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Luke stretches out on the rock, loving the feeling of the sun on his skin. He is careful to keep the end of his tail in the water or else he'll dry up. Or, at least, that's what it feels like every time he is out of the water for too long. It feels super painful to have dry scales, and it's like he can't breathe. He's never actually been out of the water to be completely dry, but he's not sure he wants to find out what that's like.
Luke's relaxation session has only lasted a few seconds when his face is splashed with water. He opens his eyes and turns to the culprit, finding his best friend, Calum, grinning back at him. "What the fuck?" he asks, not particularly bothered by the water because he, well, lives in it.
"There's a pontoon a little too far out in the sea. It only goes like 10 miles an hour. I think there were only two people on it, and they were really hot guys. Want to come check it out with me?" Calum leans backwards and floats on his back, flipping the purple end of his tail out of the water as he waits for Luke's response.
Luke thinks about having a day off for relaxing, and then thinks about seeing the two hot guys on the pontoon, and he doesn't really have to question it. "Sure, why not?"
Calum laughs and flips backwards, allowing Luke to follow after him. Luke didn't realize how close the pontoon could be, and he has to suck out of sight sooner than expected. They have a process they go through in these situations. Calum and Luke have done this so many times before that they've near perfected their process.
Luke swims to one side of the boat, peeking his head out of the water and looking for himself how many people are on the boat. True to his word, there are only two people on board, and they're both gorgeous boys. Luke slides under the water and moves over to Calum.
"Have you seen them?" he asks when he pulls his friend under. "They must have been sirens in their past lives. They're so beautiful. Surely they're not humans."
"But they have legs," Calum disagrees.
Luke nods, swimming back up to the surface. He peeks out of the water before moving over to where one of the boys is looking. He sees Calum doing the same, and they strategically lift their tails out of the water so only their scales show.
They hear a bit of garbling, and Luke's heard the same sounds a thousand times to know they're asking each other if they saw something weird.
Calum looks over at him and starts counting on his fingers: one, two, three. He and Luke splash their tails, moving past each other like a dance, twirling around to make bubbles appear on the surface. They're giggling now, always pleased to share something like this with another.
Luke looks up and sees the blurred figure of the shorter boy with brown hair, leaning over to look at the water. His eyes are searching, and Luke freezes as he swears the boy sees him, but his gaze shifts away. He looks over at Calum, and lets him start the next part, pointing to the surface of the water.
He watches as Calum uses his hands to guide himself up the side of the boat, his head poking out of the water slowly. He's seen Calum work so many times, but he can't help but get mesmerized by how perfectly his friend performs. Luke can only see his torso now as Calum uses his arms to lift himself up, most likely pulling a sexy smile to whoever the boys he's talking to.
Luke follows suit, his hands brushing the metal of the boat as his head breaks through the water, his eyes immediately focusing on the pretty brunette boy in front of him. His fingers trace over the edge of the boat as the boy's hazel eyes get wider. He rests an elbow on the boat, deciding immediately that the sweet act is the right way to go. His head leans to the side, resting on his crooked arms as he looks at the boy, his fingers drawing circles into the floor of the pontoon.
The boy seems to choke on his words as he leans forward, reaching out to grab Luke's wrist. "Have you been stuck out here? Do you need help? Oh my god, you could have hypothermia."
"Shh," Luke hushes him, smiling sweetly. He gestures to Calum, who is batting his eyes at the other boy. "My friend and I were just out for a swim. Don't worry, we're really good swimmers."
When Calum hears Luke, he giggles a little bit, his eyes crinkling up as he glances back to the other boy. "I'm Luke," he continues, holding out his hand. He may have had some practice learning the culture of humans.
"Ashton," the boy replies, taking Luke's hand and shaking it. "This is my friend, Michael."
Luke turns to look at him, not entirely interested but wanting to put on a good performance. "I'm Calum," Luke's friend adds in with a little lip bite for good measure. Michael already seems entranced by him, and Luke honestly can't blame him. Calum has got skill.
"Do you want to get out of the water for a while? You must've been in there for a long time," Ashton offers. Luke shakes his head.
"I like it in the water. It's home to me." He swishes his tail beneath the water, hinting at his lack of humanness. Ashton still doesn't seem to be picking up, though.
"But you must, it's not good to stay in the water for too long." Ashton seems genuinely concerned, and Luke almost feels bad for what they're going to do to him.
"It's not good to stay out of the water for too long," he replies.
Ashton just looks at him carefully, not quite understanding what he means. Luke lifts his tail from the water, waving at him with his fin. Calum lifts his own tail, and Michael doesn't even seem disturbed by it. Ashton, however, takes a step back, falling backwards onto the floor. The boat rocks with the jump in weight, and Luke's tail disappears beneath the surface of the water.
"Relax," Luke laughs, his charming smile somehow making Ashton more at ease. "We don't bite as long as you don't."
Ashton leans forward a bit, looking for Luke's orange tail under the water. "What are you?"
"Are you mermaids?" Michael asks incredulously, staring at Calum's tail.
Calum makes a face as Luke shakes his head rapidly. "God, mermaids are so annoying. They aren't careful showing themselves to humans so we all get mistaken for them. We're not mermaids."
"Then . . . What are you?" Ashton repeats himself. He seems uncomfortable, pulling his legs back from the edge of the boat.
"We're sirens," Calum answers, stretching out his arm to touch Michael's bare skin of his chest. "You have such nice skin. You're really beautiful," Calum sighs, trailing his fingers over Michael's arm.
"You're beautiful, too," Michael says almost breathlessly, leaning closer to Calum as if he's a magnet.
Ashton moves quickly over to his friend, pulling him away from Calum. "Michael, didn't you hear them? They're sirens. They're dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Luke asks, as if he doesn't know. His soft features turn confused, looking at the two boys standing away from the sirens.
"You sirens lure men in by singing, and then you kill them," Ashton explains, a bitter tone to his voice. He has an arm wrapped around Michael, protecting him from the two in the water.
"Kill?" Calum asks, playing along with Luke. "We don't kill men." He acts all shy before continuing, looking up at the boys through his eyelashes. "We make them feel good. We help them."
"We do sing," Luke adds, swimming over to Calum's side of the boat. "But that's only to men who ask for it. I guess some of them like hearing our voices before finishing." He smirks at the boys, brushing his hair from his face. "That is, if they haven't made us lose our voices."
The two humans have grown red-cheeked, shifting away from each other slightly. They've picked up on what the sirens have tried to relay.
"Can I hear you sing?" Michael asks before crawling onto his knees, closer to Calum. His green eyes stare into the warm brown ones, and he finds himself leaning forward. Calum slowly moves away, almost letting Michael slip into the water with him before giggling and pushing him back.
"Depends. Want me to help you out?" Calum raises his eyebrows, his hand reaching up to brush against Michael's thigh.
Luke smiles to himself, then turns to Ashton, who's already looking at him. "Um, yeah," he hears Michael answer, but he doesn't break their gaze. He raises a finger and crooks it, signaling Ashton to come over to him.
Ashton complies, slinking down to the ground, really close to the edge. He throws his legs over the side of the boat, and Luke gets in between them. "Do you want to hear me sing?" he asks Ashton in a whisper, pushing himself up. Ashton leans forward, brushing his nose against Luke's.
"I'll listen," Ashton answers, closing his eyes.
Luke can't really help himself when a pretty boy is sitting in front of him with his eyes closed. He presses his lips to Ashton's, making no move to heat it up quickly, just a press to the lips before they're moving on their own, Ashton's hand at the small of Luke's bare back.
"'Twas Friday morn when we set sail, and we were not far from land," Luke hears Calum start to sing. He joins in, harmonizing perfectly with him as they sing together. "When the captain, he spied a lovely mermaid with a comb and a glass in her hand."
Luke pulled Ashton closer, making him lean further off the boat. He put a small kiss on Ashton's lips, singing the harmony softly while Calum continued. "O' the ocean's waves will roll, and the stormy winds will blow."
Luke sees Calum out of the corner of his eye, making Michael sit in the same position as he has Ashton. "While we poor sailors go skipping to the top, and the landlubbers lie down below." Luke lifts a hand to Ashton's hair, curling his fingers in between the strands as he kisses Ashton again. "And the landlubbers lie down below."
Luke pulls at Ashton's swim trunks, and Ashton moves with them, barely keeping on the boat. "And up spoke the captain of our gallant ship, and a well-spoken man was he," Luke sings softly, his hand trailing up Ashton's spine. "I have me a wife in Salem by the sea."
Ashton gasps into Luke's mouth as Luke pulls his hair, their lips crashing together for mere seconds before Luke is pulling back again, leaving Ashton following after his lips. "And tonight she a widow will be."
Luke runs the hand back down Ashton's back, resting just above Ashton's swimming trunks. "And up spoke the cookie of our gallant ship, and a red hot cookie was he." Luke buries his fingers in Ashton's skin, pulling him even closer so that their chests are flush, Ashton leaning down so far over the side of the boat. "Saying I care much more for my pots and my pans than I do for the bottom of the sea."
Calum's sweet voice drifts over to Luke, and he hears the drugging lilt, and he knows he's got Michael on his hook by now. "Then up spoke the cabin boy of our gallant ship, and a nasty little lad was he."
Luke lowers himself into the water, Ashton leaning down so much his stomach touches his thighs. He rests the undersides of his feet against the side of the boat to not lose balance, but that's not what Luke wants. "I'm not quite sure I can spell 'mermaid,' but I'm going to the bottom of the sea," he sings, pulling Ashton's calves so that Ashton is pressed up against Luke's torso.
Luke's fingers move to the waistband of Ashton's swim trunks again, and he slips in just the fingertips as he kisses Ashton sweetly. "Then three times around went our gallant ship, and three times around went she."
Luke feels his stomach get butterflies as the song nears its end. He glances over at Calum, who nods curtly before pressing his lips to Michael's. Luke presses one last kiss to Ashton's lips before finishing the song.
"Three times around went our gallant ship, and she sank to the bottom of the sea."
And that is their cue.
Luke pulls Ashton completely off the boat, followed by a splash by Michael. Luke doesn't allow time for Ashton to gather his senses before he's dragging him further under water, away from the boat and towards their favorite place to take lucky boaters. Ashton struggles in his grasp, but with the lack of oxygen, is soon knocked out cold. Luke makes sure he doesn't swallow any water, pulling him back up to the surface.
Calum meets him up there, dragging an unconscious Michael along with him. The two sirens only have a few minutes before the boys wake up again, so they make quick work when they find the flat rock Luke was resting at earlier.
Calum giggles as they strip the boys, taking both of their swim trunks and hiding them somewhere the humans won't know where to look. As he does this, Luke swims back to the boat and grabs the anchor, tugging it behind him and making sure it's next to the rock so the boys don't have to go too far.
Once they meet up again, they hide behind the larger part of the rock to watch the boys. And they wait.
Ashton is the first to wake up, spluttering like he accidentally swallowed some water, which is a total possibility. He seems frightened for a moment when he looks around, not exactly sure where he is. He sees Michael laying next to him and shakes him awake, the other boy almost flailing into the water with the violent waking up.
"What happened?" Michael asks, and Calum and Luke have to stifle their laughter to not get caught. "Why are we naked?" He asks when he looks down, covering his junk as he looks around.
"Umm, do you not remember the sirens?" Ashton asks bitterly. He stands up, and that's when he sees the pontoon floating a few yards away. "Hey, did you bring extra clothes?" he asks Michael, turning around in a circle. The sirens duck behind the rock, only peeking out when they think Ashton's turned back around.
"No," Michael answers solemnly.
Ashton sighs as he peers at the pontoon. "I hate sirens."