Work Text:
One summer- Alhaitham had seen a merman.
He wished he could’ve just stayed home, but Tighnari insisted on this trip. Something about ‘being cooped up all day’ in his office was bad. So here they were, at Tighnari’s hut for a boys' weekend, Cyno’s words, not his own.
He begrudgingly unloaded the group’s luggage from the trunk of Tignari’s car and dragged it inside, huffing as he did. He’ll admit, the hut was nice, it had two bedrooms, grey stone floors, a small book shelf filled with old, dusty books that belonged Tighnari’s dad for Alhaitham to peruse to his heart’s content and it was more than big enough for all three men. He found Tighnari and Cyno outside on the patio, side by side and holding hands. He was about to tell them off for making him pick up all their luggage but immediately decided against it. Tighnari had Cyno’s leg in his lap and was lathering it in copious amounts of homemade mosquito repellent while the white-haired man stared at him as if was the most romantic thing in the entire world. He picked up his book and decided to explore the area, giving the couple some privacy.
Behind the hut, there was an old dock and some fishing rods lined up against it, presumably what the men were going to do this weekend. Alhaitham inhaled the salty air and flinged his shoes off, placing them neatly by the fishing rods.
Perfect.
The silver haired male humed and sat at the edge of the dock, feet splashing in the water quietly as he begun to read his book.
He was barely thirty minutes in when he felt something brush against his leg. He looked down, unphased. Nothing. He shruged and continued reading his book again, it could have been a underwater plant or something, pushing against him in the gentle water current.
Almost five minutes later he felt another, more insistent push against his leg. Alhaitham put his book down this time and yanked his foot out of the water. Fish are usually too shy to come near humans- unless they’re carnivorous and particularly hungry. He lay on his chest, flat against the dock, his face inches away from the milky jade water as he squinted at the it. Then he saw it . At first it was a blurry shape, obscured by the ripples of the water and then it came closer. He could briefly make out a face, skimming the edge of the surface and then two wet, ruby-red eyes peered at him. Then he saw long, flaxen colored hair floating around it like a golden halo. It slowly pushed out of the water until its face was mere centimeters from Alhaitham's. It blinked at him, its long, honey colored lashes wetly sticking to its cheeks and the gave Alhaitham a soft smile. And that’s how Alhaitham met Kaveh.
Kaveh barely spoke- or barely knew how to spoke. Alhaitham wasn’t exactly sure. As he read Gone With The Wind to Kaveh, he briefly wondered how they got to this point.
At first, he was scared shitless of Kaveh. Upon first seeing the blonde he let out a blood curdling scream and had sprinted back to the hut, book long forgotten having been thrown at Kaveh’s face in self defense. (Not that Kaveh had tried to attack him.) When he came back to the hut, face flushed and chest heaving, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Cyno and Tighnari about the incident. That evening, he dug through the vintage bookshelf hoping to find answers about the person (?) in the water. He found a thick, dark blue, hard cover book titled Mystic Creatures . It seemed the right place to start. The book read about fairies, elves and other things that if Alhaitham wasn’t scared out of his mind, would have called bullshit. He found something about mermaids who liked living in saltwater and rivers. These mermaids are rarely found - the book informed Alhaitham, most of them too scared of humans . But sometimes they can be seen, though more rare and shy than regular mermaids . The book also unhelpfully informed him that sometimes, they eat humans .
After scarfing down dinner, (Tighnari somehow found a way to make barbecued mushrooms taste good.) He found his legs leading him back to the dock, where he found Kaveh was waiting for him sullenly.
His heart pounded against his rib cage when Kaveh rose out of the water until it circled around his navel. The merman gently placed the book on the deck as a peace offering and slunk back into the water, fingers clutching the edge of the dock and large eyes watching Alhaitham curiously. Alhaitham hasitly took his book back- even if it was sopping wet and a mess of blurred ink, the gesture was appreciated. Kaveh gave Alhaitham a large smile, his sharp teeth glinting faintly in the evening light. It was then when Tighnaris father’s book came to Alhaitham’s mind. And it was then when he noticed the coral scales on the side of Kaveh’s neck and the matching mass of color lurking beneath the water where Kaveh’s legs should have been. So he was a merman. What if he wanted to eat Alhaitham? For some reason that didn’t scare him.
Every evening he would come back to visit Kaveh- or so the merman called himself. (Once, attempting to communicate with the merman, Alhaitham pointed to himself and repeated his name to the merman a few times. The merman’s eyes lit up as he pointed a clawed finger to his own tan chest, “ Kaveh .” He had said, voice bright and sunny.) And Kaveh would be waiting for him eagerly, all lithe muscle and sun kissed skin as his head hung in his crossed arms and his large tail would be flapping around in the water impatiently. He would read to Kaveh, or just speak to him. Kaveh would listen, if he even understood, a smile present on his pale lips as his webbed fingers braiding his long hair.
Time flew and soon- it was the last night before Alhaitham had to return to the qualms of city life. It was then, at exactly midnight where he decided to swim with Kaveh. It was a big risk- what if Kaveh was carnivorous and had been attempting to lure in Alhaitham to feast on him or something like that? But something told the grey haired male if he didn’t, he would regret it. Kaveh watched him curiously as he stripped down to his underwear. He grinned at the merman and without warning cannon-balled into the water. The merman let out a shriek of surprise and Alhaitham can swear it pouted at him. Kaveh’s pouting only lasted a few seconds though, before he was happily swimming over to Alhaitham. In the water, Alhaitham realized how much bigger the merman was than he appeared. From the waist up- he must have seemed to be shorter than Alhaitham, but now the grand sage could see his large tail which must have easily been over seven feet long, it made him feel uneasily small. Kaveh, unaware of Alhaitham’s discomfort, scooped the grand sage up in his arms, slippery tail looping around his waist. The merman fussed over him, chittering excitedly as his clawed, ruddy, wine hued fingers twirled around in Alhaitham’s hair playfully, dissipating all of Alhaitham’s worry.
Kaveh stayed like that with Alhaitham for a little while, coddling and holding him happily. Then he saw Alhaitham’s chest and let out a surprised yelp. Alahaitham could see his eyes gloss over as he lets out confused yet heartbroken cries, his thumbs pressed against the skin underneath Alhaitham’s pectorals. Alhaitham tried comforting the merman, unsure of what was wrong until he saw what Kaveh was panicking about, the scared tissue that’s underneath his splayed fingers. He chuckles and gathers the blonde’s face in his hands. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t hurt.” He assures the merman. Maybe Kaveh understood him or maybe Kaveh saw Alhaitham’s nonchalance because the merman calmed down instantly, giving Alhaitham’s scar a brief nuzzle before showering the man with affection yet again.
Alhaitham stayed in the water until his skin pruned and he was shivering. But even then he didn’t want to leave Kaveh, not when the merman was holding him so gently. But as the sun colored the morning sky auburn, Alhaitham knew he had to go. The merman sensed that too, as it solemnly carried Alhaitham back to the wooden docks, its hands on his hips and it placed Alhaitham down on them mellowly. Before he left, Kaveh dove back into the water for a few seconds and imerged out again, a pearly, irredescent shell held delicately in his hands. Alhaitham accepted the gift, “ I’ll come back to visit you soon .” Left his mouth promptly.
“You had a lot of fun on this trip, I take it you liked the docks?”
Tighnari asked, making eye contact with Alhaitham through the rear view mirror, thick glasses angled down his nose and his short hair tied up in a lose bun. He probably knew. Alhaitham held his gaze for a few moments before turning to the backseat window and gazing out of it thoughtlessly, a lazy, sheepish smile on his face. “I guess I did.”
He had eventually responded, but it was probably not heard due to Cyno’s loud snoring.
The next summer came and Alhaitham was back. Alhaitham had promised he’d visit Kaveh soon- but he’d supposed that Kaveh hadn’t realized that the promise applied both ways because the merman was nowhere to be found. Alhaitham sat on the docks for hours on end, shell clutched tightly between his hands as he waited for Kaveh until Cyno or Tighnari dragged him back inside. But Kaveh never came. Summer after summer, Alhaitham would wait until he didn’t. He stopped visiting Tignari’s hut. He stopped hoping to see Kaveh.
One summer- Alhaitham had seen a merman. He would never see it again for the rest of his life.
Or so he thought until he stumbled across familiar blonde, an architect so he claimed, in Lambard’s tavern, drunk out of his mind and with a necklace that had a shell pendant which matched his own.