."
If this was a dream, Rohan thought, it was a pretty damn convincing one. Convincing him to try to wake this creature at any cost, at least. He saw his chest rising and then falling, he felt a pulse, so why wouldn’t he wake up already?
Rohan was desperate now. He shut his eyes and let his mind race from one possible solution to another and considered scenarios after scenarios until it finally reached a finish line. And, when he slowly opened them again, all he could taste was the saltiness of the ocean water between his lips and the merman's. The single outrageous solution to this fantasy, dream-like situation he was in, he thought.
Firm hands with delicate webbing grabbed at Rohan's half soaked shirt and then at his neck, as if trying to pull himself closer to the man's chest. Hectic breaths and gasps poured out of the merman's mouth. His gemstone-like eyes locked with Rohan's and, for a second, the man felt like he was the one held below water for an eternity. A piercing feeling straight through his chest, like nothing else he had ever felt. And then, everything went hazy.
If this had been a dream, now would be the perfect moment to wake up. Maybe Bakin would jump in the bed, sunlight shining through the painted windows of the house, while they played for a bit before their breakfast.
Instead, Rohan woke up on the bathroom floor, hanging over the edge of his bathtub with another bucket of water to fill it with. That morning light shined through the bathroom windows and reflected onto the tail of the merman. He was very much alive, even though he slumped over and held his side. Hurt but alive. And that meant Rohan was awake. Very, incredibly, undoubtedly awake.
“You made it…"