Chapter Text
From his work with the DNR, Jess knew this particular spot as ‘Collection site 3.’
But there are many benefits to being a marine biologist when your best friend is a merman.
Water quality data aside, Cody had found an underwater cave at this spot earlier in the week during one of his nighttime swims; once he heard that it was near where Jess’s job had mapped for analysis, he was all too eager to let his human best friend in on extra secrets and wonders of that small part of the ocean.
Granted, touring Jess around the seascape off the shore of their hometown was one of Cody’s favorite activities of all time. The wonderful ways he’d get all excited, chatty and informative about every little creature and rock and current, was always awesome. Jess could be so cute when he was passionate about something.
And, when it came to sea creatures and oceanography, he was passionate about quite a lot.
The water was, for late August, rather placid, warm sun overhead. Jess had checked out a rubber outboard-boat to get them this far out; his supervisors at the DNR didn’t object, of course. He was planning to gather data and update notes, after all.
The Defiance II’s final mission had been important, literally life-saving, of course. But it did mean that farther-offshore merman adventures were a little more difficult outside Jess’s work hours. He speculated that in another few months, he would likely have earned access to the fleet of small boats more regularly, but not quite yet.
Without waiting for Jess to even drop the anchor, Cody laughed as he dove over the side. Per his usual fashion choices – and, honestly, not an uncommon one among teens around the town this time of year – he hadn’t bothered wearing a shirt.
Another few moments, and he popped up again, arms resplendently scaly and finned, his silvery tail swishing back and forth under the clear surface.
Jess’s heart did its usual little flutter at the sight of his very cute merman best friend (and an afternoon of marine biology too, of course). Maybe it wasn’t 100% logical by human beauty standards, but he found Cody just as attractive with his tail and fins as in his more-human shape.
Whatever.
There was science to do, so he would simply not get distracted by such thoughts.
“Water’s warm today!” Cody announced cheerfully, brushing his armfin in a swipe across the surface to send a salty spray of a splash in Jess’s direction.
“Good, ‘cause I forgot my thermal shirt,” Jess replied with a frown, rifling through his backpack one more time.
“Do you have sunscreen?” Cody asked, slightly worried.
“I’ll be OK, I think.” Jess squinted at the sky. If they were going relatively deep, he should be OK.
With a steadying breath – this was getting easier with practice, something-something-body-confidence-around-friends – he pulled off his T-shirt and tucked it in his bag.
Cody gave a teasing wolf-whistle, completely oblivious to the things that that did to Jess’s heartbeat and hormones.
“Shut up.”
“It’s too bad about the handprints, you’d have those girls at the DNR all after you,” Cody commented, a dimply, teasing grin at the way Jess blushed.
“Yeah, too bad you saved my life.” Jess stuck his tongue out at him, ignoring the preposterous concept. No one was about to be allured by the sight of his skinny nerd torso, of that he was quite sure.
He swapped his glasses for his goggles – the ones from Cody on his 15th birthday – and double-checked that all of the notebooks and their backpacks were securely stowed. He did remember his longer swim-pants and flippers for his feet, so dipped them in the water to soak the neoprene.
“You’re gonna love the cave!” Cody somersaulted under, fluke shining in the sun, casually coming up closer right as Jess got the first of his flippers on. With a teasing eyebrow wag, he darted out a hand and grabbed his other ankle with just a little tug.
“C’mooooon, hurry up…” he fake-whined.
“You gonna let me get my other flipper on?” Jess gave him an indignant eyebrows-raised smile.
“You don’t need ‘em, I’ll guide you.”
Jess just shook his head and chuckled, wriggling his ankle free of Cody’s grip. “Well, just in case.” With that, he pulled on his other flipper, double-checked that the anchor was in place, and half-clumsily hopped over the side.
Involuntarily, he shivered a bit, bobbing in the water up to his neck, getting the salty taste on his lower lip with the lapping of the bright blue surface.
“C’mon, let’s go!”
Cody disappeared under – Jess was not surprised to feel another tug on both ankles, just enough to toy with him rather than actually pull him under.
Cody was always gentle with him like that – Jess’s fear of the water was pretty much resolved, but unexpected dunks or falls still would make him uneasy.
But he trusted his merman. Cody was just playing with him with those little tugs or pokes – par of the course of being best friends with a mischievous, frequently-physically-affectionate sea creature.
So Jess took a deep breath, steeled himself for the salty prickle on his nose, and pencil-dove downward too.
Cody was waiting, of course, idling vertically below Jess’s flippers. With a check-in glance and nod from Jess, he floated upward, assuming their now-well-practiced swimming-together pose. Cody behind him, hands on Jess’s sides, to guide him along.
Doing this without his swim shirt meant Jess flinched a little at the way Cody’s scales felt on his bare body – they were smooth, of course, but some spots were sensitive regardless – but managed to steer his mind to the science at hand.
Completely mischievously, Cody noticed, and gave him a devious little pinch on both sides, just enough to surprise him.
Jess gave him a warning head-shake over his shoulder, fighting his smile. If Cody went and made him laugh, he’d have to go back up for a breath, and that meant delaying this cave exploration.
Cody gave his usual, silent giggle – rippling in Jess’s mind through their touch – then set his eyes on their destination.
With a flutter of his tail – and a half-useful pair of kicks from Jess’s flippers, small ankles straining with the weight of the water – they both descended, headed for a sort of undersea, calcified coral hill.
The cave was in sight shortly – Jess felt the pressure on his ears as they went deeper, but not too uncomfortable.
With as much of an excited smile as holding his breath would allow, he pointed out the sea-worn coral crags around the mouth of the cave, spotted a large crab shambling along around the border upside-down.
Eagerly, he wriggled free of Cody’s grip, and started kicking toward the cave itself -
- before Cody quickly snatched him back, arms wrapped around Jess’s middle and a quick beat of his tail to pull him backwards.
Before long, Jess caught sight of the reason for that.
With his enhanced dark-vision, Cody had spotted it coming out of the gloom of the cave before Jess had:
An fantastically-large specimen of the California moray eel.
It emerged slowly, just its head, sharp-toothed mouth steadily gulping at the water, eyes twitching to look them up and down. Per usual eel behavior, it kept most of its body in the cave, but even from the scope of its head, Cody and Jess could both tell that it was at least five feet long, if not more.
Its thick body was a pretty, specklish gray-purple, undertones of a lighter brown on the parts where the sunlight hit its face. It blended in with the rock, darkness of the cave hiding the rest of it as it settled down into a V-shaped groove at the bottom of the entrance.
Cody kept holding Jess close, but Jess could sense him slowly calm down. The passive-emotion-sharing that his best friend usually emanated while swimming together flitted past the worry, dissipating into a healthily-wary curiosity.
Wait here
Jess obeyed, flippers kicking and arms working to stay at the depth as Cody let him go and cautiously drifted upwards, hands out to approach the eel.
It reared up, mouth working open-and-close faster, making Cody stop in his tracks, but it didn’t get closer.
With a slow, respectful smile, Cody slowly let his palms start glowing, soft enough not to dazzle a more nocturnal creature, but a gentle, welcoming shared-sea-creature sensibility.
Jess almost gasped at the way the eel’s body language changed; one wouldn’t expect a wild California moray to suddenly seem like a happy puppy, but as it eagerly snaked its way toward Cody, there was no menace or danger about it.
Cody silently laughed, enough that Jess could even sense it from a distance, as the eel stopped next to his friend, letting Cody lightly scratch under its chin, long body going limp with relaxation.
Cody glanced over his shoulder, summoning Jess over with a head-tilt, other hand petting down the back of the eel’s head.
What with not being a merperson, Jess was acutely more wary of this, but the eel didn’t seem to care, eyes rolling slightly, plainly enjoying the affection.
As Jess got within reach, Cody gave him an encouraging nod; slowly, Jess reached out, and lightly petted its head in the same lengthwise, gentle motion he’d seen Cody doing.
The eel, remarkably, didn’t really react much, just stayed calm and happy.
After a short while, though, Jess felt his lungs start to burn; he’d need to go up for breath soon.
He gave Cody the ‘stay here, just have to breathe’ gesture – one they’d agreed on, what with how often they swam together – and started to kick toward the surface.
Jess had not expected their new snakey friend to follow, long body undulating upward, out of Cody’s scritches.
Jess froze up, momentarily terrified that his motions had marked him as no, dangerous human, NOT welcome…
…but the eel’s actions told a different story.
It curled around him, slimy body stroking over Jess’s belly and back as it made an affectionate circle around his middle, nuzzling at his hand with its snout for more pets and scratches.
Jess could ‘hear’ Cody’s telepathic laughter from below, as he rose up in the water behind them.
This was cute and all, but Jess really needed to breathe.
So Cody took over, giving the eel some extra-good chin scratches, gently gripping the back of its ‘neck’ to keep it in place, as Jess hurried up.
Head breaking the surface, Jess gasped, taking a moment to let his lungs relax, tightness in his chest dissipate.
As soon as he was up to it, of course, he quickly gulped another big breath, and dipped down again.
Not every day you get to hang out with a California moray eel, after all.